Go on, brush your shoulders off, Montbello High School. And while you’re at it, toss out your old kicks.
Soon you’ll be the best-dressed hoops team in the Denver Prep League, spending an entire season in Jay-Z’s shoes.
The rap czar and New Jersey Nets co-owner has donated two pairs of his signature Reebok sneakers – custom-colored in Montbello’s black and silver – to each member of the Warriors’ boys basketball team.
The gift completes a charitable alley-oop: Montbello alumnus and hip-hop mogul Big Jon Platt cooked up the plan, then dialed up his friend Jay-Z during a recent stop in New York City. The rapper, born Shawn Carter, launched his own “S. Carter” Reebok line two years ago. They cost up to $119.99.
“He’s doing this for me because he knows how important my old high school is to me,” Platt said Tuesday from Los Angeles. “He’s giving up the sneakers, at no charge, nothing. They’re being manufactured right now.”
The Reeboks will be ready for Montbello’s first game Dec. 2, coach David Carey said. The son of longtime DPL coach Rudy Carey, David, 29, grew up listening to Platt DJ parties and basketball tournaments in Denver. These days, the coach spins Jay-Z tunes.
“That’s my favorite rapper,” Carey said. “And it’s definitely a motivational piece to the kids. But at first, they didn’t believe me.”
“We told Coach, ‘You’re playin’!’ But he was serious. This is a big thing,” said Jazzton Williams, a junior shooting guard. “Our game and the way we dress is going to set us apart.”
To the players, Jay-Z’s shoes represent one distant star’s belief in a sometimes-troubled school he has never heard of, and one former student’s faith in Montbello’s rebirth.
“Montbello has this thing, a school that doesn’t do much,” Williams said. “So this is a way to do something different.”
Indeed, Montbello has been home to both tragedy and racial violence: Last January a student was fatally stabbed in the school cafeteria by a classmate; in 2004, a Latino was beaten by a black classmate.
“That’s not the Montbello I know or can remember,” said Platt, head of urban music for EMI Music Publishing. “I just want to do my part to instill a sense of community again.”
Today, Platt is scheduled to return to his alma mater to announce the start of three new annual scholarships.
“I’m at where I am in my life, extremely successful, extremely blessed. But I started in Montbello, and I want the kids to know that. I lived at 51st and Quentin Street; that’s where my dreams began. Then we moved back to Frankfort Way, where my DJ career took shape.
“The whole world is out here for us to achieve in. You just have to dream and believe. My life back then was no different than the lives of a lot of those kids now.”
Staff writer Bill Briggs can be reached at 303-820-1720 or bbriggs@denverpost.com.
