Early years
Bobby R. Phills, II was born on December 20, 1969 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Bobby and Mary Phills. The name “Bobby, II” was given him rather than “Bobby, Jr.” so that he would not be called “Junior” as his nickname. However, he was later given the nickname “Rob” to distinguish him from his father when both were in the same presence. Because his father was in South Vietnam during his birth and his mother was a working parent, he was sent to a babysitter, then to a church school, to a nursery school then to kindergarten. Each of these pre-school experiences had a significant impact on his formative years in that they all provided a fertile environment for his early educational growth and development. With both of his parents being college graduates, they knew that his future was largely dependant on the educational environment in which he grew up. For this reason, his parents took a special interest in his educational growth and development throughout his pre-college and college life. As Bobby began to move through elementary school in Tuskegee, Alabama, he took a liking to sports of all sorts. He played point guard for Lewis Adams Elementary School, and later played junior varsity at Tuskegee Public and varsity at Tuskegee High School. When his father accepted a job as Dean of the College of Agriculture at Southern University, his Alma Mater, Bobby joined the varsity basketball team at Southern University Laboratory School. During Bobby’s pre-college years, he also excelled in such other sports as tennis, and track and field. Despite his exceptional sports abilities, his parents held fast to their rule that “your academics come first, and if you play sports, you can only do so if you maintain a 3.00 grade point average.” Thus, from the time that Bobby began to play basketball and other sports in elementary school (4th grade), he never missed the honor role. He graduated with all academic and athletic honors from elementary and high school.
Family
Bobby, II is one of three siblings. His Parents, Bobby and Mary Phills are both graduates of Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where they majored in Horticulture and Office Administration, respectively. While both parents played high school basketball, Bobby credits his athletic skills to his mother, who was a top basketball athlete and music scholar at St. Tammany High School in Slidell, Louisiana. Bobby apparently inherited both talents as he also played the clarinet. Following his mother’s college graduation, she accepted fulltime employment with the Army ROTC Unit at Southern University where she worked for some 8 years to help Bobby, Sr. through graduate school while taking care of their two children, Bobby and his younger brother Dwayne Armand. His Father’s education was briefly interrupted for a tour of duty in South Vietnam, where he served as Crew Chief and Flight Operations Coordinator for a period of 13 months. Upon returning from South Vietnam, where he earned several medals of honor, including two Air Medals and the Bronze Star, he entered Louisiana State University Graduate School to continue his education in Horticulture. In 1972, he earned his Master of Science Degree in Horticulture, and in 1975, a Doctorate of Philosophy degree in Horticulture with an emphasis in Plant Breeding and Genetics. He was the first African American to earn the MS and PhD degrees in Agricultural Sciences from Louisiana State University. As devoted parents, despite working full time, they attended almost every game that Bobby and Dwayne played. In fact, they made most of Bobby’s college games, both at home and away. Both of Bobby’s brothers, Michael Mason and Dwayne Armand Phills were also very gifted athletes. Michael played both high school and college football and was destined to play professional football had he not suffered a career ending injury. He went on to complete his college education at Northwestern State University in Business Management, and has practiced his business skills in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana since graduation. His younger Brother Dwayne Armand played his high school basketball at Baker High School, where he too earned state all American honors. Taking a different path, Dwayne initially went to a Community College in Alexandria, Louisiana and later transferred to Colorado State University where he went on to graduate in Agricultural Business rather than continue to focus on athletics. He later entered the Masters of Science Program at Alabama A&M University in Agricultural Economics with a minor in Computer Sciences. Following a brief stint as Construction Manager of a family- owned a construction company, he took a job in Houston, Texas as the Manager of a tool manufacturing company. His love is computer science and as such, he currently serves as Computer Diagnosticator for a national restaurant chain based in Houston, Texas.
Bobby’s immediate family consist of his wife, Kendall Watkins Phills, and three children, Brittany, Bobby, III (Trey) and Kerstie Raedawn. He and Kendall were high school sweethearts and neighbors. Kendall, like Bobby, played high school basketball for Southern University Laboratory School. Upon graduation, she entered Southern University where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. They were wed in the Summer of 1994 and to this union two children were born, Trey and Kerstie. Although his children lost their Father at a very early age, it is evident that during his short stint on this earth, he had a tremendous impact on their lives. All three children are both academically and athletically gifted. Brittany and Trey are already excelling in basketball, and Kerstie is not far behind. It is often said that acorns do not fall far from the roots of the tree from which they grew. If this is true, Bobby’s children will be might oaks because they all come from excellent rootstock.
College and Professional
Coming off one of the best seasons in Southern University Laboratory High School’s history, Bobby was riding on cloud nine with several major schools seeking his services. However, he elected to stay home and attend Southern University and A&M College, his parent’s Alma Mater. Given his academic and athletic credentials, it is no doubt he could have excelled at almost any school he would have chosen. His parents and brother, however, were delighted that he elected to stay home and attend a local university. This way, his family was able to follow his fledging academic and athletic career more closely, and to be there to guide and counsel, should he need such assistance. Throughout the early years, they stressed that he maintain a proper balance between academics and athletics. At times, peer pressure was very difficult for him to deal with, but he never strayed from the strong foundation of positive values his parents had instilled in him. Thus, when others were out partying late at night, he chose to hit the books and keep his grades up. Weekends were not just for fun and games, but academic preparation as well. On weekends when he had home games, he would always find time to come home for a hot meal and family bonding. The end result of this was that, like elementary and high school, he consistently maintained a grade point average above a 3.0 throughout his collegiate career, graduating as an academic all American with a 3.2 grade point average, highest on the team. With his academics well in hand, he began to focus more on polishing his athletic skills in preparation for the professional level. His coach stressed hard work and at times almost perfection. Even though Bobby was an all state basketball player coming out of high school, he had played the center position with his back turned mostly toward the front of the goal. This was fine for a 6.25 ft. high school center, but in college, the average height of a center was 6.9 ft. Thus, the best he could hope for was a small forward position for which he had been recruited. However, he quickly found that one of his teammates, a junior, had the small forward position locked up for the next two years. Bobby, though very respectful and generally patient, was not fond of being a second or possibly even a third stringer, even though he was only a freshman. Thus, when the team’s best shooting guard was injured, Coach Ben Jobe announced during one practice session that he was looking for a replacement at shooting guard. Although Bobby had not played this position, he never backed away from a challenge, and beside, he knew that if he could do well at this position, he could work his way into the starting lineup as a freshman. So the next day, before practice began, he went to Coach Jobe and asked if he could try out for the position. Coach Jobe consented and the rest is history. Bobby worked harder for this position than he had ever worked before. His Father had erected a collegiate height goal and he would come out every chance he got to shoot and have the family retrieve the ball for him, often when it came through the net. By the end of the season, he was playing 15 or more minutes per game as Southern’s shooting guard. He went on to become one of the best basketball players that had ever played for Southern University. By the time that he graduated from college, he was leading the nation in 3-point shooting and 4th in overall scoring with an average of 34.3 points per game. His highest and probably best collegiate game came in 1990 against Alcorn State University, where he hit 52 points, including ten 3-pointers, before a packed housed including a dozen professional NBA scouts. As some would say, he showed out for the scouts, and it definitely paid off. At the end of the season, he graduated on time in four years, majoring in animal science/pre-veterinary medicine with academic honors (3.2 GPA), a noble achievement for any student, let alone an athlete. But the best was yet to come. During the 1991 NBA draft, he was rewarded the dream of his life, being drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round as the 45th overall pick of the NBA draft. He was also the only draftee from a predominately Black university. When asked if he would go on to Vet School, he remarked that “every athlete dream of being drafted by a
professional team, and even though I am very much interested in veterinary medicine, it would have to be put on hold while I give the NBA a shot.” Despite a great deal of talent and high hopes, his NBA shot came to an abrupt halt before the season really got started. The season started on the 4th of November and on December 12th, the Milwaukee Bucks released him without really ever giving him a real chance to show them that he could play professional basketball at the NBA level. In fact, he played a total of 10 minutes in his initial NBA career in three games. His parents had taught him to never doubt his abilities, and as long as he knew that he could play professional basketball if given a real chance, he should follow his dream. After all, he still was young and had his college degree to fall back on. With his parent’s support, to prove to himself, if no one else, he accepted a contractual offer to play basketball in Spain. He quickly proved that he could hold his own in a professional league, though overseas. But this was not the NBA and his dream was to play professional basketball in the NBA. So he returned to the United States and quickly got a CBA contract with the Sioux Falls Continental Basketball team. There, he started in quickly where he had left off in Spain. While averaging over 20 points a game, in one game, he hit seven 3- pointers, and this caught the eye of Mr. Wayne Embry, General Manager for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA. Mr. Embry offered him a 10-day contract and at the end of this contract, he was offered another 10-day contract. Even though he still was not getting much playing time during regular games, his practice games were excellent, and because of this, he was offered a full contract for the remainder of the 1991 NBA season. At the end of the season, he was offered a two year contract which he gladly accepted. At the end of his first full year in the NBA, his coach, Lenny Wilkins accepted a job with the Atlanta Hawks and Mike Fratella was hired to take his place. Shortly into the season, Gerald Wilkins got hurt and this gave Bobby the break he needed to play some major minutes as a NBA starter. He quickly showed that he could play with the best of the NBA players. Ironically, though he was brought in as a 3-point shooter, his main talent quickly became his defensive skills. This was probably highlighted most when he was pitted against Mr. “MJ”, yes, Michael Jordan, during a primetime Sunday NBA/NBC nationally televised game. When asked by a reporter if he was afraid to be guarding Michael Jordan, he replied “Michael Who?” He went on to say that “I am not intimidated by Michael since we both put our pants on the same way, one leg at a time.” For the next several weeks coming up to the NBA/NBC game, his defensive skills became quite apparent and the sportscasters began to play up Bobby’s earlier comments about Michael Jordan. By the time the game Sunday rolled around, the hype was really high between the two players. During the game, Michael was held to 26 points, but only 11 outside points. Bobby had 25 points and the best defensive game of his career, up to that point. When Michael was asked why he had such a difficult time shooting, he commented that “I have never been guarded that closely, Bobby can definitely play.” He said that he would always remember Bobby Phills, and they went on to become good friends. More importantly, Bobby’s career went on to blossom, and when Gerald Wilkins came off the injured list, his first string spot had been lost to Bobby Phills. Following an outstanding three years in Cleveland, Bobby became a free agent and after failing to reach an acceptable contract with Cleveland, he entered the free agency pool and was offered a 7 year contract with the Charlotte Hornets at $33 million, which he gladly accepted. This contract was the largest ever given to a Southern University Basketball player at that time, and one of the largest ever to anyone at the university. His consistent play in Charlotte gained him Team Captain honors from his team members, commensurate with his talent and leadership on and off the court. He was destined to be not only an NBA All Star, but a future NBA Hall of Famer, if not for a tragic car accident that ended his life as we know it here on earth. Even though he is not physically with us, his life lives on through the good deeds that come forth from the Foundation. Despite the obvious successes Bobby had as a high school, college and professional basketball player, he never forgot his roots. He always found time to talk to people, especially children. He clearly recognized that he was a role model and he tried very much to live a positive life that children would want to emulate. One that was based in Christian faith, hard work, deep family values, and a love for all mankind. In 1994, he established the Bobby Phills Educational Awareness Foundation, Inc. as his way to reach out to youth and poor communities and help those that were less fortunate than he had been. He believed in hard work, scholarship and commitment to strong family unity. These and other high values are intimately woven into this Foundation. For this reason, we invite the world to come join us in helping to keep his dream alive. A dream of giving back, of helping those that are desirous of helping themselves through hard work, scholarship and love for all mankind. Through the Foundation, his dream lives on through the good deeds we sow. Won’t you join us?