Joseph Schiefelbein for July 8

• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jul 8, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

In the spacious gym where U.S. Olympic team long jumpers Brian Johnson and Miguel Pate train, there is a basketball court. And there are times, after workouts, when the temptation of putting up a jumper or two comes calling.

How about a game of one-on-one between two world-class athletes who started their collegiate careers as basketball players?

“I try to not push it,” said Pate, 6-foot-3. “I’m scared of that (reconstructed left) knee. I’m done having surgeries.”

“I can’t remember the last time I played basketball,” said Johnson, 6-5.

They’re doing quite well without basketball, of course.

The two will be flying today, jetting away on a three-meet tour — Rome, Athens, Paris — that will serve as a tune-up for the Olympics next month in Beijing. Johnson finished second and Pate third at the U.S. team trials last month.

And so this is how things have worked out, to heights neither could have imagined.

Pate, an all-state basketball player at West Feliciana High, chose Meridian Community College to play basketball and run track. Then he gave up basketball after just one season, with his track career blooming.

“I was fighting it,” said Pate, who finished his career at Alabama, winning the NCAA and USA indoor long jump titles in 2002. “Track really started taking off for me, and I figured I guess I could either go small-time basketball or big-time track. I realized that early on, to put everything into track. … I’d say it worked out.”

For Iowa High’s Johnson, who played in the mid-summer high school all-star game, the love of basketball lasted longer. He was a full-time basketball player, starting and averaging double-figure scoring, and part-time track athlete for most of his career at Southern.

With the basketball team languishing at 5-14 and his role fading in February of 2003, Johnson became a full-time track athlete. The move immediately paid off with the 2003 NCAA indoor crown.

“I don’t feel I left on my own,” Johnson said. “It was kind of like a coaching staff decision. They decided track was better for me than basketball. I guess it all worked out in the end.”

Pate went on to win the 2003 USA indoor championship an the 2005 USA outdoor title. He was the runner-up outdoors last season.