As soon as that ceremony ended, Toppin — sidelined from the Indiana Pacers after a late-October surgery for a stress fracture in his right foot — was scheduled to appear in the Arena press room for a brief media session.
But as is always the case with the now 27-year-old Toppin, love knows no bounds.
When the UD players returned for halftime warm ups — many of them just young teenagers when he was the king of this court and so many others, a dominance that made him the Naismith College Player of the Year and the most beloved Flyer of all-time — Toppin joined them for a team photo.
“Obi is really a great dude,” said the Flyers’ 6-foot-8 Malcolm Thomas, who came off the bench Saturday for a career-high 14 points that he punctuated with four rousing dunks to go with four forceful blocked shots. “We kind of look at him as a big brother to the team, honestly.
“We’re able to pick his brain on what he sees and what he went through. He’s made it to the highest level … It’s something we all want.”
Once the photographers had been sated, Toppin walked the length of the court to the clamoring Red Scare student section. Six seasons ago, when he was leading the Flyers to a 29-2 record and the No. 3 ranking in nation, the UD students routinely chanted his name.
Saturday the same cry — “Obi!...Obi!...Obi!” — had risen up from the Red Scare and now he responded, wading right up into their midst, signing autographs on shirts, posters, even bare arms, while orchestrating selfies with people’s phones and genuinely spreading the sheer joy he so often has brought to this court.
“In this era of NIL and everything, it’s great to see someone who cares as much for everyone else as they care about him,” said Sullivan, UD’s athletics director. “Obi has a genuine care and love for this place.
“We got him four hotel rooms for today, but he didn’t use them. He came over here early and from about two this afternoon he’s been with the team. He had the pregame meal with them and joined in everything that’s happening.
“He’s never too big for the moment here. Whether it’s coming back for camp, or anything we need, he does it without pause.
“That’s just who he is. If anything, we have to pull him back.”
Roni Toppin, Obi’s mom — who was at the Arena Saturday as was Obi’s dad, Obadiah, Obi’s fiancé and his three kids — had seen signs of all this when Obi was a toddler.
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
She once told me how, when she was raising him in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, she’d take him in his stroller down to the neighborhood park:
“As soon as we got there, he’d start waving at everybody and saying ‘Hi!...Hi!...Hi!’
“He wanted to make a connection with everybody. He wanted to talk to everybody. He wanted to make friends. Back then, I remember saying: ‘One day, Obi’s going to be the mayor.’”
With apologies to both Jeff Mims and soon to take over Shenise Turner-Sloss, the mayor of this town Saturday night was Obi Toppin.
After Saturday’s game, Flyers coach Anthony Grant touched on the importance of the night: “Anytime you can celebrate what Obi meant to our program and to the community, you appreciate that.
“You’re proud of his accomplishments on the court, but there’s a real admiration of who he is as a person and the way he cares for the university, the community and the people.
“You can just see how grateful he is for the opportunity this place provided him.”
Every summer Toppin puts on a camp here for kids. And Saturday night he said he soon will be adding a golf outing.
When Anthony and Chris Grant lost their 20-year-old daughter Jayda in 2022, one of the first people to reach out to them was Toppin.
A year later, at a charity game inspired by the Grants to raise mental health awareness and funds for teens and young adults in need, Toppin showed up and donated $20,000 to the Jay’s Light Foundation.
Whenever there have been other pressing issues here, Toppin has answered the call.
“I just love it here,” he said Saturday night. “I’ll never not come here.”
Missing hardware
As a 6-foot-6 high school senior in Ossining New York, Toppin had no Division I offers. But after he developed some with an additional year at a Baltimore prep school, he garnered interest and ended up choosing UD over the likes of Georgia, Rhode Island, Fordham and Georgetown.
He was 6-foot-8 by then, but he had to sit out his first year here to meet NCAA academic requirements.
Credit: Steven Wright
During that redshirt season, he worked tirelessly in the gym and weight room and grew another inch while adding 30 muscle pounds.
He said the Flyers coaches “took a chance on me. I wasn’t the highest recruited guy out there. They came and saw a scrawny kid in the gym in New York, and they watched me hoop and they liked what they saw.
“They saw things I didn’t even see. They knew right away I would make it to the NBA and with that trust, it pushed me every single day to get better.”
Ironically, he made his UD debut in November of 2018 against these same North Florida Ospreys. Coming off the bench, he led the Flyers to victory with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
By the time his UD playing career ended after two seasons and 64 games, he had scored 1,096 points and set UD dunk records with 107 in a season (that led the nation) and 190 in a career.
His first season he was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year. His second season, he was a consensus first team All-American and won multiple national player of the year awards.
After his redshirt sophomore year, he left for the NBA and was a first round draft pick — the eighth overall selection — by the New York Knicks. After three seasons with them, he was traded to the Pacers where he spent the past two years and made it to the NBA Finals last year.
From his college days, a couple of things were left unfinished. Because the COVID pandemic wiped out the end of the 2019-20 season, the Flyers hopes of an NCAA crown were dashed and he never was officially presented the player of the year trophy.
At the 7-minute mark of the first half Saturday, during a time out, that was rectified.
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
Toppin, who sat courtside with his family, was called out onto the floor as the overhead video board played a clip of his most rousing dunks and showed him on a ladder snipping the net after the Flyers won the A-10 regular season with a perfect 18-0 mark.
He then was presented the hefty Naismith trophy as the crowd and many of the Flyers players applauded him.
‘He’s everything you imagine him to be’
Saturday night, the Flyers seemed especially inspired by Toppin’s presence.
Thomas, who wears the same No. 1 that Toppin once wore here, put on a dunk show of his own and later, when pressed, teammate De’Shayne Montgomery — who led the Flyers with 23 points, 4-for-4 three-point shooting and two dunks himself — made some comparisons:
“I’d say Obi has a little more bounce, but Malcolm gets up there and I feel like his dunks may be a little more powerful.”
Actually, Montgomery may channel Toppin more than any current UD player.
Like Obi he talks to everybody at a game — fans, teammates, rival players, refs, arena workers, anyone who’s susceptible to a smile, a quip and nonstop chatter.
He also tapped into Toppin’s dunk repertoire with a windmill slam that was reminiscent of one Obi unleashed on VCU once.
“I ain’t gonna lie, I knew I was gonna do it,” Montgomery said.
“Yesterday me and my mom was on the phone and I told her. ‘If I get a fast break. I’m gonna windmill.’
Montgomery said he did one once back in high school, but never in a college game.
“But Obi Toppin was here (tonight), so I gotta pull that outta the bag,” he said.
Montgomery said his night was about honoring Toppin and former Flyers great Johnny Davis, who’s already in the UD Hall of Fame and played in the NBA 10 years and then coached their 25 years.
Saturday morning — some 52 years after he left UD to support his mom from an NBA contract — Davis, his degree completed in the fall, marched at commencement ceremonies. At halftime he was introduced on the court and got a heartfelt ovation.
“Playing in front of Obi and Johnny Davis was good,” Montgomery said. “They came before us. We’re basically playing on their shoulders. They basically set the path for us.”
And in Toppin, he saw how that path is something of a yellow brick road for Flyers fans:
“You can see the people here really love him. It shows you how they don’t forget you when you leave. They respect people who give their all for them.”
And no one has done that more than Toppin, Sullivan said.
He nodded toward Toppin who was up in the Red Scare section surrounded by awed students:
“What you see in him is that you get. Most people like that, what you see on the outside might not be what you find on the inside. But with him, he’s everything you imagine him to be.”
And on this night, he was a big brother; he was the mayor; and he was a Hall of Famer.
About the Author