A journey cut short

The day he left Schenectady for his last basketball tournament, Eddie Stanley climbed into his coach's car and held out his arm.

Stanley carried gym shorts and sneakers in his backpack so he'd never miss a pickup game.

Stanley and his coach were driving to the Bronx, where over the next few days Stanley played in a tournament with the City Rocks, his travel team.

In a high school game, he once jumped so high to block a shot that Schenectady coach Eric Loudis raced home to watch the replay at least 50 times.

Around 10 p.m., an assistant coach dropped off Stanley at his cousin's home.

Eddie's been shot! Tarver thought he must be dreaming and went back to sleep.

Across from the red, two-story house cordoned off by yellow tape and police cars, there are candles, keepsakes and photographs.

The boy was good, so good the Schenectady High basketball coaches began to hear about him when he still was in elementary school.

There were stories about a student who'd been dusting teachers with cross-over dribble moves during gym class.

[...] turnabout was fair play:

Another Schenectady High basketball coach, John Miller, had a saying: "There's only one Eddie Stanley."