John "EZ SIMPLE" Cuello

Is John “EZ Simple” Cuello-a Big Fish in a Small Pond?

At first glance, when you see John Cuello play ball you are not impressed. He doesn’t have incredible ups, great speed or a whole lotta flash on his way to the bucket. He’s one of those 6’2”/6’3” players who’s always active around the basket, a tip in here, a put back or two there and short jumper over there. You check the books at the end of the game and he’s killed you. After I’ve witnessed a few of his games I couldn’t decide whether John was a Big Fish in a small pond or a Big Fish in a big lake. He is a fish lover, Chilean Sea Bass from a Middle Eastern Restaurant. Is he serious? Yes he is serious about his fish and he’s serious about his game!

John was born and raised in Washington Heights, (North Manhattan, NYC).

Some people call it The Heights or Little DR [Dominican Republic] where sick ballas like Felipe Lopez and M.O. [Caesar Sanchez] were household names. Baseball is the first love of the local people in the Heights, but being minutes from Harlem [and the rest of NYC] street-ball flavor and hoop popularity is steady on the rise. John says, “Even in Santo Domingo [DR] they’re catching up to the Americans. Years ago there used to be one good player for every two or three towns! Now they got jumpers, crossovers, and high jumping ballas! They’re out there in that hot sun, their sneakers are not all that good but they got some ball players down there!”

The Uptown style of play can be characterized by power, flash and the freedom of creativity. When improvisation is allowed to flourish in a basketball program, sometimes good things are going to occur. John-“My JV coach at G. Wash HS was Coach Braswell…He let us play, you know, just you do you…street style.” What was their record that year 1990-91…13-1 “My junior year at G. Wash we went to the Garden [in the PSAL Finals] and lost to Transit Tech. The next year we went to the Garden again and we lost to Robeson [BKLYN] by a buzzer beater by a guy named Todd Myles…

Then there was a riot.”

EZ Cuello’s performance in the inaugural 2005 Millennium Basketball Association [MBA] elevated his Bambino team to league champion status, and earning him the 2005 MVP crown. I was impressed with his performance and numbers, however once again I was trying to measure the competitive talent level of the MBA fish, I mean players, that John had such success against…Once again I ask, “What kind of fish in John EZ Simple?” Cuello-“The MBA league was well balanced. It was a must win situation for bragging rights at work, we all work together.” On the subject of his team-mates [The Bambinos] “They knew what they had to do…They played hard from the jump ball to the three zeros on the clock!” When question again on the talent level of the MBA John states that, “I’m a BIG FISH in a BIG lake, no make that the OCEAN!”