PHILADELPHIA — When he was young, growing up in Haiti and walking barefoot most of the time because he couldn’t find shoes to fit him, Samuel Dalembert told his friends he wanted to "fit myself in a suitcase, go out on one of those planes and get out of this country and have a better life."
They laughed, he said, because as he grew to nearly 7 feet, they told him, "You’re not going to get in no suitcase."
Yet, via Montreal (where his family moved when he was 14), then St. Patrick High in Elizabeth, N.J., (where he arrived without knowing a word of English) and Seton Hall University, he eventually found a better life in the NBA with the 76ers.
But now if he only had enough suitcases to save his family, friends and others dealing with Tuesday’s devastating earthquake in a place he still calls home, but where the death toll could reach 100,000 or more.
"It’s unimaginable," he said, sniffling and frequently pausing as he spoke before Wednesday’s game against the Knicks about what he’d heard and learned in barely more than 24 hours.
"It’s tough, frustrating," he said of trying to get information. "You feel like crazy, out of your mind. You just feel like you’re in a cage. You cannot move. You can’t do anything."
Still, he’s tried, via those he’s been able to reach in and near his native Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital. He spoke to his father, a doctor involved in his foundation (dalembertfoundation.org) and a sister and brother he’s been able to contact on Facebook.
His mother and another sister are safe in Florida, but as worried as he’s been since he first got the news. It’s worry that he acknowledged already left him exhausted before Wednesday’s game.
"I’m trying to be tough and everybody who knows me, (they know) that deep inside, it’s hurting," he said. "I try to be tough, but it’s kind of hard to know all those people I know over there. I’ve still got no news from them.
Dalembert comes from what’s considered a third-world country, one he said still was dealing with the aftereffects of one of its frequent hurricanes (Gustav, in 2008).
Yet, that’s driven him to become involved with Hurricane Katrina relief and make several NBA-sponsored Basketball Without Borders trips to impoverished countries overseas.
"We’re tough people," he said. "We’re tough people at heart. We deal with misery as best we (can). Every penny we have, (all the) money we have, we try to give the best to our future, which is our kids, our loved ones. We try to give them a better life."
Now, after Tuesday, he said, "It’s going to take a long time" before people can even get back to the lives they already had, much less better ones. Some can escape, he believes, via Santo Domingo in the neighboring Dominican Republic.
But otherwise, all he can do is offer financial assistance (he’s due $12 million this season and $12.9 million next season in the final two years of a six-year, $62 million contract) and ask for help via his foundation and a UNICEF-NBA partnership (unicefusa.org).
And keep trying to get in touch with the people he knows, to make sure they’re all right or at least surviving.
"People with houses, they’re going to have to put up some tents," he said. They’re going to have to accommodate all these people (with) food and water, and after that, what are they going to do? Who’s going to build the houses?
"What are they going to do?"
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