Kahleah Copper gave everyone at the Olympics a quick lesson in North Philly history and hoops

PARIS — Nearly 275 years ago, nearly 375 miles south of Palais de sports Marcel-Cerdan, where the United States men’s and women’s basketball teams will practice throughout these Olympics, a boy was born in Bordeaux, France.

This boy would go on to lead a remarkable life. Though he lost the sight in his right eye at an early age, the affliction did not prevent him from becoming a ship captain, a daring seafarer, before he settled in Philadelphia when he was 26. There, he established himself as a merchant, a wealthy man, so wealthy that he purchased the First Bank of the United States when its charter expired. So wealthy that he was believed to be the richest man in America. So rich that — according to a history of the educational institution that bears his name — he generously underwrote the U.S. government’s funding of the War of 1812. So generous that, before he died in 1830 at age 81 after a horse and carriage trampled him as he tried to cross the intersection at 2nd and Market, he made certain to earmark much of his fortune for the building of a boarding school for poor orphans in the city.

This brief history tutorial became urgent and necessary Saturday, just before the U.S. women practiced at Marcel-Cerdan ahead of their first game of the Olympic tournament, against Japan on Monday (3 p.m., Peacock, rebroadcast at 12:30 a.m. on USA). Someone had asked Kahleah Copper about her background, and one of the first things Copper said in response was, “I don’t know if you know who Stephen Girard is.”

With that, Copper — once a star at Girard College, Prep Charter, and Rutgers, a four-time All-Star over her nine-year career in the WNBA, a shooting guard on what might be the most dominant Olympic team of the last quarter-century — introduced the international media to North Philadelphia.

“Norf Philly,” she said. “Gotta be with an F.”

Copper’s mother, Leticia, worked at Girard College. “So there wasn’t much I had to worry about,” Kahleah said. “Didn’t have to worry about my safety because I was behind closed walls. Didn’t worry about clothing, shoes. Whatever you needed, the school provided. I was grateful to go there and have success, find my second family. That was a big part of my journey.”

Journey. An appropriate word when it comes to Copper. Growing up at 32nd and Berks, she and the other neighborhood kids crafted their own basketball goal — nail a wooden plank to a wooden telephone pole, cut the bottom out of a milk crate, hang the crate from the plank-and-pole.

“That’s some Philly s— right there,” she said. “I was a bucket out there. All the guys who played at 32nd and Berks, ask them. Even if you ride out there right now and they’re chillin’ on the corner, they know what’s up.”

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This is Copper’s first appearance on the Olympic team — the U.S. women have won seven straight gold medals and haven’t lost in the Summer Games since 1992 — and it doesn’t seem coincidence that her head coach is Cheryl Reeve: South Jersey, La Salle, Speedy Morris mentee, just about as Philly as anyone in the sport. It’s a point of connection between her and Copper.

“It’s how we go about our business,” Reeve said. “‘Edgy’ is the word I think of. And ‘direct.’ That defines Kahleah, too. We have moments. We have some places we talk about. But that edge is a language we understand, whether it’s spoken or just her way.”

When Copper lived at 23rd and Diamond, the old Raymond Rosen projects, she’d walk a mile to Temple to play pickup in the Liacouras Center, catch a bus to play at La Salle and St. Joe’s, even get out to the Main Line once in a while to Villanova. She’d be the only girl on the Mander Playground courts at 33rd and Diamond: “Shoutout to Mander.”

The best player she ever went against on the playgrounds and in those pickup games? “My sister Latifah,” she said. “My sister used to hoop before she started being a cheerleader. When she hears this, she’s going to love it.”

You know who else came from Raymond Rosen? Copper dropped the name before anyone else could: Dawn Staley. Three blocks from each other. They met at a Team USA minicamp in 2021.

“To be able to see someone who looks like you and is from exactly where you’re from is a great inspiration,” Copper said. “Just having that bond with her, sharing the same background, is pretty cool. Every time we see each other, she calls me ‘Norf Philly.’”

Remember, Paris: with an F. Now you know.