Ex-Hoyas star Page shot in D.C.

Former Georgetown basketball star Victor Page, who was shot Tuesday afternoon, remained in critical condition last night in the Intensive Care Unit at Washington Hospital Center.

Page was shot three times, including once in an eye, and was found in his car around 3p.m. Tuesday in the 2600 block of Birney Place in Southeast. The 28-year-old drove himself to the 2700 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, where he was discovered by D.C. firefighters and flown by Medivac helicopter to the hospital.

Police would not release the victim’s name because he is a potential witness, but multiple sources confirmed that it was Page. D.C. Police spokesman Joe Gentile said he did not know of a motive and that no one had been arrested as of last night.

The shooting was the latest turn in a tumultuous life and basketball career for Page, who was the Big East’s leading scorer and an all-conference performer before leaving Georgetown after his sophomore season of 1997-98.

Page, who averaged 22.7 points in his final college season, left early for the NBA one year after former teammate Allen Iverson but was not drafted. There also were questions about Page’s academic status at Georgetown.

Page, a prep star from Anacostia who played at the District’s McKinley Tech, has been in trouble before. In high school in 1993, he was a passenger in a car where police found crack cocaine and an unregistered semiautomatic weapon. While awaiting trial, he led McKinley to the city’s public school title. He pleaded guilty to one count of cocaine possession and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Page never reached the NBA after his brief tenure at Georgetown playing for coach John Thompson and reaching two NCAA tournaments, including teaming with Iverson to reach the Elite Eight in 1996.

The 6-foot-3 off-guard was released by the Minnesota Timberwolves and went on to a rocky career in the Continental Basketball League with the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Skyforce.

Although Page became a CBA All-Star, led the Skyforce to the CBA championship series twice, and left in 2001 as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, he experienced behavioral problems. As a rookie, he grabbed a courtside sweeping broom and chased an Idaho player around the court in a rage. He was suspended for 10 games and fined $3,000 for the Christmas Day incident.

The next season he was second in the league in scoring at 19.2 points but faced another suspension after a bar fight. He broke his shooting (left) hand in the fracas, then was suspended and sent back to Washington after lying to management about the circumstances. He later returned and propelled the Skyforce to the decisive seventh game (a loss) of the championship series.

Page sounded as if he had turned his life around during an interview on March 3, 2000, in South Dakota.

“This is a whole new Victor Page,” he said. “He’s not out there hanging with his friends. I hang only with two of my old friends back in D.C., and we’re just kind of laid-back. We stay out of everybody’s way.”

Page was released by the Skyforce in January 2001 after showing a lack of interest and falling to second string. He spent limited time with several teams overseas and most recently had been playing Streetball, a traveling show of flashy urban basketball that plays in arenas and recently was on view at MCI Center.

“There was never a question of Victor’s talent,” Skyforce general manager John Etrheim told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader when the team released Page. “Whether his work ethic would allow him to get the most out of that talent was always the issue.”

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