"As a kid, my friends and I spent hours pounding Spaldings on pavement, inventing new crossovers, in and out’s, step backs and perfecting the jay; ten toes on the ground covered by whatever type of sneakers, we bobbed and weaved across the cement — and put work in at Boceks, The Cage, Up the Park, Tech, Ellwood, behind the KFC in Zone 18 and Goldie Locks. Games went to 16, the rims had no nets and you’d get your ass beat if you thought about calling a foul.
Making it to the NBA means that you have to be one of the top 453 players in the world, out of roughly 541,000 high school athletes, 166,000 AAU ballers and 32,000 college players in America. On top of that, when you're from Baltimore, you have to reach that level of success all while trying not to be murdered. We had 335 homicides last year, and close to 35 percent of its children live below the poverty line.
So, when you see the toughness of an east Baltimore guy like Will Barton, popping back up after a hard foul, or Murphy Homes legend Carmelo Anthony finding ways to score while facing double and triple coverage or watching how Cassell closed out games in the NBA finals as a rookie back in '94 with the ease of a vet, while Kenny Smith, the more experienced starter rode the pine — just know, Baltimore created the resiliency needed to effortlessly complete those impossible tasks." - D. Watkins