Basketball helped me through rough times

Growing up in new haven i had a very hard time trying to stay out of trouble every week i would get a ass whopping from my parents because i caused a lot of trouble in school and when i was about to go to high school i started picking up the game of basketball it first started off in physical education class and my friends were hyping me up telling me oh shoot he is actually nice at defense and i started to practice it for some times after two weeks of no stop practice i started to feel good about my self then 2 month before graduating there was a shooting down the street from my house on exchange street at April 19, 2015 and a kid name Jericho Scott got shot 3 times by a drive by and died on the scene. everyone was shocked about his death i didn’t hear about it till next day half of my classmate were not in school which was weird because there was no holiday nothing so i started to ask all my teachers why there is no students here today and she replied back as tears coming down her face that a kid name Jericho got shot last night. i didn’t know him personally but i did play basketball with him a couple of times at the park near my house before he was shot. i will always remember one thing he told me when we were playing together (always flick you’re wrist and arc really high in order to be the greatest shooter) not only did he help me become a changed person but also a better human being every-time i got mad i used to go to the court and dribble away all the pain and i stopped skipping classes started doing all my homework and really put in the work in basketball till this day every-time i shoot a basketball i always image him saying those words to me as i release the ball and i will never be good as him but he is the reason i am a changed man.