For all my life, my love for basketball has never changed. I’ve played almost every sport imaginable in my life: Soccer, football, baseball, and of course, basketball. While I enjoyed every sport I played and was pretty good at all of them, there was just something about basketball that made me fall in love with it.

I started my basketball career in Albany, New York as a 3-year-old boy when my dad would watch me shoot on the small basket in our basement. As I grew older, I discovered that not only did I really enjoy playing basketball, but I was good at it as well. I began playing in leagues when I was 6 years old, and I never looked back. My friends and I would always talk about basketball and sports. As a once shy kid, basketball helped me get out of my comfort zone. However, all things changed when I turned eight and I moved from Albany, New York to Marietta, Georgia. Just when I had started to get out of my shell, I went right back in. I was forced to try to make new friends and at the time being in a new state and new school was very hard for me. That’s when basketball saved the day.

I believe now that moving to the south was the best things for me, as down in the south they take their athletics very seriously. With all the competition, and all the friends I made, I began to blossom into a great kid and great basketball player. I started playing for the high school’s junior program in middle school and began developing my game. By 9th grade I was the best on my team, and I got invited to a Nike Elite Basketball ID Camp. Here I finally could put my skills on display and sure enough, I did. The coaches loved what they saw from me, and I ended up winning the MVP of the camp and got a chance to play for an EYBL team which is a Georgia State team. The same team LeBron’s son plays on now, and no I’m not saying I’m as good as LeBron’s son, but you know what I’m getting at. Unfortunately, as 10th grade came along that’s when it went downhill.

As cliché it sounds, I suffered a significant injury in my ankle and after that injury I just wasn’t the same basketball player I was before. While this was a sad time for my basketball career, it made me realize a lot about myself and made me appreciate the good in things while it’s still there. As I am now a student at UGA, and as I look back at my basketball career, I can firmly say that without that sport in my life, I would not be who I am today.