This long story, published in America today on January 22, 2013, is written by Eric priesbel, describing the childhood and juvenile experiences of Celtic defender Marcus Smart. Before going to college, Smart and his family lived in the slums of Dallas, where drug abuse and gangs flooded. Marcus himself often fought with people and almost lost his life. Later, Meng mother moved three times, and smart moved away with his family, only to get rid of the shadow of teenagers. The original title of this article is “smart: from” jail without being killed “to becoming a selfless general in Oklahoma. To read the original English text, you can enter it through the “original English text” at the end of the text.
Figure table
Carmelia: Smart’s mother
Billy Smart: Smart’s father
Todd Westbrook: Matt’s half brother
Jeff Westbrook: Matt’s second half brother
Michael Smart: Smart’s third brother
Phil Ford: Smart’s childhood friend and college teammate
Marcus Smart is a point guard at Oklahoma State University and one of the most respected college players in the United States. However, six years ago, he was still throwing stones at other people’s heads at that time.
Without that experience, he would not have grown into one of the most humble stars in this sport from inner confusion to profound introspection, nor could he have become a promising NBA lottery rookie at the age of 18.
He witnessed the cancer taking away the life of his eldest brother, and the Coke almost destroyed another brother, which tidal surge of emotion difficult. There was a block south of Dallas, known as the residential building battlefield, where he fought with gangsters and was furious. At that time, he was only 12 years old and suffered repeatedly in his heart, so he could only bully others with his life.
Near his home in Lancaster, one night, Marcus and a friend lurked on the second floor of the apartment they called Powder House. Their pants pockets were filled with stones to look for prey. Marcus did not know that this would be an extremely critical turning point in his life.
Seeing a man in a black hooded sweatshirt riding over, they threw the stone out, then clapped to celebrate, laughing-bang! The stone knocked the man down to the ground. But when Marcus looked over again, there was only the bicycle left in front of him. He heard a man rushing up the stairs, ping pong, and a crazy voice shouting, he must kill him.
Marcus and his friend climbed over the railing on the second floor and landed heavily on the cement floor below. The man quickly chased up. With fear, Marcus ran away at an unprecedented speed, faster than on the gridiron or basketball court, passing through the winding alleys and escaping to the adjacent residential buildings.
Behind Marcus, footsteps and shouts became louder and louder. Marcus did not know that the man was a gang member of bullet in the head. He glanced back at the dim street before he knew what the man was holding: a loaded pistol.
He knew he had changed. When he was only 4 years old, marcus was so generous that he would put a 20-yuan bill into homeless vagrants. Later, he would wear cowboy boot and ride a bicycle to mcdonald’s to get free hamburgers, at that time, he was naive and simple. But now he has become another person, and his soul is scattered and his life is hard to protect. His heart was pounding, sweating all over his body, unable to breathe, and his chest was like tightly locked by pliers.
The man approached, just a dozen meters away. Marcus was deafening when he heard four shots.
“Have you seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?” Marcus recalled now and said, “imagine that he is holding a chainsaw and getting closer to you. My mind is full of this idea. Will I die? Is that how I died? Yogueta caught me but didn’t shoot me. What will I do?”
Smart University plays hard, likes to fight, and the first right is friends and teammates Ford.
Later, when fans saw Marcus playing in college, they couldn’t see the trace of anger on him. He was alive and alive, and rarely matched. Some players are more talented than Marcus, but few of them have such good basic skills and never boast. Marcus never puts his own data first, and the data of his teammates is more important. In this era when his eyes were above everything else, he avoided attention.
“This is his character,” said phil ford, marcus’s best friend. He was also marcus’s roommate and had known him since the third grade of primary school. “he played basketball like a fight, with hatred, it’s not like that kind of big star at all.”
Flahira has been watching marcus’s game since the ninth grade. He lived in dallas since he was a child and now serves as ESPN’s basketball review. He said: “a player is very young, however, it is as sophisticated as playing NBA for 10 years. Such players are too rare…… If you fight in the alley and you are accompanied by the Hulk, it feels great. This is the feeling of playing with him.”
“For McDonald’s American players, his attitude towards the game is something I have never seen before,” Ford said. “If you stay with him for five minutes, you will never guess that he is one of the best players in America.”
Few people know how Marcus became what he is today. Marcus said, “People always ask me, ‘why are you so modest? If you have my experience, there is no other way. Life is not a game. The world is cold and ruthless-extremely cold-if you don’t learn or understand, the world can swallow you up.”
“I think every day. It’s really incredible,” Marcus said. “Thank God, at that time, my parents were both full, and there were two brothers covering it. My mother and brother are my heroes…… If I didn’t change what I did, I would either lose my life or be put in prison.”
This is Mother Carmelia, who has collected many trophies and basketball won by Smart.
The Marcus family was united in harmony and rarely flushed with each other, but they still couldn’t escape from tragedy. His mother Carmelia is 58 years old and needs dialysis three times a week. She lost a kidney because of kidney stones two or ten years ago and has only one kidney. Her husband Billy Frank Smart, who has been with her for 38 years, is also 66 years old and is the biological father of Marcus and Michael Smart. The two half-brothers are Todd and Jeff Westbrook, who are a dozen years older than Michael and Marcus.
Carmelia is the backbone of the family. She is tenacious and hardworking. She is the Wonder Woman in the eyes of her brothers. As a father, Todd is not only the pillar, but also the leader of Michael and Marcus.
Marcus knew that if someone was destined to play in NBA, it would be Todd. In Lancaster High School, Todd played a year of defender, with a field goal percentage of 62 percent. Marcus inherited his brother’s position and liked to go home with the ball all the way. He adored Todd and heard all the heroic deeds of his brother playing in the 1980’s.
When Todd was 15 years old, the doctor found a tumor behind his eyes. Mom suddenly felt “someone cut my chest into two with a knife”. Todd didn’t flinch at all. He asked the doctor, “Okay, what shall we do next?”
The cancer spread to his lungs and then to his stomach. Todd could always cheer up. He did not forget to teach his younger brothers how to live, shave their beard, shake hands with others, and how to promote himself to find a job during the interview. He also taught Michael how to wear condoms. Later, he became gaunt, so weak that he had to stop and breathe for a few times when he went to the bathroom. He did not forget that he often called michael and marcus to his bedroom and opened the discovery channel or the history channel for them to watch.
“This is why I have always admired him,” Marcus said. “Even if I know that I have no time, I still remain strong and continue to live with strong determination.”
Marcus was only 9 years old at that time, and nothing was more important than his family. When Carmelia saw him go to school, the soles of the ball had been worn out, and Marcus shrugged his shoulders. A relative wanted to buy a pair of Nike for him, but Marcus pointed to other shoes for only 19 yuan. In December 2003, Carmelia asked him what Christmas present he wanted. Marcus said, “Nothing is needed.”
“Seriously, Son, What gift do you want?” Carmelia asked again.
“Mom, I don’t want anything,” Marcus replied. “I pray to God to let me spend Christmas with my family.”
Marcus got this “gift” and spent Christmas with the whole family. However, on January 9, 2004, Marcus was playing with his cousin in the room, but Aunt stopped them, asked them to sit down, and told them the most frightening news with tears: todd is dying. All the family members were in the hospital. Marcus stared at his aunt and her face, thinking he was dreaming.
He jumped up suddenly and rushed out of the door. The door fell with a bang and the glass was shattered. Cousin caught up and hugged him, fell to the ground, and Marcus kept screaming. When he arrived at the hospital, Marcus ran in a long corridor and finally saw his family crying.
Todd died. He fought against cancer for 18 years at the age of 33.
In the ward, relatives cried and talked to Todd. Marcus walked to bed foot, slowly knelt down and stroked Todd’s feet. “It’s really as cold as ice,” he recalled. “I have never encountered that kind of cold or hard on people before.”
Carmelia burst into tears, picked up Marcus, comforted him and said everything would be fine. Marcus still couldn’t believe it. He went to the other side of the bed and thought Todd was just asleep. Marcus shook him and shouted, “Todd, wake up!”
Marcus walked to the bed and kissed Todd gently on his lips. Then, his hand reached into the air and said, “Todd is like a butterfly. He flew away.”
Losing Todd is a heavy blow to the whole family. At his home in De Soto, Marcus and Michael sometimes climbed to Todd’s bed involuntarily at the same time and fell asleep listening to the familiar voice of Discovery Channel. In this room, there was a hanger on the door, which was made into a basketball hoop shape. Todd rolled the socks into balls and played shooting with them until he was tired.
Now Todd is gone. The brothers miss him and can only look for him in memory, photos and voice.
Other pictures flashed in Marcus’s mind: his 19-year-old brother Michael, who also played defender in Lancaster High School, was very talented, but was involved in a gang full of gangs, the world of drugs and guns. Michael joined the bloody street gang, and every move seemed to be fatal.
Michael saw his friends on the street, earning 8,000 yuan a week, driving Mercedes-Benz and 86-year-old Chevrolet. They wore gold and silver, and they were very lucky. They had oversized flat-panel televisions at home. Most of the rich Americans who lived in the suburbs at that time didn’t enjoy them like this.
Marcus looked at his brother Michael’s life and risked his life. Michael said that he earned 2500 yuan a week, selling crack and other drugs and pimping prostitutes. In order to defend himself, he said that he had at least five guns: “The two are 0.40 and 0.45 caliber, a TEC-9, a AK-47, and a 12 caliber shotgun.”
After moving to Lancaster, Marcus sometimes ran to the corner of block 1500, lanshulin Road. He wanted Michael to go home, but he always failed. Marcus was not afraid. He would wait until the sky was bright to ensure Michael’s safe home. At this time, his brother had often taken poison and turned around.
When he arrived at the door, Marcus found a dark place, sat down with Michael and said to him, “mom doesn’t want someone to call at 2 o’clock in the middle of the night and tell her that you are locked in prison, or buried, she has lost a son.”
Marcus was only 10 years old at that time. He would raise his little hand and wipe away the tears on Michael’s face.
“Don’t get into trouble,” Marcus said, “I promise, I will take care of you, brother.”
Thinking of these things again eight years later, Marcus said, “many nights are like that. I grew up in such an environment, which is vivid in my mind. I can see that he is very painful. Although he doesn’t like what he does, he is my brother after all and I love him. That kind of thing can be seen in the news, as well as video games. But once it happens in front of us, it will be too scary.”
Less than a year after Todd died, Marcus was participating in an AAU competition. Carmelia sent a text message to him saying that Michael was hospitalized. He smoked too much Coke for a month. Once, he fell to the ground at home and hurt his eyes. Uncle Gary Westbrook is a Paraplegia. He was shot in the spine during a carjacking. Uncle got out of the wheelchair and beat Michael’s chest. In order to revive him, he finally had to call 911.
Soon, Marcus came to the long corridor of the hospital again to welcome another cold foot. He thought that he might lose another brother within a year. Entering the ward and seeing the pipes on Michael’s body, he really couldn’t control his mood.
Marcus took his hand.
“I can’t forget Marcus’s eyes,” Michael said, “it’s scary.”
Marcus said, “he has already died. This is his fault.”
Michael remembered that the doctor said to himself, “My job is to save the Dead and the wounded. If you don’t want to live, don’t come here and kill yourself.”
When Michael recovered, he went to church to worship that Sunday. He didn’t end his Street career, but he never smoked Coke again. He vowed to keep Marcus away from that lifestyle and warned gang members not to hurt Marcus, otherwise he would wait to get shot.
“You don’t want to learn from me, be honest and don’t get into trouble,” Michael told Marcus, “Do you want people to call you rogue AFEI or something else? You must not be like me. I promise you, in another six years, you will look back and see who is different and who makes a difference.”
But Marcus’s problem became more and more serious, and he became furious. He was still young and rarely made mistakes, except once he smoked marijuana stupidly, when he was only 8 years old. He said that he felt terrible after smoking, so he could only shyly tell his mother that his mother took him to the emergency room. Carmelia said that Marcus only said that he was ill, not smoking marijuana.
Todd was gone, and Michael was almost gone. The classmates around him showed the gang signs on the street corner from time to time, shaking a pistol. Marcus said, “I am really lost. I am really not myself.”
He went to the store with his friends to steal candy, food and drinks, and released his anger in gridiron, but his greatest emotional release was through fighting. He said that he became a bully, soft and hard.
“That feeling is like a broken arm. You just want to scream,” Marcus said, recalling his anger. “The most extreme pain I have experienced is that I feel furious. When anger reaches its peak, it must be released, as if a pot of boiling water. I can’t express anything except fighting.”
He fights three times a week, looking everywhere for any weapons he can find. He would throw knives and branches at others, and once he almost broke a child’s neck. He said it would not be surprising if someone was killed at that time.
Another time, he and a friend were blocked, and there were many people in the other side. Marcus took out a knife, and the other side showed a steel ball gun. Marcus ran home and took his father’s. 22 caliber pistol. Fortunately, Michael stopped him at the door, otherwise Marcus would definitely go after the children.
The fight became more and more fierce. He fell a child to the ground and knocked his head directly on the concrete floor. The headmaster called him to the office and told him to go to work school and come back 30 days later.
“It’s like jail,” Marcus said. “only when you perform well can you get out early.”
That night was still very clear in Marcus’s mind. The man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt was chasing him. He and his friends fled all the way and finally escaped to the forest. There was a path in which they knew very well.
They turned quickly, avoiding the drooping branches. The man didn’t hide. They heard the sound of him being knocked down to the ground. As soon as he ran home that night, Marcus never fell asleep again.
“I almost lost my life,” Marcus said. “I was so scared that I didn’t know what to do. I have done many stupid things, one of which I thought was very proud and fun, but almost killed me. It’s really a lesson. I dare not say anything about this, because how to say it? What would you do if you were you? The scene is not fun at all.”
The man actually knew Michael very well, but Marcus never told Michael that the man shot at him, just saying that he wanted to beat himself up. Marcus knew that if he told Michael the truth, his brother might kill him.
“Do you know what he thinks?” Michael said, “as long as you don’t mention anything, my brother won’t get into trouble, and he won’t get into trouble in the future. If I go to avenge him, I may kill someone. Now, he is completely undamaged, and I am safe and sound.”
He never told his mother, but at that time she knew she had to help her son escape from that environment.
“I know I have to do something,” she said. “Zhizi is like a mother. I have always told the children that I should know when the sky falls.”
One day, she asked Marcus to sit down and talk. He told me about the fight. “He was a little bit tired of the world, and I said, ‘Baby, why didn’t you tell me before? ‘”Asked Carmelia. “‘Mom, I don’t want you to worry. ‘”
“The gang didn’t dare to rob my other children, and I wouldn’t let them bully Marcus,” she said. “He was in a bad mood. I always fight outside because I am afraid that my companions will look down on me. ‘Can I do this? Can I do that? If I don’t do it, I will be scolded coward. He is too young to deal with that kind of thing.”
Marcus went to that course to control anger, which helped a lot. The family moved to Flower Mound, a western suburb of Dallas, and lived in a three-bedroom ranch house. Marcus’s best friend Phil Ford also lives in Flower Mound. At the suggestion of his family, Carmelia chose a new school for Marcus.
Moving will bring cultural impact. Marcus was instinctively afraid when he saw someone walking around outside at night. His friends told him that it was just someone walking the dog. Now, Marcus can sit on the porch behind the house without hearing the gunfire or fighting. Obviously, the environment is changing him.
“He is reborn,” Carmelia said, “How to describe it? He is like walking out of the darkness and into the light, changing like earth-shaking.”
Marcus used his hard work on football and his main basketball. The teachers told mom that Marcus was not like some athletes and had a full sense of power. Marcus won a trophy or a prize, will soon put aside and learn Kobe’s steps on the tubing. A letter from the university invited him to enter the school, and he would not dream about it, but went to the stadium with Michael to practice.
Looking back on Marcus when he was a child, Michael’s eyes turned red. He said he admired Marcus as if his brother was his brother. Michael said that Marcus often encouraged him to live a fair life and told him that he was proud of himself. Michael is 27 years old and works in a warehouse. He stopped selling drugs several years ago.
“God made me born in the world for a reason,” Michael said. “I think it is probably because of my brother. He is realizing his mother’s long-cherished wish, which is success. He gives us faith: Look at Marcus, he is successful and has everything.
“Mom looked at Marcus and lived a different life every day. Todd is gone, but he still lives in Marcus. This idea is incredible. Seeing Marcus means meeting Todd. Marcus is just like our eldest brother.”
Carmelia’s suburban home is full of Marcus’s trophy, signature basketball and Adidas shoes worn by McDonald’s national competition. She went to the fireplace and picked up a group photo of Todd in Lancaster Middle School from 1987 to 88. Although only one eye could see it, Todd returned in the fourth grade of high school, and helped Lancaster middle school rank second in the 4A poll of the Texas basketball coach Association.
Todd in the photo wears size 3, and several of their brothers wear this number when playing in high school. Each brother has a tattoo to commemorate Todd. Marcus was also going to wear size 3 in Oklahoma, but the school told him not to, because Dan Lawson, who died in the plane crash in Oklahoma in 2001, also wore size 3. Marcus finally chose No. 33, which was the age when Todd died.
In the match against Texas Tech on Saturday, Marcus only got 3 points, but he didn’t care. The team won. Marcus saves three provinces every day, and is determined to work hard and play selflessly in order to have today’s gratitude. He can’t let his eldest brother down.
He said that he can firmly control his emotions now, coach Travis Ford said, this is one of his most sincere players.
“I don’t want to be that kind of person, let people say after watching, ‘this is an asshole, he is mean,'” Marcus said, “I hope they look at Marcus Smart, and said he was the best person I have ever met. I want to hear praise, not negative, otherwise I will be ashamed, restless in my heart and difficult for my family. In me, there are my mother, my brother and everyone in my family. My performance reflects how they raised me up. I have learned a lesson.”
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