I begin by challenging Randy Foye and telling him if he hits his threes, the Clippers win. If he does not, the Grizzlies will triumph in the playoffs.
I have never sounded so ridiculous, and that's a lot of history to overcome.
Here I am pressing someone who was 3 when his father died in a motorcycle accident. Five when his mother, selling drugs on the streets of Newark, N.J., just vanished.
He was parentless before first grade, the Crips and Bloods waiting for him to grow up, his brother shot 11 times, surviving and only recently getting released from prison."I look at everything in front of me as a mountain that has to be climbed," he says. "I also became determined to beat whatever curse there might be on my family so one day my kids wouldn't have to go through it.""I just happen to believe if you have a dream, nothing can stop you," he says. "I overcame a lot because I wanted to."So I never get the chance to ask him about being a freak, his inner organs flip-flopped. Something called "situs inversus."
But that's all right. I already know Foye's heart is in the right place. And that's all that matters.
TJ Simers, LA Times
I typically have not liked Simers, but have enjoyed a few of his articles on the Clippers this year. It's great to get more insight into some stories that have been seldom told. Butler's and Foye's stories share grief and struggle, but from opposite sides of the track, thankfully they both made it to the same place in once piece.
