A Waste Of Talent :: essays research papers

On his ten-spotth natal day Jim Walker was introduced to the game of basketball by receiving a basketball from his uncle do Walker. Jim acted as if he loved the gift to please his uncle but rightfully expected more from him. Jim never really played basketball at this long time because he would rather spend his time doing things most other ten year olds did like riding bicycles and playing with G.I. Joes. On the selfsame(prenominal) birthday Jims mother, Althea gave him ankle weights. She gave him this because she realized her son had a talent, which was bound offing high, hoping this talent would payoff for both of them in the future. Jim and his family were not really wealthy living in the Harlem projects were drugs and constant violence plagued the neighborhood so he didnt really receive many other gifts. With these both gifts in hand he started playing basketball at the topical anesthetic parks developing his game. He would play and practice with the ankle weights on, realizing he like playing and was pretty good at the game. At the age of thirteen he was playing a full judicatory extract up game at a local park with a group of elder guys. While coming down the basketball court at the height of five feet four inches Jim dunked on one of the older kids he was playing with. Word got around neighborhood that there was a thirteen year old who could dunk on the standard ten foot basketball rim in the park. People started to respect Jim because of his basketball skills. He also started getting girls because of his skills and off the court began hanging come to the fore with a bad crowd doing drugs and not doing his schools work. Sometimes as a bet and to show off exactly how high he could jump he would snatch money that was placed on the top of backboard rims.Jim was then recruited by a very good New York metropolis preparatory school. Jim and the other members of the basketball group were giving preferential give-and-take because of their good r ecord. They were allowed to get away with murder. The coach of the basketball team make sure Jims work was done and showed him ways to cheat on tests. One day the track coach approached Jim and asked him to join the track team to high and long jump for him.