and that freshman year of high school when the neighborhood mentor who kept him out of trouble was shot & killed the same year his pseudo-stepfather got locked up for drugs, Ann let him know they were just away on business but would be back someday.

The proliferation of tattoos & rows was not just a result of being a 20-year-old millionaire who could now afford tattoos & a personal traveling hairstylist, it was a David Falk/Reebok-built-sneaker ruse even if David Falk ended up fired & Stern air-brushed the All-Star-Game photos.

You have really tapped into the core of things with this post.

Appreciate you laying this all out so thoroughly and (dare I say) thugnificently.