I remember Andrew he was the most talented basketball player I had ever seen. Andrew and I where brothers with different mothers. Wherever he would go I would go, but then it happened. It all started as what they had called the Decision Day. Andrew was the best High School basketball player in the country, and he had not chosen what college he wanted to attend. We had to be at a press conference at eight am in the morning. He had picked The University Kentucky; they where already the best team in the country but now that Andrew would be joining them they would be unbeatable.

Although things were good now we didn’t grow up in one of those rich neighborhoods where there was no crime. Coming from the south side Chicago there were a lot of gangs, robberies, and shooting everyday. Fortunately Andrew and I had learned how to stay away from those types of people. You could be walking down the street and if you get stopped by one of them and they ask you for your money the best thing for you is to just give it to them. Andrew and I did get tired of getting robbed and not doing anything about it, so one day we told them that we weren’t going to give them our money. The tried to fight us, but I had no idea that Andrew was such a good fighter though; that got them to leave us a lone for a little bit.

I thought that I should throw him a party to celebrate his Decision. It turned out to be a great thing to help Andrew relax. We had a great time at the party no trouble, no alcohol, and no drugs a nice clean party. We had so many people show up I thought I should’ve charged people five dollars at the door. After the party we decided to go to McDonald’s to get a mcrib sandwich. It was a pretty clear sky that night so we decided to eat outside. Andrew was excited to play in Kentucky; I was also a pretty good basketball player and I had already committed to UNC. We thought that maybe we would get to play against each in the National Championship. I was going to miss my friend though.

After we ate our food we decided to sit around a little bit. We noticed that a car had driven around the restaurant a couple of times, and then the car had left and parked across the street. It sat there for a while. When we had gotten ready to leave we noticed that the car had pulled out to. We where halfway to my car when the car pulled up beside of us, rolled down his window then bang.

We spent the night in the hospital luckily I had not been shot, but Andrew was not so lucky. Andrew would die the next day due to a gun shot in the chest. The best day of our life had turned into the worst. We will never what Andrew’s future could’ve been like. Would he have been a great NBA player or just a regular old person working in the business world?

I went into a big depression after it happened. I felt like somehow I could’ve saved his life or changed something. I started asking myself questions like why could it not have been me. I wanted to revenge his life and kill whoever did this to my only bestfriend. My mom talked me out of doing this she was very wise old woman. She told me the only thing you can do is nothing; she told me not to sink down to their level.

I decided to dedicate the rest of my life to Andrew. I changed my jersey number to eighteen because that’s how old he was when he died. Turned out that all the hard work that I had put into my game for him paid off. Ten years later I was the best player in the NBA just like Andrew was. Sometimes I still feel like he is with even when he is not though, and that he really is the one on the court not me.