This year Bernard Wing and I, DaQuan Adams were both seniors and the stars of their Nathan Lease High School Basketball team, also known as the Warriors and I both decided that we would go straight to the NBA since everybody was saying we were good enough to be the first two picks taken in t.  We were the best two players on team and in the whole country.  Almost any college we could think of was offering us a scholarship, but Bernahe in the 1988 draft. Even if we did go to college we would have been the top two recruits in the nation. Bernard was the top recruit and I was the second best recruit. I was the point guard and the leader of the team, and Bernard was small forward even though he was two hundred and forty pounds of pure muscle.  We both started high school in 1984 anre the favorites to win this year anyway. Bernard’s number was 23 and won every state championship up until this 1987 season, but we wed my number was 4.

Although after every game, since we lived in what some would say was the hood of Chicago, we were always meant on the street a block away from our apartment complex by this gang who called themselves the Ballers.  They wanted us in their gang because every day they would be out on the courts betting on themselves to win a game of Basketball.  Since they were decent and not always better than their opponents they would lose a couple here and there. The times that they loosed though, it seemed like they would bet too much money. So if they had Bernard and I in their gang they would never lose and make as much money as they could.  Every Saturday, since our dad’s walked out on us when we were little, our mom’s would make us walk a mile down the street to the other courts.  But after every game in that 1987 season the Ballers would meet us at the same place and threaten us to be apart of their gang. 

In the 1987 season I averaged 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 9 assists per game. Bernard averaged 23 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists per game although every time we played the other state powerhouse Tarronville High School, Bernard’s average went down to 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists per game. It might have been because they had one of the best defenses in the league even though I always played my best against them.  After every time we played them the Ballers would be waiting on us saying that “you would play better if you were with us everyday”.  Then after about thirty minutes of trash talking they would finally let us leave. 

The next day was a school day and they were out there again. This time they made us late to school and we were both marked tardy.  After school we had practice and after practice they were trying to earn some money playing basketball.  In two days was the first game of the state playoffs and our undefeated season was on the line so we hurried inside, did our homework and went straight to bed. 

We won every game in the playoffs and the next game up was the State Championship against Mikeville.  It was not Bernard’s best game but he still had 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists.  I had 30 points, 11 rebounds, 15 assists, a career high in assists.  We won the championship 70 to 56. 

When we were walking back to our apartments, we were meant again by the Ballers.  This time, after a couple minutes of trash talking, they said that they made up their mind on who they really wanted.  They said whoever scored the most points would be who they wanted.  Right after they said that one of them pulled out a gun and shot Bernard in the chest.  A couple seconds after that, a police siren sounded a block away and they all started running in the other direction.  It seemed like forever before the ambulance came.  I learned the next morning that the police caught the Ballers.  I also learned in the that Bernard had past away. 
When the 1988 NBA Draft came around, I was the number 1 overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers.  My whole NBA career I wore the number 23 in honor of my friend Bernard Wing.