Gutta World (eBook)

It all started in Piedmont Courts. All I remember was dirt and heat and watching my older brother go outside through the glass door. I used to bang on the glass because I wanted to go play outside also. I was just a little nigga. I was not ready for that jungle. My dad worked on computers and my mom worked in insurance. My aunt and cousins stayed in the apartment beside us. So, we were very close with my cousins. I always had a basketball goal to play on whether it was inside or outside. I used to love playing on the goal that was in my room behind the door. Even when we had company and people came over, they would say you're going be good when you get older. I had no clue what they were saying but I just kept playing. When I turned five years old My mom let me go outside and play in the front yard on the mini basketball goal my dad brought me. I was so excited because now I could show my talent to the hood when my brother went outside to go play at the park. All we had was dirt in the front yard, but I didn’t care. My rules were that I had to stay in the front yard and I couldn’t step in the street. Anyone who knows Piedmont Courts knew it was the hood of Charlotte before they tore it down. I remember shooting on my goal and people would walk by and say, “You are very good”, but I did not pay any attention to them either. I was too busy trying to make every shot. My brother would play with me when he came home from the park. He was eight years older than me, so he was a monster on my goal. That year we moved to the east side of Charlotte called Milton Rd. We stayed in some apartments called Barrington Oaks. My padre signed me up for basketball at Methodist Home Rec Center. I could not wait to play basketball on a real basketball court because I had been playing on my mini-goal for so long. My coach’s name was Danny. He was cool and loud. He loved how good I was, So he pulled me to the side a lot and told me this was my team. Our games were on Saturdays, and we played against other rec centers around the Charlotte region. Our first game was on a Saturday, and I remember my padre telling me it was time to go to work. The goals we played on at the rec center were the same size as the mini goal I shot on in the hood, so I was ready. The only thing that I was nervous about was when we walked into the gym there was a crowd of people. I had never played in front of a crowd before, but I was ready to show my talent. When the ref threw the ball up all I heard was “Timmy get the ball”. Of course, that was my mom yelling. So that is what I did. I went over to my teammate, and he passed me the ball as soon as he did that, I had a flashback of being in the hood shooting on my outside goal. So, I went to the goal and shot it. The ball went right through the net. I heard everyone clapping and screaming and saying, “Good job”. From then on, I loved playing in front of crowds. After the game, everyone came up to me and said, “Man you are good” All I could do was smile. Then, my padre told me “Good job son”. I told my mom “I could hear her voice over everyone else” She started smiling saying what she always says, “I am her little baby”. Milton Road was not like Piedmont courts it was still hood. But we had grass to look at. My brother, my uncle, and my padre would take turns working with me on my skills so I could be the best. My Uncle D was my mom’s brother. He worked at the Boys and Girls Club on Milton Road. I spent a lot of my time at the club if I was not in school. The Boys and Girls Club was a place for kids to go play and feel safe after school or even a place for the dope boys to go and get away from the streets. Everyone was welcomed. My Uncle D used to pick me up early from school just so I could have the gym to myself and practice my skills. I spent lots of hours in the gym because I wanted to be the best. My older brother went to the club also he hung out with kids that were his age. I did not get to see him a lot until I got home. There was this thing called the BC circle at the club. It was a big circle in the middle of the basketball court where kids fought. If it was your birthday or you wanted to learn how to fight the older kids would pull you into the BC circle and you had to fight your way out. I watched a lot of kids learn how to fight in the circle. I mean whoever was in the gym, boys or girls, it didn’t matter but only boys got pulled into the circle. There was a mentor that everyone respected, his name was Milton. He had two sons named Cory and TC. If Milton said “sit down” you sat down. My uncle Darrin created a basketball team for the kids that went to the club. He asked me did I want to play. I told him “Yeah”. Milton Rd was on the east side of Charlotte. We had rivals such as West Trade and Belmont. Both of those clubs were near the west side of Charlotte. Those games were intense because we did not like each other. Our OGs hated their OGs so it brought a hostile crowd. Every time we played them there was always a fight with the older kids because their game was after ours. So, people used to fight and shoot after the games. We took basketball seriously plus the street beef added to it, so it was really that serious. My age group always beat the other club’s teams, we were just too good. Milton Road Boys and Girls Club was well respected. Not just basketball, but also in the streets. I honestly did not know a lot about the streets then because I was a peewee. But being around real thugs and gangsters taught me a lot. I went to HG Elementary School. It was not too far from the Boys and Girls Club, so I had easy access when I needed to get there. When I turned eight years old, I was still playing for Methodist Home Rec Center. But my parents moved to a house on the east side. So, I was still around the same kids from the club. My skills were getting better every day. The club was growing and now my uncle had a travel team that he created. We played against other clubs from around the world in Myrtle Beach. We played a total of three games in one day and won every game by twenty points or more. We ended up winning the whole tournament that year and I got the Most Valuable Player award. When we got back home to the club everyone was clapping and saying, “We represented Milton Road”. I was excited to be a part of something so solid. One thing that I enjoyed doing at the club other than playing basketball was ping pong. It was fun and I was good at it. By this time, my padre had all kinds of people coming to him asking him about me playing AAU basketball. AAU was for basketball players who had exceptional talent. Every year I played for Methodist Home we played a team called the Charlotte Flames. They were a team out of Grier town in Charlotte. They had NBA players’ sons on their team. The Flames were the only team out of the league that we could not beat. We damn near played them every year in the championship and their coach would try and recruit me every year. The Charlotte Flames Park and Rec team were their AAU team also, so they had team chemistry of playing together. When I turned ten years old, we played the Flames again in the championship game and my padre allowed me to join their AAU team. The name of their AAU team was the Charlotte Stars. We had the best talent in Charlotte on one team. We had a few NBA players’ sons on our team so that was different for me because people were amazed by celebrities everywhere we went. AAU was much different from Park and Rec. You basically traveled the world and played the best players in the country. Nationals was in Orlando Florida. The Nationals was a big showcase where all the teams from around the world were in one location and played against each other. There were about 600 teams there. We came in 7th place that year at the nationals. Those games were crazy because you were playing in front of thousands of people. The next year I got a chance to play against the No Limit Ballers. They had a rap artist's son on their team, so the arena was packed with people at that game. I crossed Romeo over in the game and he almost failed. That was my highlight of the game. We lost that game, but they had kids on their team who were dunking the ball at 11 years old. A few of those players are in the NBA today. It was an experience I will never forget. I went to JT Williams Middle School in my sixth-grade year. I did not get to go to school with any of my East Side friends. Because JT Williams was located on the west side of Charlotte. My right-hand also went to JT with me, we were like brothers. Whenever you saw him, you saw me. If I fought, he fought. If I had food, he did too. That was the understanding we had. We never had to talk about it either, it was just an understanding. He stayed in Hidden Valley. Hidden Valley was a hood in Charlotte known for the size of its hood and gang. One time my right-hand and I went to the movies and got into it with their gang. I guess they thought we were going to back down. Because it was just us. But that did not happen. After the movies, we were walking out talking to some girls from the city and they circled us. It was about ten of them and just us. I put my hands up because I thought they were ready to fight, and my right-hand did too. But none of them tried to attack us. So, from then on it was an understanding they did not want any problems with us. Especially with my brother living in Hidden Valley, they saw us a lot. But never got out of character. There was an understanding they didn’t like me. I hung out with some kids called the Jungle Boys. They were a group of kids from Beatties Ford that kept it real. So, we clicked instantly. I had some friends that I called cousins who went to middle school with me. There was T Beezy he was funny as fuck, but he was solid I could always count on him if I ever had a problem. There was Lil C he was solid...