Mother Baltimore: Hoop dreams
While trying to find a topic to write about for today’s newsletter, I could not stop thinking about the recent NBA fraud scheme. On Thursday, 18 former NBA players were charged with embezzling roughly $2.5 million by defrauding the league’s health and welfare benefit plan, which included submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims to the league over three years. NBA champions such as Shannon Brown, Glen Davis, Tony Allen and Melvin Ely were among those charged. Darius Miles, an East St. Louis native, is another player who was charged.
As a longtime NBA fan, I became incredibly sad while reading the names of some players I grew up watching. My heart sank. Shannon Brown is from Maywood, Illinois, my hometown. He attended the local high school, Proviso East, which is the school I almost attended. It’s the same high school esteemed NBA coach Doc Rivers went to. I watched Brown win two championships with the Los Angeles Lakers and marry award-winning R&B singer, Monica. I also watched the downfall in his career, which included signing 10-day contracts with two teams until he was eventually drafted to play in the NBA’s Development League, his divorce from Monica and being arrested for aggravated assault.
My heart also sank when I read more about Darius Miles. I wasn’t previously familiar with his name when I first read the story about the fraud scheme, but once I learned that he was from East St. Louis, I did some digging. He went straight from East St. Louis Senior High School to the NBA. The third pick in the 2000 NBA draft, Miles was selected by the Los Angeles Clippers, where he had a stellar rookie season (earning an NBA All-Rookie First Team honor in 2001). That nascent success was short-lived. Nine years later, he was out of the league due to a career-ending knee injury. He wasn’t even 30 years old. In 2013, his mom died after a longtime battle with cancer. Then, in 2016, he filed for bankruptcy.
I thought about the career trajectories of both Brown and Miles after reading about the fraud scheme. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to garner the entire world’s attention because of your basketball talent and to have all of it end abruptly, only for that attention to be shifted to your involvement in various legal woes. While it’s convenient (and, in some cases, slightly honest) to simply label players like Brown and Miles as greedy and immature former athletes who didn’t manage their early-career finances well, that labeling ignores the racist and capitalist systems that inform their life experiences and the impact of having basketball dreams being cut short.
I’ll let Miles speak on that, though. In a 2018 essay for The Players’ Tribune, he writes about his East St. Louis upbringing:
My whole life, I used basketball as an escape. When you grow up how I grew up, I think you’re probably bound to have some kind of PTSD. I ain’t a doctor, but when you grow up running from gunshots all the time, I think there’s something inside you that never leaves. I used to feel this pressure on me — I’m talking like a physical pressure, you know? But I used to be able to go out onto a basketball court and just unleash it. You could let it all out. … Basketball got taken away from me at 27, and I was lost.
Now, here’s the latest news in southwestern Illinois:
A state senator, mayor’s family are on the payroll of southwest Illinois’ newest town
A recent BND investigation revealed that two former mayors, a state senator and the new mayor’s two sons are among employees hired to serve Cahokia Heights. The new city has 112 employees, 92 working full-time and 20 working part-time. BND reporter DeAsia Paige provided an analysis of the employees who work there.
More on Cahokia Heights staff:
Southwest Illinois’ newest city has 112 employees? How much are they being paid
Here are the department leaders and their salaries for southwest IL’s newest town
East St. Louis street to renamed after pastor who was an ‘icon in the community’
Last month, East St. Louis City Council approved an ordinance to rename North 28th Street after Rev. Jerome Jackson I, Sr. Jackson pastored Southern Mission Missionary Baptist Church in East St. Louis. He passed away in April. BND reporter DeAsia Paige talked to Jackson’s family and members of the church about the recent ordinance.
More on East St. Louis churches:
East St. Louis church ordains women as clergy for first in its long history
How East St. Louis churches are supporting families who can’t access remote learning
Former East St. Louis star among ex-NBA players charged in $4M fraud scheme
Darius Miles, East St. Louis basketball great, is among 18 retired NBA players who’ve been charged with defrauding the league’s health care plan. Between 2017-2020, the former players submitted fraudulent reimbursement claims totaling $3.9 million, according to federal court documents unsealed on Thursday. After graduating from East St. Louis Senior High School, where he averaged 22.1 points, 12.1 rebounds, 7.4 blocks and 3.4 assists a game in his senior year, Miles was selected as the third overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers.
More on Darius Miles:
He made millions in the NBA. Now, Darius Miles is bankrupt.
Auction to feature items from former Flyer and NBA player Darius Miles
What to do
This is a new section of Mother Baltimore that’ll highlight upcoming events in the metro-east that’s relevant to Black communities. If you have tips for events, send them to dsutgrey@bnd.com
East St. Louis Fall Family Fun Festival
12:30 p.m. on October 9 at Jones Park in East St. Louis
The Emma L. Wilson King Foundation, an East St. Louis-based nonprofit, will host its first festival in the city on Saturday. The festival is aimed to bring more awareness to the foundation’s efforts, which include restoring a historic fountain in Jones Park. Admission to the event is free, and it’ll start with a 10:30 a.m. parade from 25th and State Street to Jones Park.
What to watch
Our Kind of People
“Our Kind of People” is a new drama series that’s adapted from the 1999 Lawrence Otis Graham novel of the same name. The show, which stars Yaya DaCosta, focuses on the experiences of the Black upper middle class in Martha’s Vineyard. Created by Karin Gist (“Girlfriends”) and executive produced by Lee Daniels (“Empire”), “Our Kind of People” airs on Tuesday nights on FOX.
What to read
Introducing the Real Will Smith
For GQ, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wesley Lowery profiled Will Smith in probably one of the most candid interviews the actor has given to date. In it, Smith talks about shadowboxing his people-pleasing tendencies, his marriage to Jada Pinkett-Smith and getting older. His recollection of, as child, witnessing his father punching his mom and how that experience subsequently affected him is a striking, yet relatable admission:
For decades, Smith has seen himself as a coward. His desire to please people, to entertain the crowd, and to make us all laugh, he explains, is rooted, at least in part, in the belief that if he kept everyone—his father, his classmates, his fans—smiling, they wouldn’t lash out with violence at him or the people he loved.
That’s all she wrote!
Talk to y’all in two weeks!
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This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 11:25 AM.
