… my first car was a 2000 all black Mazda Protégé. My parents bought it for me my junior year in high school and I’m not gonna lie, it was a big deal. At least to my teammates and I it was. We were now mobile and a new world of freedom had opened up for us. Every day before school and after practice during our ride home in the Protégé we would have some of the most off the wall, deep, funny, ridiculous, enlightening, random, and whatever else you want to call it conversations.
Statements were made, jokes delivered, and life long bonds were forged in that small 4-door car with 2 12-inch subwoofers in the trunk.
One off the wall, ridiculous, random, and at the time funny statement was made by Bryson Graham. Bryson would often be the youngest person in the car that I would give a ride home from school. It was his freshman year and he made it a point to let 3 juniors in the car know that after summer break when we come back to school he would be dunking a basketball. He was barely slapping glass at the time, so we let some jokes fly and laughed it off.
That was the last time I underestimated Bryson. When we came back from summer break, not only was he dunking the ball, but he was doing it with ease! Over the next 3 years we watched Bryson blossom into a basketball star in San Antonio. He once looked me in the eye and flat out told me he would be in the NBA. We all had hoop dreams at one point or another, but it was Bryson who deep down we had a feeling could take that dream and make it a reality.
When I went off to college I made sure to stay in contact with Bryson. I followed his collegiate career from a far. It was a disappointing to hear that Bryson suffered injuries while playing at Texas A&M that derailed his goal of playing in the NBA. However those injuries did nothing to stop his perseverance and (as Stephen A Smith would say) unmitigated gall to make it into the ranks of the NBA.
Tune into the Beyond Buckets Podcast for the rest of this story and more about Bryson Graham…