The Basketball Chronicles of Mister Jennings

Book excerpt: My story is different, but I'm sure every small player that wanted to become a professional basketball player can relate to what I had to go through. I'm 5'7" and there are so many small basketball players that get overlooked because of their size. I want to be the voice for those players. I was blessed by God with the talent and love to be a basketball player. Through God's grace and timing, basketball has shown me parts of the world that I would've never visited and the great support that I received from my family and friends will never be forgotten or taken for granted...dream big, work for it and see what happens! Growing up in the Jennings' household during basketball season was something I loved and respected. Basketball in the morning, basketball in the evening, basketball at night, basketball in the house, basketball in the gyms, basketball at the dunk courts, basketball on television, basketball movies, basketball without a basketball, I just couldn't get enough and then it turned into a memory bank. Memories of family basketball, memories of high school basketball, memories of college basketball, memories of the NBA, memories of European basketball, memories of good games, bad games, great games, and injuries. If the good outweighs the bad you'll be happy to share your story with anyone that asks. You have to understand that a lot of people never gave me a chance. My family believed in me and I believed in myself, and I worked so hard I get chills just thinking about it. The memories don't stop until you stop. I found out very quickly that short basketball players need to be special. Looking back on it, I realized that the short players that I liked were special. Mugsy Boges was 5'3," Spud Webb was 5'7" and could dunk (he won the NBA dunk contest back in the day), Calvin Murphy was a flat out scorer, and the list goes on and on. At this present time there are only 10 basketball players under 6' that have played 3 years or more in the NBA. I felt like I was special because I played basketball on all major levels: high school, college, NBA and European professional basketball. I'm going to take you through a series of events that I believe gave me the opportunity to not only have my basketball dreams come true, but to also be able to make money doing something I love. Have you ever been to a place where you feel at peace with yourself? If you haven't, I hope you find it before your time on this earth is done. My peace is basketball. It doesn't matter what is going on in my life, I can grab a basketball, find a rim and the rim doesn't even have to have nets. I'll forget everything and just play. It's a great feeling. I believe dreams come true. Mine did and yours can too. You just need to be patient, work hard, don't listen to the negative people (haters), and believe in your own abilities. I did. I had to deal with all of those things and it shaped me to be the man that I am today.