Southern Raptor
Name: Gerald Wallace
Season Story: 29 PPG, 15.4 RPG, FG=60%
Up Next: University of Alabama *** To understand why Gerald Wallace, a McDonald’s All-American and USA Today Player of the Year, has put the NBA on hold, you must travel 40 minutes down US Highway 280 from Birmingham to the tiny town of Childersburg, Ala. Take a right at the Chevron Station and drive through the Pleasant Valley Housing Projects until you see a small brown house on the right side with a white rusty weight bench in the front yard. This is Gerald Wallace’s home. Gerald’s mom Alice sits on the front porch slowly waving her hand and flashing a warm southern smile. She has just returned home from Winn-Dixie, where she has worked the last 19 years as a bookkeeper. To the side of the house is a backboard with the rim ripped off. In the yard, two more dead backboards rest on the hood of a car that hasn’t seen the road in years. These are the rims Gerald tore down back when he used to jump off a trampoline to practice his dunks. The house itself is small and modest, nothing too fancy. It’s a stone’s throw from the Pleasant Valley Project courts where Gerald learned the game of basketball. Today is a hot, sticky Alabama afternoon, and the window-unit AC is rattling on high and ceiling fans are spinning fast trying to overcome the heat. There’s no TV or stereo in the living room, just a couch, a comfortable blue recliner, and plenty of pictures.
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