NYPG Blue
By Pat Cassidy Page 4 Marlon Smith realizes that a lot can happen between now and when and if the NBA comes calling. He’s smart enough to know that innumerable pitfalls wait around every corner of his neighborhood, and he’s also smart enough to know what he has to do to avoid those hazards. "I don’t play at playgrounds, because there are a lot of people there who don’t like me. I’ve had a few of my teeth chipped by some of the guys there who have tried to hurt me, because they can’t do what I can do on the basketball court. They all really believe that I think that I’m better than they are because I don’t talk. I’m just quiet. I’m modest. I don’t like to brag; I just try to be myself and these people take it the opposite way. "A lot of the players, whether they’re playground guys or are in school, are too content to keep themselves one dimensional. They don’t care about their education. They don’t care about anything else that’s open to them. Their attitude stinks, and it doesn’t carry them anywhere." There’s something about the way the kid looks you right in the eye with confidence and determination when he speaks. Marlon Smith’s going to make it out, and there’s no defender, no jealous thug, no obscure statute in a rule book that’s gonna keep him down.
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