It’s always heart warmin’ to see our kids succeed! Our kids, meanin’ our young black kids from the inner-city both poor and middle class!! The Warren Central Lady Warriors have plowed through the sectionals, regionals and now semi-state beatin’ everybody and their baby’s momma to get to the mountain top! They’ve got one more game to win before they can actually claim the State Title but I’m goin’ to celebrate them right now.
Most people look at the success of Warren Central and only see a basketball team winnin’ games and makin’ it to the state title game. When I see Warren Central I see my love for the the hood, growin’ up in G.I. and seein’ everyone outside of it look down on it. I see kids that have not only won baskteball games but they’re overcomin’ everything that the streets continue to throw at them.
Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! Playin’ the game of basketball is the easy part bruh. Dealin’ with life on the east side and everything that comes with it is something else entirely. So when I see young ladies havin’ the strength to deal with life in ANY HOOD, USA and still be able to ball out and win when nobody expected them to win brings tears to my eyes.
Sure, I’m a sports writer that covers everything from preps to the NBA but the essence of who I am was made in Gary, Indiana!!! You haven’t seen the streets until you’ve been there. So I know that these coaches aren’t just coachin’ the game of basketball. They coachin’ life and survival even with our little girls too.
And please don’t get it twisted, everybody in the hood isn’t poor. My father was a pharmacist and my mother was a school teacher and I grew up in a middle class home in The G but I was never seperated from the foolishness of the streets because I lived in the city and went to Roosevelt High School. The hood is the hood regardless of the of the financial cut off points of the neighborhood. The lines stay blurred and you’ve got to understand how to walk the line.
So when I step into a gym and see this Warren Central team come into the tournament with 7 losses when nobody was givin’ them a Bugatti’s chance of survivin’ in the projects and that includes me, I’m amazed at what they’ve accomplished.
I’m not goin’ to lie playa, Pike and North Central were the favorites to get to this point. Nobody believed these young ladies would be here but them and theirs at Dub-C. But the fact that they ran through everybody and did something that no other team from Warren had done since 1984 is unbelievable.
Typically I could care less who wins these games but when I see kids succeedin’ from ANY HOOD, USA I’m all in because they represent me and every thing I love about growin’ up in the G! If you can survive in the hood you can survive anywhere in the world. And if you can win in the hood you can win anywhere in the world. Don’t ever forget that.
That’s why I’m so proud to say that if you grew up in ANY HOOD, USA and people from the suburbs looked down their noses at you while growin’ up. You need to be at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Saturday night with some black and gold on cheerin’ for our lil’ sisters from Warren Central!! Stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus:
1) Put it where the goats can get it: verb phrase – to make it as elementary as possible. To put it at ground level so everyone can understand it.
2) G.I.: noun – Gary, Indiana
3) Dub-C: Warren Central
The G is excluded from the endings of all words because the G is near and dear to my heart because I’m from “The G” which is Gary, Indiana. So I only use the G when I’m talkin’ about “The G!”
The caption under the photo isn’t real but its real talk!