(Too Much?) Power to Influence

by Casey Jacobsen When I was a boy, all I wanted to do was play sports with my friends in my suburban neighborhood of Glendora, CA. I was tall, but not huge. I wasn’t fast, but not slow either. I could jump well, but that was by “white boy” standards. And although I come from family with basketball history (my father and two older brothers played college basketball), no one in their right mind would have predicted that I would make it to the NBA when they saw me at 13. Even after two years of competing at a high level against the country’s best talent during high school, I don’t think a lot of people thought I would make it to the NBA. That perception was the best thing that could have ever happened to my basketball career. Let me explain. I began playing AAU basketball (stands for Amateur Athletic Union, a semi-organized summer basketball circuit) when I was in 5th grade. By the time I was 13, I was traveling all over California and Las Vegas, Nevada for AAU tournaments. When I arr...