When I was growing up in South-Central Los Angeles, “Paul” was one of my closest friends. In grade school and junior high, he and I spent countless hours together. He helped me become a slightly better athlete, and I helped him with math and biology. But when I returned home from college, Paul had become “Muhammad.”

But pre-Muhammad, Paul starred on the high school basketball, baseball and football teams. As the basketball team’s starting point guard, he was a prolific scorer and a tenacious defender, a combination college recruiters drool over. Big basketball power schools — UCLA, Notre Dame, Marquette and others — scouted him. Paul talked incessantly about the destiny to which he felt entitled … the NBA, the money and the glamour.