The first voice that Hassan Whiteside hears every morning has a comforting feel. It’s unmistakably Southern. Familiar. It asks the same question at the same time every day.
“What are you grateful for?” the voice says. “Three things. Let’s go.”
Whiteside starts counting his blessings, reciting them one by one.
He often names his mother Debbie, who raised him and his six other siblings in the countryside of Gastonia, North Carolina. (Whiteside’s father, Hasson Arbubakrr, a former NFL tight end, and Debbie separated, and he moved to New Jersey when Whiteside was two years old.