MINNEAPOLIS — Prince had music in his blood.
Basketball was in his heart.
"I really believe that was his first love," said Al Nuness, his coach at Minneapolis Central High School.
When news of the death of one of modern music's most influential performers reached Nuness Thursday through a call from his wife, his thoughts went straight to 1973. That's when Prince and his precocious ninth-grade friends were promoted to the sophomore team by Nuness.
"He was very small," Nuness said. "But he was quick. He could handle the ball and he could penetrate and he could dish.