Millions visit the Bahamas each year, most of them tourists who soak up the warm sun on white-sand beaches while gazing out over crystal-clear water during dream getaways.
Most never see the poverty and hardship Kings guard Buddy Hield experienced as a kid because few dare to enter the Pinedale neighborhood in Eight Mile Rock, a coastal region west of Freeport. Hield’s mother always made sure he had something to eat, but he didn’t have much else.
Hield knew his own dreams would never come true unless he found a way to escape the islands.
“Where I’m from, it’s not like the resorts,” he said.