The boy and his brother flew to Atlanta, using most of the cash they had on hand. The rest, they spent on fees for the recruiting showcase in front of some of the biggest programs in college basketball.
Prince Ali, now a freshman at UCLA, was a high school sophomore then, and still mostly unknown. His older brother, Sayed, had been raising Ali for about a year. Before the showcase, he pulled Ali aside. It was a lot of money, he told Ali. Make it count.
Looking back, Sayed says, that moment was one of his proudest from the years he spent rearing his younger brother.