With his father in and out of jail and drug wars all around him that took the lives of friends and other family members, Luis Colon understood despair growing up in rural Carolina, Puerto Rico.
Sometimes, they had nothing to eat, he said, as money got misused “for whatever reason” in his home.
So the pre-teen boy might go to a local store and volunteer to pack groceries, desperate for a tip.
“At some points in my life, I felt like I had no hope,” he said. “Then basketball came along, and it was kind of like my coping skill for all my anxieties … basketball was my outlet, my escape.