ROSELLE, N.J. — On a recent Friday evening, Naasir Cunningham was back home in New Jersey doing what does best: flying up and down a basketball court, deftly floating in baskets and hitting an array of jump shots from various angles.
Five months earlier, Cunningham had left his home in West Orange, N.J., and his friends at the Gill St. Bernard’s high school in Gladstone, to join the quasi-professional Overtime Elite league based in Atlanta. His parents moved to be near their son.
Cunningham, 17, a 6-foot-7 small forward, was now performing in a showcase at Roselle Catholic High School before a curious and wide-ranging crowd of several hundred that included N.