It takes a special mentality for any basketball player to survive in the parks and the schoolyards of New York City.
It takes even more of that unique mindset and toughness to become a notable point guard in the city that’s spawned so may over so many decades.
To do it at five-foot-seven, to never take a step back and to emerge as someone so highly respected, takes almost unimaginable confidence and extraordinary skill.
It is the story of Markquis Nowell.
“It just adds that grit and that toughness and I bring it everywhere that I’m at,” the Raptors rookie was saying during a chat at Summer League this week.