Special to espnW
Some blueberry and tomato plants were harmed in the making of this basketball player. The scene: a driveway in Belmar, New Jersey, a patch of asphalt 10 feet wide. That's where Dara Mabrey learned to navigate past some exceptionally tough defenders, namely sisters Michaela and Marina, who went on to star at Notre Dame.
Occasionally, Dara, the shortest of the family's five kids at 5-foot-7, would have her shot swatted, with the ball flying over the fence and landing in the garden of the next-door neighbors, Joe and Suzette Rizzitello.