Basketball County: A History of Prince George's County Hoops (2018) - full transcript
♪ energetic hip-hop ♪
[Kevin Durant]
I come from a small county
outside of Washington, D.C.,
called PG County.
♪♪♪
♪ Blow your mind ♪
[man] There's always been
great players...
[announcer] Head
to Jeff Green. Oh--
[announcers overlapping]
[man] ...from
Prince George's County.
[announcer]
What a finish for KD!
[man] Players
from Prince George's County--
they can fill it up.
PG County guys
provide wet buckets
for America.
- [announcer] Here's Beasley.
- [announcer] Beasley!
[announcer] Jeff Green!
[man] You can come here
and get ate up,
or you can eat
and become successful.
[announcer]
Oladipo pounds it down!
[overlaid announcers]
With the ninth pick...
With the fifth...
With the second pick...
The Miami Heat...
The Seattle SuperSonics...
The Philadelphia '76ers
select Markelle Fultz,
Victor Oladipo,
Michael Beasley,
Kevin Durant.
[announcer] Durant finishes
with a left hand.
Almost every other NBA game,
there's somebody
that I'm playing against
that's from PG County.
Always like, "Oh, you know
he from home?"
Like, "Damn, him too?"
I just love
to see that, you know.
[Nolan] We were friends.
We were enemies.
Basketball, to this county,
means everything.
It's just something
about the water we drink.
It gotta be in the water.
It's just in the water.
This is what we do.
[announcer] Durant!
♪♪♪
♪ soft music ♪
[Jerai] If somebody asked me
where's
Prince George's County,
it's the heart of Maryland.
♪♪♪
Not to get too metaphorical
or whatever,
but it's this heartbeat.
♪ hip-hop music ♪
[narrator] Bordering
the nation's capital,
Prince George's County,
once home
to tobacco plantations,
is divided into two zones
by I-495,
locally known
as the Capital Beltway.
The outer Beltway holds
some of the richest
black-majority towns
in the nation,
while many inner
Beltway communities
face high rates
of poverty and crime.
But the obsession that unifies
this Maryland county
is basketball.
The shared passion, style,
and success is undeniable.
Ask anyone from the county.
They'll let you know.
[Marissa] It's the Mecca
of basketball.
Wherever you go, you mention
Prince George's County,
people--people know
what it's about.
♪♪♪
Basketball's always bouncing
in--in PG County.
[Beasley] First time
I touched a basketball,
Hilltop Gardens.
I-I must have been
like three years old.
First thing I remember:
I'm lookin' up...
...and I couldn't get the ball
to the basket.
Like...I tried
all fucking day...
...just throwing it,
throwing it, until finally
I threw it like this
and finally made one.
♪ Perhaps the most
famous classic ♪
It's been
the only thing in my life
these 30 years
that's consistent.
Once I committed
to playing basketball
and wanting to play basketball
for, like, forever--
I was, like, nine--
it was like breathing.
[Beasley] Ever since we've
been playing basketball,
me and KD
been best friends.
If I'm on Branch Avenue
and I hear about a game
down in Farm,
I'ma call KD,
who's all the way up in
Marlboro at the time...
♪ heavy music ♪
♪♪♪
[players shouting,
whistle blows]
[onlooker]
Oh, my goodness!
[Beasley] Became a norm
to where--just hoop
every three, four times a day.
It go from that to this...
[announcer] Here is Durant
- [buzzer]
- for the win!
Kevin Durant
has won it at the buzzer!
[narrator] Since 2000,
over 30 NBA players,
multiple WNBA stars,
and hundreds
of Division I college players
have come from PG County.
The seeds were planted
over a century ago
in nearby Washington, D.C.,
where African-Americans
first learned,
then transformed
the art of basketball.
♪♪♪
[McAdams]
This area was the first
to master
the game of basketball,
thanks to Dr. Edwin
Bancroft Henderson,
the first black
physical educator
in the nation.
[narrator] Edwin B. Henderson
hoped basketball
would boost college access
and social mobility
for black youth.
The so-called
Father of Black Basketball
had learned the sport
from its creator,
James Naismith,
while attending
a Harvard University
sports and recreation program
in 1904.
[McAdams] Henderson brought
the game back to D.C.,
went to the black Y,
which is known
as the historic 12th Street Y,
and that was the venue
of basketball
in Washington, D.C.,
as it pertains
to African-Americans.
♪♪♪
[Pennington] He thought
if we had an athletic skill,
we could utilize that
to get into good white schools
in America.
A lot of racism
goes out the window
when you're competing
with your white counterpart
to win games.
[McAdams]
D.C. had a leg up
because of Dr. Henderson.
The fundamentals
and the proper way
to play the game
were taught to the youngsters
in Washington, D.C.
[narrator] Henderson's players
won championships.
Some even changed the world,
like Charles Drew,
who later created
the world's first blood bank
as a trailblazing physician,
and Edward Duke Ellington,
the composer who'd go on
to redefine American music.
Though legal segregation
prevailed
in the nation's capital,
D.C.'s black community
built a thriving city
within a city,
anchored by institutions
like Howard University
and the U Street
business corridor.
This relative stability
was shattered in 1968
by a tragedy
that shook the nation.
[Robert Kennedy]
I have some very sad news
for all of you...
...and I think sad news for
all of our fellow citizens...
...and people who love peace
all over the world...
♪ dramatic music ♪
...and that is that
Martin Luther King
was shot
and was killed tonight
in Memphis, Tennessee.
[crowd exclaims]
[narrator] In the wake
of Martin Luther King's
assassination,
Washington, D.C., erupted.
The riots would claim
a dozen lives,
destroy countless businesses,
and spark an exodus
of middle-class
African-Americans to suburban
Prince George's County.
♪ disquieting music ♪
♪♪♪
Each generation
wants a better life
for a subsequent generation,
and during that time,
the opportunity
was in
the Prince George's County.
[Brown] Many African-Americans
were moving into the county,
and one of the offshoots
of that
is that you had a number
of young kids
who were
excellent basketball players
now starting to go
to the county schools.
[narrator] From D.C.,
they brought skill
and deep knowledge
of the game.
They also found
an ideal environment
for hoops,
a county with one of the
nation's best park systems.
Prince George's County
has over 400 parks,
and in most of those parks,
you have basketball courts,
and you can get out there
and play,
and you can raise
that level of play
based upon the competition
that you receive
within those communities.
[Kevin] Every summer,
just about every day,
you know,
we was playing outdoors
on that blacktop.
As soon as I woke up,
I was going downstairs
and going to the court
across the street
from my apartment building.
We got that competition
early on.
It was very competitive.
For me, it was a young kid
walking on the court
with a bunch of grown men.
And you had to go in there
and prove to the older adults
that we belong on this court.
[overlapping chatter]
You could virtually ride
in--in the neighborhoods,
and any basketball court
in many neighborhoods
would be packed.
[Steve] I love basketball
so much.
It was like an amusement park,
'cause you could learn
something
every single day from somebody.
[Adrian] First of all, you'd
better get into court early.
If you're not there at 9:00,
you might not play
until 11:00,
and if you lost a game,
you might as well go home.
If we were playing
and it got too dark,
there were no lights.
Guys that drove
would turn their headlights on
so we could finish a game.
[people talking indistinctly]
And so if you lose,
and you--
and you're not good,
you know, they might say
you're not playing no more.
[Walt] So that sense
of urgency,
you know, was always there.
[Mike] You fought
to the death, almost.
I mean,
there was definitely blood.
Game point was gonna take
15, 20 minutes.
Like, you were gonna get
fouled.
[Jeff] The county definitely
gives you a tough edge.
Fighting to hold your spot,
being able to stay on the court
with a bunch of grown men
and holding your own--
I mean, everybody will say
that's everywhere,
but for us,
we lived by that.
♪ dramatic music ♪
If PG County
was a basketball player,
he'd be tough...
[announcer]
Here is Lawson for the win!
Ty Lawson, game winner!
[Jerai] ...be gritty...
[announcer] Mismatch
with Jordan, cross over,
Jack jumper...
[announcer] He's got it!
One point, three to play.
[Jerai] ...a student
of the game.
[announcer] Picks him up
on the switch.
- Shot clock at five.
- [crowd] Defense!
Kevin Durant way outside.
Delivers!
Kevin Durant from downtown!
♪♪♪
[Beasley] That competitive
edge right there, just--
it's nothing that you can do
to stop this.
Like, this ass-whooping
gonna come.
[announcer] 4.7 seconds.
Villanova trying to go
the length of the court
with Arcidiacono.
Three seconds at midcourt.
Gives it to Jenkins
for the championship!
I've shot
those same exact shots
hundreds of thousands
of times.
I--it's hard to count.
♪ light music ♪
[Nate] And what I knew was,
everyone at home
and everyone that knows Kris
knows this game was over.
♪♪♪
[announcer] Jenkins...
♪♪♪
Kris Jenkins is gonna live
the rest of his life
as a folk hero.
[Kris] I don't think
it's no secret
as to why we have
hundreds of kids in college
and in the NCAA tournament
every year
from this area
playing basketball.
[Brenda] I recruit
all over the country.
The players in PG County
are second to none.
[announcer]
And this has turned
into the kind of a game
we expected all night.
Jump shot is good
by Coleman!
We produce the best
men's basketball players
in the country
in Prince George's County,
so playing against those guys
growing up--
it's only gonna elevate
my game.
[Brenda] You know,
those players have
the toughness, the grit,
um, and all the intangibles
to help you win.
[all cheering]
[chatter, ball bouncing]
[narrator] In 1956,
DeMatha Catholic High School
hired a young history teacher
as its basketball coach.
Under Morgan Wootten,
DeMatha would create
a powerful and enduring
PG County institution.
We have here
Morgan Wootten,
the coach
of DeMatha High School.
Greatest coach
probably in the history
of high school basketball.
[McAdams]
Morgan comes to DeMatha,
and he decided,
"I'm gonna play
the best players
I can get ahold of.
I don't care
if they're black or white.
I'm playing the best players."
[coach] All right, fellas.
Machine gun drill.
Let's go.
Get 'em on.
[man] Every player
in the last 15 years
that has been a senior
at DeMatha High School
has won a college scholarship.
You have players who believe
that they can change their life
by playing basketball.
♪♪♪
Of course
he's gonna influence,
because if you're
a black person
growing up in the '50s
or '60s,
and you want to better
your life,
you do that through sports,
and sports gets you,
you know, a college education.
[man] You talk
about a winning tradition.
517 wins, 75 losses.
He treated us with dignity,
and you had so much respect
and love for Coach Wootten,
you never wanted
to let him down.
[Adrian] When I was
in middle school,
I said to myself,
"Hey, I want to go to DeMatha.
I wanna play for Coach Wooten."
[narrator]
DeMatha made a big leap
from regional power
to elite national program
back in 1965
when it faced Power Memorial,
a New York team
considered invincible.
I don't think
that I am engaging in hyperbole
when I talk
about the significance
to PG County
when DeMatha High School
hosted the biggest
high school basketball game
at that time
against Power Memorial
High School
from New York City,
that had a 7'1" ball player
on their team
then known by the name
of Lew Alcindor,
also known
as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Power Memorial High School
was on a 71-game win streak.
They were phenomenal.
We'd won about 30-some
in a row.
Our last loss had been to Power
the year before,
when Kareem was a junior.
But now here he was a senior,
never having been beaten
in high school.
[Brown] 12,500 packed
into that arena.
♪♪♪
[Morgan] Time Magazine
was there,
and Newsweek was there,
the TV stations were there,
radio, and so on.
And so for the first time,
here's a high school game
that's getting
national attention.
♪ slow hip-hop instrumental ♪
[Pennington]
I like to say this
for all the cats
who love New York City.
I love your city,
but when New York City
comes south,
they go home with Ls.
♪♪♪
DeMatha caught 'em sleeping.
46-43, sent them
up the parkway.
♪♪♪
[narrator]
As the years rolled by,
nothing changed
for DeMatha basketball.
It remained a force
to be reckoned with.
♪ dynamic music ♪
On my high school team,
we had five guys make the NBA.
[Jerami]
Our sophomore year,
I was about sixth
or seventh man.
Everybody that year
went D-I.
That's about six pros
on that team.
This is where I learned
how to become a man.
This is where I learned
the beauty of teamwork,
the beauty of being a part
of something bigger
than yourself.
[crowd cheering]
[narrator] The county
hosted the first-ever
high school
all-star basketball game
with a team of local all-stars
facing the best of the best
from the rest of the U.S.
♪ Instrumental music ♪
The first Capital Classic,
the inaugural game,
1974 at the Capital Center,
was in Prince George's County.
[John] That was important.
That was very big
in PG County.
The whole perception
becomes a lot bigger.
The Capital Classic
was something
that you wanted to be
a part of,
the area all-stars
versus the USA all-stars.
The great players
from around the country
would come in and play.
It was something
you marked on your calendar.
[announcer] You take it
to the bucket that strong,
you're gonna be in business.
[announcer] These great stars
played in the Cap Classic:
Magic Johnson,
now with the Lakers,
and of course, Michael Jordan
of the Chicago Bulls,
[Rob]
Being from this area,
being able to play
in that game, meant everything.
You have a national stage
in your backyard.
We're some of the best players
in the world,
and we prove it by beating
the U.S. team
a number of times.
♪♪♪
[Rob] It just really goes
to show you--
I mean, should the DMV
really be able
to hang with a group of guys
that's considered the best
in the country?
[narrator]
The 1982 Capital All-Stars
featured a powerful forward
from PG County's
Northwestern High School.
A co-MVP performance set off
a national recruiting frenzy,
but he stayed in PG County
to play for
the University of Maryland.
His name?
Len Bias.
♪♪♪
[announcer] Nice throw
by Lenny Bias!
[announcer] Lenny Bias
has already signed
with the University
of Maryland to play next year.
He is
a high school all-American.
Here's a guy who--
you know, he went through
Prince George's County
public schools,
played the University
of Maryland.
He was gonna be our first star.
[announcer]
Bias with a rebound.
What a jam.
Lenny Bias was the beast.
[announcer] Bias--in!
Len Bias.
I think it was one
of my first games in the ACC,
and the first play...
...he dunked on me.
[announcer]
Bias with a big jam.
[announcer] Lenny Bias.
He said, "Welcome to the ACC."
I love to dunk.
It's something I did
ever since I was
in junior high school,
and I just keep on doing it.
[Danny] You know, he was just
a different player
than pretty much everyone
out there,
and, uh, I have a ton
of respect for him.
[announcer] Cross-court pass,
and listen to those fans.
Everything with him
was just easy,
like just came natural.
[announcer] Bias.
What a shooter.
It was like--like
the prodigal son here.
♪♪♪
He belonged to everybody.
♪♪♪
Larry Bird said
that if we draft Bias,
he's gonna come up
to the rookie camp.
- [man laughs]
- That's right.
He is very, very high on Bias.
The Boston Celtics
select Len Bias
of the University of Maryland.
[announcer] There he is.
Len Bias.
[man] Interesting.
Your career--
it's been sensational
at the University of Maryland.
Can you look back on that
and just reflect a bit?
[Len] Well, when I look back,
I see, like, a flower.
You know how you plant
a flower,
a tulip or something,
and you put it there
one summer,
and you wait summers
and summers,
it just keep blooming
and blooming?
Each year, I think I've
progressed more and more.
I probably wish I had
one more year
just to progress a little more,
but I don't have any more time.
♪♪♪
[anchorwoman] Len Bias,
the Maryland University
basketball star
on his way to becoming
a world-champion Boston Celtic,
died of
an apparent heart attack today
at Leland Memorial Hospital
in Prince George's County.
Mr. Bias died
of cocaine intoxication.
He had a sensitivity
to cocaine
at this particular level
that affected his heart
and caused a cardiac arrest.
Quite naturally, uh,
the first day,
it was extremely tough
for his, uh--his family.
His mother and father
were completely distraught.
[sobbing]
[Steve]
I can remember driving back
on University Boulevard
on that campus
and just seeing the ambulances
and just seeing the tragedy.
Everybody that I knew
at a young age
was destroyed.
♪ somber music ♪
♪♪♪
[man] Brother James,
being consoled
by the Reverend Jesse Jackson,
was hardest hit.
[wailing]
We needed heroes.
We needed people like Lenny.
♪♪♪
[Keith] I think
that was probably
one of the most tragic things
and impactful things
that happened in this area.
That's like a--
a part of my family
is gone right there.
[narrator] The tragedy
resonated
far beyond PG County.
Within days, Bias,
the can't-miss NBA star,
became a cautionary tale
and an omen of crack cocaine's
looming devastation.
But in Prince George's County,
Len Bias remains
an iconic figure.
It hurt, you know.
You--you lost a legend
in this city,
and you gotta realize,
that was 32 years ago, almost,
and we're still talking
about it,
you know,
and you'll never stop
talking about Len Bias.
[sirens wailing]
♪ tense music ♪
♪♪♪
[Pennington] In the '80s,
cocaine became crack.
It became more
of big business.
[Parris] The crack epidemic--
it was often associated
with income,
and it was major.
We actually called it
the crack wars.
You know, you turn on
the news at night,
and you'd hear, you know,
there's shooting.
There's drug busts.
You know, there's violence.
[Kevin]
Here in our neighborhoods,
you got that--basically zombies
walking around here
to, you know, get their fix,
so it was just like--
that spread around the suburbs
of PG County.
[man] Just say no to drugs.
[Ricky] During the crack years,
I mean, our--
we had no real vision
into what a future
could look like.
We were surviving.
♪ suspenseful music ♪
[Kevin] I was always watching
my back
'cause you was hearing stories
about dudes getting jumped
or somebody
getting shot at.
So you always on the defensive,
even as a kid.
[indistinct chatter]
[sirens passing]
[Steve] Being from this area,
you have to have tough skin.
It's those scary hours
when you're coming
from that basketball court
by yourself,
when you're dribbling
that ball at night
and you gotta walk
by the big boys.
You see the environment
that you're in,
you try and stay away
from that stuff,
but it's just--you're just
immersed in it,
and it is what it is.
[man] Hands behind your back!
That's all you're told to do.
♪♪♪
As a parent,
you got more involved
to make sure your kid
didn't get involved
in those same things.
We wanted to get the young men
off the street, uh,
get them in the gym.
[Mike] Especially in PG County,
I do not believe
that you can
just dismiss or ignore
why the game of basketball
went indoors.
♪♪♪
[man] Basketball was
definitely used as a weapon
to keep you from going
down the wrong tracks.
[Ronnie]
Prince George's County made
a committed decision to invest
in our youth.
We have over 46
community centers.
[Bianca] Prince George's
County Parks and Rec
has done an exceptional job
making sure the quality of life
that we live here
also includes
quality recreation.
♪♪♪
I can remember my gym,
uh, Peppermill Rec,
which was
one of the better rec centers.
[Jeff] I was in
North Brentwood
Community rec center.
Um, that's where the rise
of Jeff Green started
as a basketball player.
[Beverly] Whenever you mention
basketball
and Prince George's County,
you can't leave out
the Boys & Girls Clubs.
[Sweetney] That was all I knew.
I went from my house
to the gyms to the school,
and that's pretty much it.
[Kevin] My mom just wanted me
to get out of the house.
After she bought me
a Grant Hill Pistons jersey,
we went to Seat Pleasant,
and I just got a rec card,
and one of the coaches
in the rec center
took a liking to my game
and my size,
and he put me on the floor,
and it was just natural
after that.
At our rec center,
everybody came there,
no matter if you played ball
or not.
It was just like
a headquarters.
My home court, 100 percent,
would be
the Run N' Shoot gym
in District Heights, Maryland.
♪ upbeat music ♪
♪♪♪
Run N' Shoot
came to town...
you got 20 basketball courts.
Ain't nobody gotta wait
for next.
[Kevin] You walk
in the Run N' Shoot,
yeah, all you see is courts.
Nothing else.
They had food in there,
they had the barber shop
in there,
they had classes in the back,
but it was all about the hoops
in there.
That was the meetup spot,
and that was life
from seventh grade up until...
I was in third, fourth
year in the league.
Know everybody.
Especially when you play
basketball,
one day, you need
an extra quarter
for the soda machine,
and that's how the friendships
and the camaraderie build.
Having that sense of security,
that blanket,
you know,
everybody under the blanket
became family.
[narrator] With youth players
honing their skills
in PG County gyms
and rec centers,
the coaches put together
organized traveling squads
better known as AAU teams.
[onlookers cheering]
AAU is a place where--you know,
that's the big stage...
[man] Oh!
Hey, Q, you made
the tape, baby!
You made the tape!
...where you bring every ounce
of ammo that you have
to these games.
[woman] Let's go!
Let's go!
Get that basket!
Get that [indistinct]
AAU--I think that gave me
a chance to--exposure.
I'm playing against
all those top players
from the different states...
♪♪♪
...and, uh, show why PG's
the best.
[Quinn] We took those games
like it was
national championship games.
I knew, you know,
I could dominate the area,
but if I can go to a tournament
in Florida and dominate,
that gave me more confidence
to keep working
and, uh, you know, AAU kind of,
you know,
took everybody's game
to another level.
[videotape clacking]
[announcer commenting
indistinctly]
I saw Michael Beasley
when he was 12 years old,
playing with Kevin Durant
to go in the AAU game
with the PG Jaguars.
[man] Followed up and in
by Kevin Durant.
PG Jaguars--we was on--
every weekend,
we was in a tournament.
Get to meet
different types of people,
learn about the game
and traveling.
I wasn't traveling
with my mom's.
PG Jaguars was the first time
I've ever--
I have ever been on a bus
and left the city of PG, D.C.
♪♪♪
[Keith] That's where
the exposure really started
for kids in this area.
Where they would
put those kids
in the van or whatever
and take them
all around the country
to get seen.
♪♪♪
[Kevin] I grew up understanding
how important that was
for my growth as a player
and as a person.
I was just out there
at an early age with the team.
♪ light hip-hop music ♪
You know,
that's what kind of crafted,
you know, who we are today.
[Beasley] I used to smooth,
get 30 rebounds a game,
and every rebound,
I passed them up on KD.
KD do the same shit
he doing now
and shoot that bitch from 40.
♪♪♪
[announcer]
Kevin Durant.
I was tunnel vision
at the rim at all times.
♪♪♪
That just turned me
into a bucket getter.
Shit, it was history
after that.
♪♪♪
[announcer] And now, here is
your most valuable player
in the 11 and under tournament,
from the Jaguars,
Kevin Durant.
[Beasley] That's
the first time I realized
Kevin Durant was going
to the NBA.
KD used to call himself KD,
like, before anybody even knew
there was a Kevin Durant
to be called KD.
Man, who the fuck
you think you is?
That just sounds stupid.
"KD.
KD."
As he was saying it,
he was walking
under the flickering light.
In the back,
I'm like, "Dog,
he is actually gonna
make it."
[laughs] I ain't think
he was gonna be as big
as he is today.
[laughs]
That motherfucker, you know?
He was always special.
[announcer] ...The staff.
Durant.
Showtime!
Oh!
That was like a...
a condor flying
through the air.
Once I told my mom
that I loved to play
and I want to do it
as much as possible,
she pushed me to new heights,
you know, and, um--
and then that turned
into seeing this
as a tool for us to get out.
As long as I've been coming
to these tournaments,
there's been a team
from Prince George's here.
We're real proud of them.
They're here every year
because they're disciplined,
and doggone it,
they play great basketball.
Here's your
national champions, PG Jaguars!
[Kevin] Whenever we went
to a tournament out of town,
it was a team from home
either in
the championship game,
or they was winning it,
for sure.
[narrator] PG County's
AAU team showed the strength
of the county's
youth development ecosystem:
skilled players,
top-tier coaches,
supportive parents.
But there was
another influence:
a home-grown style of music
called go-go.
♪ upbeat music ♪
♪♪♪
[Kevin]
Go-go was just like--
pssh, it was huge
around that time.
It had the county rocking,
you know?
Go-go is...
percussion-driven music
with a hip-hop influence.
[Lamann]
If you really listen to it,
it's an amalgamation
of these--
all these different forms
of music
that have come
into this country,
but in particular,
come into this region.
You can hear it,
and that's one thing,
but then going to a go-go
is a totally different
experience.
Being in a go-go--
the energy that's associated
with the go-go is ridiculous.
♪♪♪
[Nolan] I moved to Maryland
when I was eight years old.
Go-go music was foreign to me,
and Beas took me
to my first go-go party.
♪♪♪
Go-go live was basically
a hot room
with a lot of bodies in it,
sweat.
I was, you know,
sitting in the back,
just kind of observing,
standing next to Beas.
He's like,
"It's crazy, huh, Slim?"
Like,
"Yeah, this is different."
Fell in love with it
ever since.
[laughs]
♪♪♪
We used to work out--
that was the rhythm
that we worked out to,
was go-go music.
It became part of our game.
[Beasley] Like, for instance,
how Kevin Durant
and Ty Lawson
can come down and hit you
with that hands-up.
Most of the country
called that hesitation.
We don't.
Get your hands up.
That's, like, reminisces
of go-go music.
[announcer] Cross over
and slam for Durant.
But there's something
about just how this place
forms a different kind
of person.
I mean, I can almost be
anywhere else in the country
around the world.
I can clock somebody.
I, like--I can see them.
I'm like, "Where you from?"
We just always had
our own just way of doing--
our way of living life,
way of talking,
way of playing,
way of being, you know.
♪♪♪
♪ 3ohblack's "All Talk"
playing ♪
♪ White Baby the G.O.A.T. ♪
[narrator] In the 1990s,
the NBA's fortune rose
on the era
of Michael Jordan
and lucrative sneaker deals.
Demand soared
for the next wave
of superstars.
[player] One, two, three, go.
[narrator]
One PG County team emerged
as a major talent pipeline:
D.C. Assault.
[Lou] Here comes D.C. Assault,
another powerhouse AAU squad,
and they kind of took off.
♪♪♪
[Thomas] Everybody was trying
to be like them.
That intensity,
that competitive nature--
that actually made PG County
what it is today...
[all exclaiming]
...which is the best county
in the country.
[Nolan] D.C. Assault
was killers.
[laughs] That's what we had
to do.
That's what we were taught
to do.
And if you put on
a D.C. Assault jersey,
you were representing
something,
and Curtis Malone
always let that be known.
♪ spacey music ♪
[narrator] Curtis Malone
co-founded and ran
D.C. Assault,
an AAU super-squad
founded and based
in PG County.
[man] Curtis did
a great job of helping
the community of basketball
with kids like
DerMarr Johnson,
who had pretty much nothing.
[DerMarr] And he took me
from the streets
and, you know, put me
on his AAU team,
and it was over from there.
Loved to play.
Played in the playground.
That's about it.
But now, I've seen
that I can actually make it.
We practiced wherever we could.
Mostly, it was in PG County,
'cause Curtis
was from Palmer Park.
[Curtis] DerMarr was a talent
that was untouched.
It was like I found
an untapped player.
Academically,
he was struggling,
but the kid had
a great talent,
and I couldn't believe
how high his ceiling was.
Once he came there, it was--
basketball turned
into something
that--that was my life.
♪♪♪
Him being the number one
player in the country
and just watching the media
waving around him
and how he carried himself--
real humble dude.
[man] DerMarr Johnson was
the first guy I seen
at that size, at 6'9",
that could handle the ball
and that could shoot the ball.
[narrator] Under Malone's
development,
Johnson blossomed
into the number one-ranked
high school player
in the country as a senior.
After a year of college,
Johnson became
a first-round NBA draft pick.
The Atlanta Hawks select
DerMarr Johnson,
of the University
of Cincinnati.
[DerMarr] Here I am.
Just turned 20 years old.
I'm having my name called
by David Stern.
At the moment, the thought
was just, "I made it."
[announcer] DerMarr!
I think he changed the game
for a lot of guys,
uh, coming out of--
coming out of PG.
[announcer] Johnson
for a point.
[Sam] Once you see people
in your area make it,
it just kind of create a path
for people to be like,
"If they can do it,
I can do it."
[DerMarr] There is no telling
what my life would've been
without Curtis Malone.
[Curtis] A lot of kids
looked up to me as dad,
and loved me unconditionally.
Whether right or wrong,
you put nothing before family.
♪♪♪
[narrator]
Malone's family ties
extended beyond blood.
For many in PG County,
he was a needed father figure,
a role he filled
for Nolan Smith.
[Nolan] My dad played
in the NBA for nine years,
passed away
when I was eight years old.
On a cruise
with the Washington Bullets
is where he was coaching
at the time.
You know, it impacted
my life a lot
because my dad gave me
the game of basketball,
and, you know, I went--
I went through a stage in life
where, you know, I really
needed a lot of attention.
[narrator] The void
was partially filled
when Malone started
coaching Smith
with D.C. Assault.
The bond grew tighter
when Malone married
Smith's mother, Monica,
in 2005.
[Nolan] He took care
of everybody,
and if he could get somebody
off the streets
and into a gym,
if they were in
a messed-up home,
he'd bring them into his home.
If someone reached out
to Curtis like,
"Hey, I know a kid,
6'9", lefty,
growing up in Belhaven.
He--he needs you,"
Curtis being the guy
that he was,
like, "Yo, I'ma give him
a chance."
And at the time,
Beas was on house arrest.
[laughs]
Curtis talked to his mom.
She agreed,
so then from there,
that's when we became brothers.
[Beasley] When I got
to D.C. Assault was...
...yeah,
that's when I was born.
[Lou] Michael Beasley
was just a--a terror.
He was pretty much unstoppable,
and then his partner in crime,
Nolan Smith--
he could dunk it on you.
He could make
spectacular passes.
He'd make a one-handed pass
like a Magic Johnson-type
pass.
[Beasley]
Me and Nolan got closest
I've ever been to anybody
in my life.
We just started working out,
doing push-ups in the room,
and just play one-on-one
and fight.
The games would never end.
Make sure you get that.
You make sure you get that.
We would end up fighting
and then walking home
mad at each other,
and that right there
pretty much
was our relationship.
You know, he was number one
in the area.
I was number two.
I wanted to be number one.
And I never--I never had
a brother,
so he became that for me.
[narrator]
Another talented prospect,
Quinn Cook,
joined the extended
Malone household
after the passing
of his father.
You know, when I lost
my father,
you know, I started to hang
around the wrong crowds.
I went through
a little rough stage
in my life.
[Nolan] And we went
and sat in the gym,
and I said, "Look, man.
I-I know what
you're going through.
I got you.
Let's use the gym."
We shot and we talked
for hours,
and that's when the gym
became his sanctuary.
♪ Yeah... ♪
[Quinn] I was
the little brother,
and you know, I was cool
because I had relationships
with those guys,
and Curt made sure of that,
and obviously,
when my dad passed,
Curt--you know,
I basically lived with them
for that next year.
[narrator] More than just
a beloved father figure,
Malone became the godfather
of D.C. basketball.
By controlling much
of the local talent pipeline,
he transformed D.C. Assault
into a lucrative enterprise,
including an Adidas deal
for $50,000 a year.
[Nolan] He had all the juice.
Curtis had the juice
to get us,
you know, on the stage
and be seen
and basically get us to where
we ultimately got to,
which was the NBA
and to Duke
and Kansas State,
and Curtis really got us
out to Vegas
and started getting us
to all these big-time
tournaments.
You know, that--
that really changed
the game for us.
[Curtis] What I did
was realize
how the shoe companies
were all looking
for their next Kobe Bryant
and Tracy McGrady.
You know, maybe this is
a business
that I could turn, um,
you know, D.C. Assault into.
He was a marketing genius.
I gotta give it to him.
[Nolan] This game
of basketball's a business,
and at that moment,
we didn't know it,
'cause we were so young.
You know,
it's very unfortunate,
uh, the way things transpired
with, uh, D.C. Assault
and their, uh--their leader,
uh, Curtis Malone.
My first reaction
when I got the call--
uh, it was from my sister.
She's like, "They got Curt."
"What you mean, they got Curt?"
"They got him.
They got him."
I'm like...
"For what?"
[laughs]
Federal agents arrested
Curtis Malone
as a key suspect
in a major drug operation.
[reporter] The DEA alleges
he was also distributing
heroin and cocaine.
On Friday, agents searched
his Upper Marlboro home...
You know,
it was one of them days
where it was like,
not Curt.
Like, couldn't believe it.
But you don't really know why.
You're wondering why.
[Quinn] I lived with Curt
for a year,
and I had no idea
what was going on,
'cause all I saw was
the positive things
that he was doing, the kids
that he took off the street,
the--the gifts
and the presents
and the bills that he paid.
I wish that hadn't happened,
but it did,
But does that tarnish
the type of person that he was
and what he did,
how many people he touched?
No, because he looked out
for the people first.
It hurt,
and people were surprised.
A lot of people
didn't judge him.
[Navarro] I-I ain't really
judge him awful.
You know what I'm saying?
Because I always saw the good
in what he was doing,
and none of that ever came
around the kids.
[Colder] He cared about
the millions of dollars
that he could make
from drug trafficking.
He...
didn't serve as a role model.
It was a false model.
Y'all can say whatever the fuck
y'all want about him.
Y'all can talk dirt.
He always the had
the kids first, man.
He always--he always put
the kids first.
He always fed the kids
before he ate.
[phone system]
...A prepaid call.
This call is from...
[Curtis] Curtis Malone.
[phone system] An inmate
at...a federal prison.
[Curtis] I try to capitalize
on the mistakes
that I have made
which, um--it caused me
so much embarrassment, man,
because I'm preaching
to these kids
not to do one thing,
but I'm doing another,
and it was just, you know--
it was my ego,
my pride, um, my greed.
♪ somber music ♪
[Nolan]
I know who he really is:
the person that would give
his shirt off his back
to a kid,
that would do anything
to get these kids
scholarships,
but then that other side,
the evil side
that did what...he felt
like he might have had to do?
I can't quite put my hands
around that side,
'cause I don't think
that's who he is.
[narrator]
Malone's felony conviction
stunned the community
and attracted national press,
but the sustainability
of PG County hoops
never belonged
to one individual.
The county's ecosystem
remained strong.
♪ MF Doom's "One Beer"
playing ♪
♪ There's only one beer left,
Rappers screaming... ♪
[Quinn] The thing that makes
PG County so unique
is that the guy that you want
to be like is bringing you up.
The D-I players
and NBA players--
they bring you up,
'cause they know
what they had to go through
to make it,
and we all want
to see each other win,
so that's why we're all
extremely close.
♪♪♪
[announcer] It's just
a great story
with Oladipo and Quinn Cook
and then the mentorship
of the older
of the Maryland guys
and Kevin Durant.
♪ synth music ♪
KD has always been
a big brother to me,
somebody, um, that I've always,
you know, reached out to
for anything,
and he's reached out to me,
just making sure
I was okay.
He's always been there for me.
[man] Takes a long time
to get really good
at playing basketball,
and a lot of those guys
grind it out for a while.
Quinn Cook, the same way.
Every kid dreams
of getting drafted.
Like, I knew
I was gonna wear...
I knew what I was gonna do
as soon as I heard
my name called.
The Charlotte Hornets
select...
The Miami Heats select...
Indiana Pacers select...
[Quinn] But it never happened.
♪ dramatic music ♪
I felt sorry for myself
for about two minutes.
When he didn't get drafted,
you know, everybody knew
he was gonna be all right,
because that's
the type of player he is.
[Thomas] It's
the cliché term of
"you can do anything
you put your mind to,"
but Quinn is
the perfect definition of it.
♪ gentle music ♪
He had plenty of people
in his ear
telling him his best route
was going overseas,
trying to get money,
but Quinn had a dream.
[announcer] Back to Cook.
Left wing, three.
Ball!
He tied the ball game!
[Thomas] He earned his stripes
in the D league.
He did what it took.
So with that story,
it's just
an amazing accomplishment
and a blessing.
[announcer] On the floor, Cook.
Oh!
[announcer] That is not
an easy shot.
- [announcer] He knows it.
- [announcer] Yeah.
[Kevin] He's never stopped
working, man.
That's what I tell people.
Look at Quinn.
[announcer] Three by Quinn!
You know, 'cause he called me
when he didn't get drafted.
It was his--he was crying
'cause he didn't get drafted.
And I'm like,
"Bro, you got talent.
Just keep working.
Never stop."
♪♪♪
'Sup, y'all?
This Quinn Cook,
Started in the G League,
ended up NBA champion.
Always believe in yourself.
Don't let anybody tell you
you can't do
whatever you want to do.
You know, definitely,
I'm just proud, uh,
coming from where
we come from.
Uh, you look at the odds...
It's under one percent
of a person in here
that's gonna make it
to the NBA,
and I told myself--I said,
"I'ma be the one percent,
then."
You know, I had guys to look up
to who made it,
so we put our goals to action,
our plans to action,
and we got it done.
And I don't believe
in those percentages
or none of that stuff.
Everybody in Seat Pleasant,
everybody in PG County,
Maryland,
y'all be riding with me.
Feels good to see him come
full circle, man.
It's great to see, man,
'cause everybody's chasing
their dreams
of, you know, playing
on the biggest stage.
[Bobby] To see guys
that I grew up with
make it so far--
it made it on the lines
of "You just keep going,
then you can make it."
♪♪♪
Never forget the year
he won MVP,
and he said to his mom...
The odds were stacked
against us.
Single parent with two boys.
You made us believe.
You kept us off the street.
You put clothes on our backs,
food on the table.
When you didn't eat,
you made sure we ate.
You went to sleep hungry.
You sacrificed for us.
[sniffs]
You the real MVP.
[applause]
♪ pensive music ♪
♪♪♪
I get a little choked up
when I rem--I say this,
because I was so...happy
that he said,
you know, that his mother
was the real MVP,
because I felt that
you know, for all the women
who tried to raise their kids,
especially single moms.
When he said that,
if I could've hugged
that young man, you know...
I said, "Thank you
for saying that
about your mom."
[MC] And the NBA 2018
Most Improved Player is...
- Victor Oladipo.
- Oladipo.
♪♪♪
[Victor] My family's
sacrificed so much for me.
I used to come here and try
to work out every day
at 6:00 a.m.,
before school started.
Shout-out to my father, Chris,
my mother, Joan,
my three sisters, Victoria,
Kendra, and Christine.
I always say you guys
are my before,
my now, and my after.
You guys are my everything.
♪♪♪
And I remember those mornings
used to be so tough.
I remember looking
at my sisters' faces
and them sleeping in a car
getting to their schools
before the janitor
even got there.
My mom used to have to wait,
um...go to work all day
and then wait after practice,
go home, get four hours
of sleep,
and then have to work
night shifts
because I had a dream.
At the end of the day,
that's why I play this game.
I play it for them.
They sacrificed so much for me,
I had to do something.
♪♪♪
[Ricky] If we're gonna
continue to be
the county known
for basketball,
we have to continue
to give back the same way
the game has given us so much.
[Kevin] I think we in
the basketball community--
like, when we combining--
and we always build
relationships with each other
and combine resources
and do things like this,
we're pushing our community
and our culture forward.
[narrator] In 2019,
Kevin Durant opened
the Durant Center
in his hometown
of Suitland, Maryland.
The state-of-the-art,
$13 million facility
provides academic, financial,
and social resources
to youth
from low-income backgrounds.
The county is good
at saying to its residents
in very many ways
through each, uh--each decade
or each generation,
"No matter what we're
going through, I got you."
[John] Guys like Kevin
and them--
these guys are now saying,
"Okay,
I understand the significance
of my ability
to play basketball.
I'm gonna use that
to influence a kid
who might not have
my ability to play it
to do other things
or to aspire to be successful,"
and I'm as proud as I can be
to see
that they're doing that.
[Kevin] It might have our name
on the side of the building,
but it's your home,
so enjoy it,
make it yours,
and the future starts here.
[Brown] In any facet
of society,
whether you're talking
education,
whether you're talking
business,
there are those
who've come before us
upon whose shoulders we stand.
[announcer] Rumson!
[Bianca] For all the work
that each generation did,
decade by decade
by decade,
it fed our ambition
and our dreams and our hopes.
[Victor]
It's just gonna continue
to keep being like that,
because we live
and breathe it here.
Prince George's packs
a lot of power,
a lot of character.
We take pride in--
in being from this county.
[man] I carry PG
like a badge of honor.
[Navarro] It comes back
to this hunger
and this commitment.
We are
from Prince George's County.
We are not playing with nobody.
[Victor] I never forget
where I come from.
I wouldn't be who I am
without DeMatha.
I wouldn't be who I am
without PG County.
At the end of the day,
this is home.
[man] Love, sweat, and tears
have all shaped
the generational legacy
of PG County basketball,
but folks from the county know
there's still a mysterious
essence
hard to explain.
[man]
I don't know, man.
It's just in the water.
♪ spacey music ♪
♪ energetic hip-hop music ♪
♪ Hey, hey ♪
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Hey, yeah ♪
♪ Hey, yeah ♪
♪ Hey, yeah ♪
♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
[bright tone]
[Kevin Durant]
I come from a small county
outside of Washington, D.C.,
called PG County.
♪♪♪
♪ Blow your mind ♪
[man] There's always been
great players...
[announcer] Head
to Jeff Green. Oh--
[announcers overlapping]
[man] ...from
Prince George's County.
[announcer]
What a finish for KD!
[man] Players
from Prince George's County--
they can fill it up.
PG County guys
provide wet buckets
for America.
- [announcer] Here's Beasley.
- [announcer] Beasley!
[announcer] Jeff Green!
[man] You can come here
and get ate up,
or you can eat
and become successful.
[announcer]
Oladipo pounds it down!
[overlaid announcers]
With the ninth pick...
With the fifth...
With the second pick...
The Miami Heat...
The Seattle SuperSonics...
The Philadelphia '76ers
select Markelle Fultz,
Victor Oladipo,
Michael Beasley,
Kevin Durant.
[announcer] Durant finishes
with a left hand.
Almost every other NBA game,
there's somebody
that I'm playing against
that's from PG County.
Always like, "Oh, you know
he from home?"
Like, "Damn, him too?"
I just love
to see that, you know.
[Nolan] We were friends.
We were enemies.
Basketball, to this county,
means everything.
It's just something
about the water we drink.
It gotta be in the water.
It's just in the water.
This is what we do.
[announcer] Durant!
♪♪♪
♪ soft music ♪
[Jerai] If somebody asked me
where's
Prince George's County,
it's the heart of Maryland.
♪♪♪
Not to get too metaphorical
or whatever,
but it's this heartbeat.
♪ hip-hop music ♪
[narrator] Bordering
the nation's capital,
Prince George's County,
once home
to tobacco plantations,
is divided into two zones
by I-495,
locally known
as the Capital Beltway.
The outer Beltway holds
some of the richest
black-majority towns
in the nation,
while many inner
Beltway communities
face high rates
of poverty and crime.
But the obsession that unifies
this Maryland county
is basketball.
The shared passion, style,
and success is undeniable.
Ask anyone from the county.
They'll let you know.
[Marissa] It's the Mecca
of basketball.
Wherever you go, you mention
Prince George's County,
people--people know
what it's about.
♪♪♪
Basketball's always bouncing
in--in PG County.
[Beasley] First time
I touched a basketball,
Hilltop Gardens.
I-I must have been
like three years old.
First thing I remember:
I'm lookin' up...
...and I couldn't get the ball
to the basket.
Like...I tried
all fucking day...
...just throwing it,
throwing it, until finally
I threw it like this
and finally made one.
♪ Perhaps the most
famous classic ♪
It's been
the only thing in my life
these 30 years
that's consistent.
Once I committed
to playing basketball
and wanting to play basketball
for, like, forever--
I was, like, nine--
it was like breathing.
[Beasley] Ever since we've
been playing basketball,
me and KD
been best friends.
If I'm on Branch Avenue
and I hear about a game
down in Farm,
I'ma call KD,
who's all the way up in
Marlboro at the time...
♪ heavy music ♪
♪♪♪
[players shouting,
whistle blows]
[onlooker]
Oh, my goodness!
[Beasley] Became a norm
to where--just hoop
every three, four times a day.
It go from that to this...
[announcer] Here is Durant
- [buzzer]
- for the win!
Kevin Durant
has won it at the buzzer!
[narrator] Since 2000,
over 30 NBA players,
multiple WNBA stars,
and hundreds
of Division I college players
have come from PG County.
The seeds were planted
over a century ago
in nearby Washington, D.C.,
where African-Americans
first learned,
then transformed
the art of basketball.
♪♪♪
[McAdams]
This area was the first
to master
the game of basketball,
thanks to Dr. Edwin
Bancroft Henderson,
the first black
physical educator
in the nation.
[narrator] Edwin B. Henderson
hoped basketball
would boost college access
and social mobility
for black youth.
The so-called
Father of Black Basketball
had learned the sport
from its creator,
James Naismith,
while attending
a Harvard University
sports and recreation program
in 1904.
[McAdams] Henderson brought
the game back to D.C.,
went to the black Y,
which is known
as the historic 12th Street Y,
and that was the venue
of basketball
in Washington, D.C.,
as it pertains
to African-Americans.
♪♪♪
[Pennington] He thought
if we had an athletic skill,
we could utilize that
to get into good white schools
in America.
A lot of racism
goes out the window
when you're competing
with your white counterpart
to win games.
[McAdams]
D.C. had a leg up
because of Dr. Henderson.
The fundamentals
and the proper way
to play the game
were taught to the youngsters
in Washington, D.C.
[narrator] Henderson's players
won championships.
Some even changed the world,
like Charles Drew,
who later created
the world's first blood bank
as a trailblazing physician,
and Edward Duke Ellington,
the composer who'd go on
to redefine American music.
Though legal segregation
prevailed
in the nation's capital,
D.C.'s black community
built a thriving city
within a city,
anchored by institutions
like Howard University
and the U Street
business corridor.
This relative stability
was shattered in 1968
by a tragedy
that shook the nation.
[Robert Kennedy]
I have some very sad news
for all of you...
...and I think sad news for
all of our fellow citizens...
...and people who love peace
all over the world...
♪ dramatic music ♪
...and that is that
Martin Luther King
was shot
and was killed tonight
in Memphis, Tennessee.
[crowd exclaims]
[narrator] In the wake
of Martin Luther King's
assassination,
Washington, D.C., erupted.
The riots would claim
a dozen lives,
destroy countless businesses,
and spark an exodus
of middle-class
African-Americans to suburban
Prince George's County.
♪ disquieting music ♪
♪♪♪
Each generation
wants a better life
for a subsequent generation,
and during that time,
the opportunity
was in
the Prince George's County.
[Brown] Many African-Americans
were moving into the county,
and one of the offshoots
of that
is that you had a number
of young kids
who were
excellent basketball players
now starting to go
to the county schools.
[narrator] From D.C.,
they brought skill
and deep knowledge
of the game.
They also found
an ideal environment
for hoops,
a county with one of the
nation's best park systems.
Prince George's County
has over 400 parks,
and in most of those parks,
you have basketball courts,
and you can get out there
and play,
and you can raise
that level of play
based upon the competition
that you receive
within those communities.
[Kevin] Every summer,
just about every day,
you know,
we was playing outdoors
on that blacktop.
As soon as I woke up,
I was going downstairs
and going to the court
across the street
from my apartment building.
We got that competition
early on.
It was very competitive.
For me, it was a young kid
walking on the court
with a bunch of grown men.
And you had to go in there
and prove to the older adults
that we belong on this court.
[overlapping chatter]
You could virtually ride
in--in the neighborhoods,
and any basketball court
in many neighborhoods
would be packed.
[Steve] I love basketball
so much.
It was like an amusement park,
'cause you could learn
something
every single day from somebody.
[Adrian] First of all, you'd
better get into court early.
If you're not there at 9:00,
you might not play
until 11:00,
and if you lost a game,
you might as well go home.
If we were playing
and it got too dark,
there were no lights.
Guys that drove
would turn their headlights on
so we could finish a game.
[people talking indistinctly]
And so if you lose,
and you--
and you're not good,
you know, they might say
you're not playing no more.
[Walt] So that sense
of urgency,
you know, was always there.
[Mike] You fought
to the death, almost.
I mean,
there was definitely blood.
Game point was gonna take
15, 20 minutes.
Like, you were gonna get
fouled.
[Jeff] The county definitely
gives you a tough edge.
Fighting to hold your spot,
being able to stay on the court
with a bunch of grown men
and holding your own--
I mean, everybody will say
that's everywhere,
but for us,
we lived by that.
♪ dramatic music ♪
If PG County
was a basketball player,
he'd be tough...
[announcer]
Here is Lawson for the win!
Ty Lawson, game winner!
[Jerai] ...be gritty...
[announcer] Mismatch
with Jordan, cross over,
Jack jumper...
[announcer] He's got it!
One point, three to play.
[Jerai] ...a student
of the game.
[announcer] Picks him up
on the switch.
- Shot clock at five.
- [crowd] Defense!
Kevin Durant way outside.
Delivers!
Kevin Durant from downtown!
♪♪♪
[Beasley] That competitive
edge right there, just--
it's nothing that you can do
to stop this.
Like, this ass-whooping
gonna come.
[announcer] 4.7 seconds.
Villanova trying to go
the length of the court
with Arcidiacono.
Three seconds at midcourt.
Gives it to Jenkins
for the championship!
I've shot
those same exact shots
hundreds of thousands
of times.
I--it's hard to count.
♪ light music ♪
[Nate] And what I knew was,
everyone at home
and everyone that knows Kris
knows this game was over.
♪♪♪
[announcer] Jenkins...
♪♪♪
Kris Jenkins is gonna live
the rest of his life
as a folk hero.
[Kris] I don't think
it's no secret
as to why we have
hundreds of kids in college
and in the NCAA tournament
every year
from this area
playing basketball.
[Brenda] I recruit
all over the country.
The players in PG County
are second to none.
[announcer]
And this has turned
into the kind of a game
we expected all night.
Jump shot is good
by Coleman!
We produce the best
men's basketball players
in the country
in Prince George's County,
so playing against those guys
growing up--
it's only gonna elevate
my game.
[Brenda] You know,
those players have
the toughness, the grit,
um, and all the intangibles
to help you win.
[all cheering]
[chatter, ball bouncing]
[narrator] In 1956,
DeMatha Catholic High School
hired a young history teacher
as its basketball coach.
Under Morgan Wootten,
DeMatha would create
a powerful and enduring
PG County institution.
We have here
Morgan Wootten,
the coach
of DeMatha High School.
Greatest coach
probably in the history
of high school basketball.
[McAdams]
Morgan comes to DeMatha,
and he decided,
"I'm gonna play
the best players
I can get ahold of.
I don't care
if they're black or white.
I'm playing the best players."
[coach] All right, fellas.
Machine gun drill.
Let's go.
Get 'em on.
[man] Every player
in the last 15 years
that has been a senior
at DeMatha High School
has won a college scholarship.
You have players who believe
that they can change their life
by playing basketball.
♪♪♪
Of course
he's gonna influence,
because if you're
a black person
growing up in the '50s
or '60s,
and you want to better
your life,
you do that through sports,
and sports gets you,
you know, a college education.
[man] You talk
about a winning tradition.
517 wins, 75 losses.
He treated us with dignity,
and you had so much respect
and love for Coach Wootten,
you never wanted
to let him down.
[Adrian] When I was
in middle school,
I said to myself,
"Hey, I want to go to DeMatha.
I wanna play for Coach Wooten."
[narrator]
DeMatha made a big leap
from regional power
to elite national program
back in 1965
when it faced Power Memorial,
a New York team
considered invincible.
I don't think
that I am engaging in hyperbole
when I talk
about the significance
to PG County
when DeMatha High School
hosted the biggest
high school basketball game
at that time
against Power Memorial
High School
from New York City,
that had a 7'1" ball player
on their team
then known by the name
of Lew Alcindor,
also known
as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Power Memorial High School
was on a 71-game win streak.
They were phenomenal.
We'd won about 30-some
in a row.
Our last loss had been to Power
the year before,
when Kareem was a junior.
But now here he was a senior,
never having been beaten
in high school.
[Brown] 12,500 packed
into that arena.
♪♪♪
[Morgan] Time Magazine
was there,
and Newsweek was there,
the TV stations were there,
radio, and so on.
And so for the first time,
here's a high school game
that's getting
national attention.
♪ slow hip-hop instrumental ♪
[Pennington]
I like to say this
for all the cats
who love New York City.
I love your city,
but when New York City
comes south,
they go home with Ls.
♪♪♪
DeMatha caught 'em sleeping.
46-43, sent them
up the parkway.
♪♪♪
[narrator]
As the years rolled by,
nothing changed
for DeMatha basketball.
It remained a force
to be reckoned with.
♪ dynamic music ♪
On my high school team,
we had five guys make the NBA.
[Jerami]
Our sophomore year,
I was about sixth
or seventh man.
Everybody that year
went D-I.
That's about six pros
on that team.
This is where I learned
how to become a man.
This is where I learned
the beauty of teamwork,
the beauty of being a part
of something bigger
than yourself.
[crowd cheering]
[narrator] The county
hosted the first-ever
high school
all-star basketball game
with a team of local all-stars
facing the best of the best
from the rest of the U.S.
♪ Instrumental music ♪
The first Capital Classic,
the inaugural game,
1974 at the Capital Center,
was in Prince George's County.
[John] That was important.
That was very big
in PG County.
The whole perception
becomes a lot bigger.
The Capital Classic
was something
that you wanted to be
a part of,
the area all-stars
versus the USA all-stars.
The great players
from around the country
would come in and play.
It was something
you marked on your calendar.
[announcer] You take it
to the bucket that strong,
you're gonna be in business.
[announcer] These great stars
played in the Cap Classic:
Magic Johnson,
now with the Lakers,
and of course, Michael Jordan
of the Chicago Bulls,
[Rob]
Being from this area,
being able to play
in that game, meant everything.
You have a national stage
in your backyard.
We're some of the best players
in the world,
and we prove it by beating
the U.S. team
a number of times.
♪♪♪
[Rob] It just really goes
to show you--
I mean, should the DMV
really be able
to hang with a group of guys
that's considered the best
in the country?
[narrator]
The 1982 Capital All-Stars
featured a powerful forward
from PG County's
Northwestern High School.
A co-MVP performance set off
a national recruiting frenzy,
but he stayed in PG County
to play for
the University of Maryland.
His name?
Len Bias.
♪♪♪
[announcer] Nice throw
by Lenny Bias!
[announcer] Lenny Bias
has already signed
with the University
of Maryland to play next year.
He is
a high school all-American.
Here's a guy who--
you know, he went through
Prince George's County
public schools,
played the University
of Maryland.
He was gonna be our first star.
[announcer]
Bias with a rebound.
What a jam.
Lenny Bias was the beast.
[announcer] Bias--in!
Len Bias.
I think it was one
of my first games in the ACC,
and the first play...
...he dunked on me.
[announcer]
Bias with a big jam.
[announcer] Lenny Bias.
He said, "Welcome to the ACC."
I love to dunk.
It's something I did
ever since I was
in junior high school,
and I just keep on doing it.
[Danny] You know, he was just
a different player
than pretty much everyone
out there,
and, uh, I have a ton
of respect for him.
[announcer] Cross-court pass,
and listen to those fans.
Everything with him
was just easy,
like just came natural.
[announcer] Bias.
What a shooter.
It was like--like
the prodigal son here.
♪♪♪
He belonged to everybody.
♪♪♪
Larry Bird said
that if we draft Bias,
he's gonna come up
to the rookie camp.
- [man laughs]
- That's right.
He is very, very high on Bias.
The Boston Celtics
select Len Bias
of the University of Maryland.
[announcer] There he is.
Len Bias.
[man] Interesting.
Your career--
it's been sensational
at the University of Maryland.
Can you look back on that
and just reflect a bit?
[Len] Well, when I look back,
I see, like, a flower.
You know how you plant
a flower,
a tulip or something,
and you put it there
one summer,
and you wait summers
and summers,
it just keep blooming
and blooming?
Each year, I think I've
progressed more and more.
I probably wish I had
one more year
just to progress a little more,
but I don't have any more time.
♪♪♪
[anchorwoman] Len Bias,
the Maryland University
basketball star
on his way to becoming
a world-champion Boston Celtic,
died of
an apparent heart attack today
at Leland Memorial Hospital
in Prince George's County.
Mr. Bias died
of cocaine intoxication.
He had a sensitivity
to cocaine
at this particular level
that affected his heart
and caused a cardiac arrest.
Quite naturally, uh,
the first day,
it was extremely tough
for his, uh--his family.
His mother and father
were completely distraught.
[sobbing]
[Steve]
I can remember driving back
on University Boulevard
on that campus
and just seeing the ambulances
and just seeing the tragedy.
Everybody that I knew
at a young age
was destroyed.
♪ somber music ♪
♪♪♪
[man] Brother James,
being consoled
by the Reverend Jesse Jackson,
was hardest hit.
[wailing]
We needed heroes.
We needed people like Lenny.
♪♪♪
[Keith] I think
that was probably
one of the most tragic things
and impactful things
that happened in this area.
That's like a--
a part of my family
is gone right there.
[narrator] The tragedy
resonated
far beyond PG County.
Within days, Bias,
the can't-miss NBA star,
became a cautionary tale
and an omen of crack cocaine's
looming devastation.
But in Prince George's County,
Len Bias remains
an iconic figure.
It hurt, you know.
You--you lost a legend
in this city,
and you gotta realize,
that was 32 years ago, almost,
and we're still talking
about it,
you know,
and you'll never stop
talking about Len Bias.
[sirens wailing]
♪ tense music ♪
♪♪♪
[Pennington] In the '80s,
cocaine became crack.
It became more
of big business.
[Parris] The crack epidemic--
it was often associated
with income,
and it was major.
We actually called it
the crack wars.
You know, you turn on
the news at night,
and you'd hear, you know,
there's shooting.
There's drug busts.
You know, there's violence.
[Kevin]
Here in our neighborhoods,
you got that--basically zombies
walking around here
to, you know, get their fix,
so it was just like--
that spread around the suburbs
of PG County.
[man] Just say no to drugs.
[Ricky] During the crack years,
I mean, our--
we had no real vision
into what a future
could look like.
We were surviving.
♪ suspenseful music ♪
[Kevin] I was always watching
my back
'cause you was hearing stories
about dudes getting jumped
or somebody
getting shot at.
So you always on the defensive,
even as a kid.
[indistinct chatter]
[sirens passing]
[Steve] Being from this area,
you have to have tough skin.
It's those scary hours
when you're coming
from that basketball court
by yourself,
when you're dribbling
that ball at night
and you gotta walk
by the big boys.
You see the environment
that you're in,
you try and stay away
from that stuff,
but it's just--you're just
immersed in it,
and it is what it is.
[man] Hands behind your back!
That's all you're told to do.
♪♪♪
As a parent,
you got more involved
to make sure your kid
didn't get involved
in those same things.
We wanted to get the young men
off the street, uh,
get them in the gym.
[Mike] Especially in PG County,
I do not believe
that you can
just dismiss or ignore
why the game of basketball
went indoors.
♪♪♪
[man] Basketball was
definitely used as a weapon
to keep you from going
down the wrong tracks.
[Ronnie]
Prince George's County made
a committed decision to invest
in our youth.
We have over 46
community centers.
[Bianca] Prince George's
County Parks and Rec
has done an exceptional job
making sure the quality of life
that we live here
also includes
quality recreation.
♪♪♪
I can remember my gym,
uh, Peppermill Rec,
which was
one of the better rec centers.
[Jeff] I was in
North Brentwood
Community rec center.
Um, that's where the rise
of Jeff Green started
as a basketball player.
[Beverly] Whenever you mention
basketball
and Prince George's County,
you can't leave out
the Boys & Girls Clubs.
[Sweetney] That was all I knew.
I went from my house
to the gyms to the school,
and that's pretty much it.
[Kevin] My mom just wanted me
to get out of the house.
After she bought me
a Grant Hill Pistons jersey,
we went to Seat Pleasant,
and I just got a rec card,
and one of the coaches
in the rec center
took a liking to my game
and my size,
and he put me on the floor,
and it was just natural
after that.
At our rec center,
everybody came there,
no matter if you played ball
or not.
It was just like
a headquarters.
My home court, 100 percent,
would be
the Run N' Shoot gym
in District Heights, Maryland.
♪ upbeat music ♪
♪♪♪
Run N' Shoot
came to town...
you got 20 basketball courts.
Ain't nobody gotta wait
for next.
[Kevin] You walk
in the Run N' Shoot,
yeah, all you see is courts.
Nothing else.
They had food in there,
they had the barber shop
in there,
they had classes in the back,
but it was all about the hoops
in there.
That was the meetup spot,
and that was life
from seventh grade up until...
I was in third, fourth
year in the league.
Know everybody.
Especially when you play
basketball,
one day, you need
an extra quarter
for the soda machine,
and that's how the friendships
and the camaraderie build.
Having that sense of security,
that blanket,
you know,
everybody under the blanket
became family.
[narrator] With youth players
honing their skills
in PG County gyms
and rec centers,
the coaches put together
organized traveling squads
better known as AAU teams.
[onlookers cheering]
AAU is a place where--you know,
that's the big stage...
[man] Oh!
Hey, Q, you made
the tape, baby!
You made the tape!
...where you bring every ounce
of ammo that you have
to these games.
[woman] Let's go!
Let's go!
Get that basket!
Get that [indistinct]
AAU--I think that gave me
a chance to--exposure.
I'm playing against
all those top players
from the different states...
♪♪♪
...and, uh, show why PG's
the best.
[Quinn] We took those games
like it was
national championship games.
I knew, you know,
I could dominate the area,
but if I can go to a tournament
in Florida and dominate,
that gave me more confidence
to keep working
and, uh, you know, AAU kind of,
you know,
took everybody's game
to another level.
[videotape clacking]
[announcer commenting
indistinctly]
I saw Michael Beasley
when he was 12 years old,
playing with Kevin Durant
to go in the AAU game
with the PG Jaguars.
[man] Followed up and in
by Kevin Durant.
PG Jaguars--we was on--
every weekend,
we was in a tournament.
Get to meet
different types of people,
learn about the game
and traveling.
I wasn't traveling
with my mom's.
PG Jaguars was the first time
I've ever--
I have ever been on a bus
and left the city of PG, D.C.
♪♪♪
[Keith] That's where
the exposure really started
for kids in this area.
Where they would
put those kids
in the van or whatever
and take them
all around the country
to get seen.
♪♪♪
[Kevin] I grew up understanding
how important that was
for my growth as a player
and as a person.
I was just out there
at an early age with the team.
♪ light hip-hop music ♪
You know,
that's what kind of crafted,
you know, who we are today.
[Beasley] I used to smooth,
get 30 rebounds a game,
and every rebound,
I passed them up on KD.
KD do the same shit
he doing now
and shoot that bitch from 40.
♪♪♪
[announcer]
Kevin Durant.
I was tunnel vision
at the rim at all times.
♪♪♪
That just turned me
into a bucket getter.
Shit, it was history
after that.
♪♪♪
[announcer] And now, here is
your most valuable player
in the 11 and under tournament,
from the Jaguars,
Kevin Durant.
[Beasley] That's
the first time I realized
Kevin Durant was going
to the NBA.
KD used to call himself KD,
like, before anybody even knew
there was a Kevin Durant
to be called KD.
Man, who the fuck
you think you is?
That just sounds stupid.
"KD.
KD."
As he was saying it,
he was walking
under the flickering light.
In the back,
I'm like, "Dog,
he is actually gonna
make it."
[laughs] I ain't think
he was gonna be as big
as he is today.
[laughs]
That motherfucker, you know?
He was always special.
[announcer] ...The staff.
Durant.
Showtime!
Oh!
That was like a...
a condor flying
through the air.
Once I told my mom
that I loved to play
and I want to do it
as much as possible,
she pushed me to new heights,
you know, and, um--
and then that turned
into seeing this
as a tool for us to get out.
As long as I've been coming
to these tournaments,
there's been a team
from Prince George's here.
We're real proud of them.
They're here every year
because they're disciplined,
and doggone it,
they play great basketball.
Here's your
national champions, PG Jaguars!
[Kevin] Whenever we went
to a tournament out of town,
it was a team from home
either in
the championship game,
or they was winning it,
for sure.
[narrator] PG County's
AAU team showed the strength
of the county's
youth development ecosystem:
skilled players,
top-tier coaches,
supportive parents.
But there was
another influence:
a home-grown style of music
called go-go.
♪ upbeat music ♪
♪♪♪
[Kevin]
Go-go was just like--
pssh, it was huge
around that time.
It had the county rocking,
you know?
Go-go is...
percussion-driven music
with a hip-hop influence.
[Lamann]
If you really listen to it,
it's an amalgamation
of these--
all these different forms
of music
that have come
into this country,
but in particular,
come into this region.
You can hear it,
and that's one thing,
but then going to a go-go
is a totally different
experience.
Being in a go-go--
the energy that's associated
with the go-go is ridiculous.
♪♪♪
[Nolan] I moved to Maryland
when I was eight years old.
Go-go music was foreign to me,
and Beas took me
to my first go-go party.
♪♪♪
Go-go live was basically
a hot room
with a lot of bodies in it,
sweat.
I was, you know,
sitting in the back,
just kind of observing,
standing next to Beas.
He's like,
"It's crazy, huh, Slim?"
Like,
"Yeah, this is different."
Fell in love with it
ever since.
[laughs]
♪♪♪
We used to work out--
that was the rhythm
that we worked out to,
was go-go music.
It became part of our game.
[Beasley] Like, for instance,
how Kevin Durant
and Ty Lawson
can come down and hit you
with that hands-up.
Most of the country
called that hesitation.
We don't.
Get your hands up.
That's, like, reminisces
of go-go music.
[announcer] Cross over
and slam for Durant.
But there's something
about just how this place
forms a different kind
of person.
I mean, I can almost be
anywhere else in the country
around the world.
I can clock somebody.
I, like--I can see them.
I'm like, "Where you from?"
We just always had
our own just way of doing--
our way of living life,
way of talking,
way of playing,
way of being, you know.
♪♪♪
♪ 3ohblack's "All Talk"
playing ♪
♪ White Baby the G.O.A.T. ♪
[narrator] In the 1990s,
the NBA's fortune rose
on the era
of Michael Jordan
and lucrative sneaker deals.
Demand soared
for the next wave
of superstars.
[player] One, two, three, go.
[narrator]
One PG County team emerged
as a major talent pipeline:
D.C. Assault.
[Lou] Here comes D.C. Assault,
another powerhouse AAU squad,
and they kind of took off.
♪♪♪
[Thomas] Everybody was trying
to be like them.
That intensity,
that competitive nature--
that actually made PG County
what it is today...
[all exclaiming]
...which is the best county
in the country.
[Nolan] D.C. Assault
was killers.
[laughs] That's what we had
to do.
That's what we were taught
to do.
And if you put on
a D.C. Assault jersey,
you were representing
something,
and Curtis Malone
always let that be known.
♪ spacey music ♪
[narrator] Curtis Malone
co-founded and ran
D.C. Assault,
an AAU super-squad
founded and based
in PG County.
[man] Curtis did
a great job of helping
the community of basketball
with kids like
DerMarr Johnson,
who had pretty much nothing.
[DerMarr] And he took me
from the streets
and, you know, put me
on his AAU team,
and it was over from there.
Loved to play.
Played in the playground.
That's about it.
But now, I've seen
that I can actually make it.
We practiced wherever we could.
Mostly, it was in PG County,
'cause Curtis
was from Palmer Park.
[Curtis] DerMarr was a talent
that was untouched.
It was like I found
an untapped player.
Academically,
he was struggling,
but the kid had
a great talent,
and I couldn't believe
how high his ceiling was.
Once he came there, it was--
basketball turned
into something
that--that was my life.
♪♪♪
Him being the number one
player in the country
and just watching the media
waving around him
and how he carried himself--
real humble dude.
[man] DerMarr Johnson was
the first guy I seen
at that size, at 6'9",
that could handle the ball
and that could shoot the ball.
[narrator] Under Malone's
development,
Johnson blossomed
into the number one-ranked
high school player
in the country as a senior.
After a year of college,
Johnson became
a first-round NBA draft pick.
The Atlanta Hawks select
DerMarr Johnson,
of the University
of Cincinnati.
[DerMarr] Here I am.
Just turned 20 years old.
I'm having my name called
by David Stern.
At the moment, the thought
was just, "I made it."
[announcer] DerMarr!
I think he changed the game
for a lot of guys,
uh, coming out of--
coming out of PG.
[announcer] Johnson
for a point.
[Sam] Once you see people
in your area make it,
it just kind of create a path
for people to be like,
"If they can do it,
I can do it."
[DerMarr] There is no telling
what my life would've been
without Curtis Malone.
[Curtis] A lot of kids
looked up to me as dad,
and loved me unconditionally.
Whether right or wrong,
you put nothing before family.
♪♪♪
[narrator]
Malone's family ties
extended beyond blood.
For many in PG County,
he was a needed father figure,
a role he filled
for Nolan Smith.
[Nolan] My dad played
in the NBA for nine years,
passed away
when I was eight years old.
On a cruise
with the Washington Bullets
is where he was coaching
at the time.
You know, it impacted
my life a lot
because my dad gave me
the game of basketball,
and, you know, I went--
I went through a stage in life
where, you know, I really
needed a lot of attention.
[narrator] The void
was partially filled
when Malone started
coaching Smith
with D.C. Assault.
The bond grew tighter
when Malone married
Smith's mother, Monica,
in 2005.
[Nolan] He took care
of everybody,
and if he could get somebody
off the streets
and into a gym,
if they were in
a messed-up home,
he'd bring them into his home.
If someone reached out
to Curtis like,
"Hey, I know a kid,
6'9", lefty,
growing up in Belhaven.
He--he needs you,"
Curtis being the guy
that he was,
like, "Yo, I'ma give him
a chance."
And at the time,
Beas was on house arrest.
[laughs]
Curtis talked to his mom.
She agreed,
so then from there,
that's when we became brothers.
[Beasley] When I got
to D.C. Assault was...
...yeah,
that's when I was born.
[Lou] Michael Beasley
was just a--a terror.
He was pretty much unstoppable,
and then his partner in crime,
Nolan Smith--
he could dunk it on you.
He could make
spectacular passes.
He'd make a one-handed pass
like a Magic Johnson-type
pass.
[Beasley]
Me and Nolan got closest
I've ever been to anybody
in my life.
We just started working out,
doing push-ups in the room,
and just play one-on-one
and fight.
The games would never end.
Make sure you get that.
You make sure you get that.
We would end up fighting
and then walking home
mad at each other,
and that right there
pretty much
was our relationship.
You know, he was number one
in the area.
I was number two.
I wanted to be number one.
And I never--I never had
a brother,
so he became that for me.
[narrator]
Another talented prospect,
Quinn Cook,
joined the extended
Malone household
after the passing
of his father.
You know, when I lost
my father,
you know, I started to hang
around the wrong crowds.
I went through
a little rough stage
in my life.
[Nolan] And we went
and sat in the gym,
and I said, "Look, man.
I-I know what
you're going through.
I got you.
Let's use the gym."
We shot and we talked
for hours,
and that's when the gym
became his sanctuary.
♪ Yeah... ♪
[Quinn] I was
the little brother,
and you know, I was cool
because I had relationships
with those guys,
and Curt made sure of that,
and obviously,
when my dad passed,
Curt--you know,
I basically lived with them
for that next year.
[narrator] More than just
a beloved father figure,
Malone became the godfather
of D.C. basketball.
By controlling much
of the local talent pipeline,
he transformed D.C. Assault
into a lucrative enterprise,
including an Adidas deal
for $50,000 a year.
[Nolan] He had all the juice.
Curtis had the juice
to get us,
you know, on the stage
and be seen
and basically get us to where
we ultimately got to,
which was the NBA
and to Duke
and Kansas State,
and Curtis really got us
out to Vegas
and started getting us
to all these big-time
tournaments.
You know, that--
that really changed
the game for us.
[Curtis] What I did
was realize
how the shoe companies
were all looking
for their next Kobe Bryant
and Tracy McGrady.
You know, maybe this is
a business
that I could turn, um,
you know, D.C. Assault into.
He was a marketing genius.
I gotta give it to him.
[Nolan] This game
of basketball's a business,
and at that moment,
we didn't know it,
'cause we were so young.
You know,
it's very unfortunate,
uh, the way things transpired
with, uh, D.C. Assault
and their, uh--their leader,
uh, Curtis Malone.
My first reaction
when I got the call--
uh, it was from my sister.
She's like, "They got Curt."
"What you mean, they got Curt?"
"They got him.
They got him."
I'm like...
"For what?"
[laughs]
Federal agents arrested
Curtis Malone
as a key suspect
in a major drug operation.
[reporter] The DEA alleges
he was also distributing
heroin and cocaine.
On Friday, agents searched
his Upper Marlboro home...
You know,
it was one of them days
where it was like,
not Curt.
Like, couldn't believe it.
But you don't really know why.
You're wondering why.
[Quinn] I lived with Curt
for a year,
and I had no idea
what was going on,
'cause all I saw was
the positive things
that he was doing, the kids
that he took off the street,
the--the gifts
and the presents
and the bills that he paid.
I wish that hadn't happened,
but it did,
But does that tarnish
the type of person that he was
and what he did,
how many people he touched?
No, because he looked out
for the people first.
It hurt,
and people were surprised.
A lot of people
didn't judge him.
[Navarro] I-I ain't really
judge him awful.
You know what I'm saying?
Because I always saw the good
in what he was doing,
and none of that ever came
around the kids.
[Colder] He cared about
the millions of dollars
that he could make
from drug trafficking.
He...
didn't serve as a role model.
It was a false model.
Y'all can say whatever the fuck
y'all want about him.
Y'all can talk dirt.
He always the had
the kids first, man.
He always--he always put
the kids first.
He always fed the kids
before he ate.
[phone system]
...A prepaid call.
This call is from...
[Curtis] Curtis Malone.
[phone system] An inmate
at...a federal prison.
[Curtis] I try to capitalize
on the mistakes
that I have made
which, um--it caused me
so much embarrassment, man,
because I'm preaching
to these kids
not to do one thing,
but I'm doing another,
and it was just, you know--
it was my ego,
my pride, um, my greed.
♪ somber music ♪
[Nolan]
I know who he really is:
the person that would give
his shirt off his back
to a kid,
that would do anything
to get these kids
scholarships,
but then that other side,
the evil side
that did what...he felt
like he might have had to do?
I can't quite put my hands
around that side,
'cause I don't think
that's who he is.
[narrator]
Malone's felony conviction
stunned the community
and attracted national press,
but the sustainability
of PG County hoops
never belonged
to one individual.
The county's ecosystem
remained strong.
♪ MF Doom's "One Beer"
playing ♪
♪ There's only one beer left,
Rappers screaming... ♪
[Quinn] The thing that makes
PG County so unique
is that the guy that you want
to be like is bringing you up.
The D-I players
and NBA players--
they bring you up,
'cause they know
what they had to go through
to make it,
and we all want
to see each other win,
so that's why we're all
extremely close.
♪♪♪
[announcer] It's just
a great story
with Oladipo and Quinn Cook
and then the mentorship
of the older
of the Maryland guys
and Kevin Durant.
♪ synth music ♪
KD has always been
a big brother to me,
somebody, um, that I've always,
you know, reached out to
for anything,
and he's reached out to me,
just making sure
I was okay.
He's always been there for me.
[man] Takes a long time
to get really good
at playing basketball,
and a lot of those guys
grind it out for a while.
Quinn Cook, the same way.
Every kid dreams
of getting drafted.
Like, I knew
I was gonna wear...
I knew what I was gonna do
as soon as I heard
my name called.
The Charlotte Hornets
select...
The Miami Heats select...
Indiana Pacers select...
[Quinn] But it never happened.
♪ dramatic music ♪
I felt sorry for myself
for about two minutes.
When he didn't get drafted,
you know, everybody knew
he was gonna be all right,
because that's
the type of player he is.
[Thomas] It's
the cliché term of
"you can do anything
you put your mind to,"
but Quinn is
the perfect definition of it.
♪ gentle music ♪
He had plenty of people
in his ear
telling him his best route
was going overseas,
trying to get money,
but Quinn had a dream.
[announcer] Back to Cook.
Left wing, three.
Ball!
He tied the ball game!
[Thomas] He earned his stripes
in the D league.
He did what it took.
So with that story,
it's just
an amazing accomplishment
and a blessing.
[announcer] On the floor, Cook.
Oh!
[announcer] That is not
an easy shot.
- [announcer] He knows it.
- [announcer] Yeah.
[Kevin] He's never stopped
working, man.
That's what I tell people.
Look at Quinn.
[announcer] Three by Quinn!
You know, 'cause he called me
when he didn't get drafted.
It was his--he was crying
'cause he didn't get drafted.
And I'm like,
"Bro, you got talent.
Just keep working.
Never stop."
♪♪♪
'Sup, y'all?
This Quinn Cook,
Started in the G League,
ended up NBA champion.
Always believe in yourself.
Don't let anybody tell you
you can't do
whatever you want to do.
You know, definitely,
I'm just proud, uh,
coming from where
we come from.
Uh, you look at the odds...
It's under one percent
of a person in here
that's gonna make it
to the NBA,
and I told myself--I said,
"I'ma be the one percent,
then."
You know, I had guys to look up
to who made it,
so we put our goals to action,
our plans to action,
and we got it done.
And I don't believe
in those percentages
or none of that stuff.
Everybody in Seat Pleasant,
everybody in PG County,
Maryland,
y'all be riding with me.
Feels good to see him come
full circle, man.
It's great to see, man,
'cause everybody's chasing
their dreams
of, you know, playing
on the biggest stage.
[Bobby] To see guys
that I grew up with
make it so far--
it made it on the lines
of "You just keep going,
then you can make it."
♪♪♪
Never forget the year
he won MVP,
and he said to his mom...
The odds were stacked
against us.
Single parent with two boys.
You made us believe.
You kept us off the street.
You put clothes on our backs,
food on the table.
When you didn't eat,
you made sure we ate.
You went to sleep hungry.
You sacrificed for us.
[sniffs]
You the real MVP.
[applause]
♪ pensive music ♪
♪♪♪
I get a little choked up
when I rem--I say this,
because I was so...happy
that he said,
you know, that his mother
was the real MVP,
because I felt that
you know, for all the women
who tried to raise their kids,
especially single moms.
When he said that,
if I could've hugged
that young man, you know...
I said, "Thank you
for saying that
about your mom."
[MC] And the NBA 2018
Most Improved Player is...
- Victor Oladipo.
- Oladipo.
♪♪♪
[Victor] My family's
sacrificed so much for me.
I used to come here and try
to work out every day
at 6:00 a.m.,
before school started.
Shout-out to my father, Chris,
my mother, Joan,
my three sisters, Victoria,
Kendra, and Christine.
I always say you guys
are my before,
my now, and my after.
You guys are my everything.
♪♪♪
And I remember those mornings
used to be so tough.
I remember looking
at my sisters' faces
and them sleeping in a car
getting to their schools
before the janitor
even got there.
My mom used to have to wait,
um...go to work all day
and then wait after practice,
go home, get four hours
of sleep,
and then have to work
night shifts
because I had a dream.
At the end of the day,
that's why I play this game.
I play it for them.
They sacrificed so much for me,
I had to do something.
♪♪♪
[Ricky] If we're gonna
continue to be
the county known
for basketball,
we have to continue
to give back the same way
the game has given us so much.
[Kevin] I think we in
the basketball community--
like, when we combining--
and we always build
relationships with each other
and combine resources
and do things like this,
we're pushing our community
and our culture forward.
[narrator] In 2019,
Kevin Durant opened
the Durant Center
in his hometown
of Suitland, Maryland.
The state-of-the-art,
$13 million facility
provides academic, financial,
and social resources
to youth
from low-income backgrounds.
The county is good
at saying to its residents
in very many ways
through each, uh--each decade
or each generation,
"No matter what we're
going through, I got you."
[John] Guys like Kevin
and them--
these guys are now saying,
"Okay,
I understand the significance
of my ability
to play basketball.
I'm gonna use that
to influence a kid
who might not have
my ability to play it
to do other things
or to aspire to be successful,"
and I'm as proud as I can be
to see
that they're doing that.
[Kevin] It might have our name
on the side of the building,
but it's your home,
so enjoy it,
make it yours,
and the future starts here.
[Brown] In any facet
of society,
whether you're talking
education,
whether you're talking
business,
there are those
who've come before us
upon whose shoulders we stand.
[announcer] Rumson!
[Bianca] For all the work
that each generation did,
decade by decade
by decade,
it fed our ambition
and our dreams and our hopes.
[Victor]
It's just gonna continue
to keep being like that,
because we live
and breathe it here.
Prince George's packs
a lot of power,
a lot of character.
We take pride in--
in being from this county.
[man] I carry PG
like a badge of honor.
[Navarro] It comes back
to this hunger
and this commitment.
We are
from Prince George's County.
We are not playing with nobody.
[Victor] I never forget
where I come from.
I wouldn't be who I am
without DeMatha.
I wouldn't be who I am
without PG County.
At the end of the day,
this is home.
[man] Love, sweat, and tears
have all shaped
the generational legacy
of PG County basketball,
but folks from the county know
there's still a mysterious
essence
hard to explain.
[man]
I don't know, man.
It's just in the water.
♪ spacey music ♪
♪ energetic hip-hop music ♪
♪ Hey, hey ♪
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Hey, yeah ♪
♪ Hey, yeah ♪
♪ Hey, yeah ♪
♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
[bright tone]