Downloaded from YTS.MX
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
♪ 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.
♪ ♪
[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, hey, hey ♪
♪♪♪
[bright tone]