Bowie State’s Cameron Knox makes the most of his second chance

“For me,” Brooks said, “it just became more important than basketball.”

Knox promised that another outburst would never happen. This week, Brooks said it hasn’t.

“I wanted to give up,” Knox said, “and he wouldn’t let me.”

Knox, a junior academically with two years of basketball eligibility remaining, met with a tutor and went to study hall. He said his grades have improved, and last fall he set a goal of finally playing — not just practicing — for Bowie State.

On Jan. 10, Brooks spoke with Knox. The Bulldogs were playing a road game at Saint Augustine. The coach told Knox to be ready.

He jogged out with his teammates, the lights shining and the shoes squeaking. He looked into the stands and absorbed the moment, knowing what had led him here.

“I’m warming up, and I’m really doing it,” he said, thinking back. “The crowd was live, and there’s a feeling that I can’t even really explain.

“When I got on that court, it was like a minute left in a game we’re already winning. I’m just out there running wild. I don’t even care. I just wanted to grab that ball one time. I didn’t even care. I felt like all my dreams came true.”

Knox made his first basket two games later, but work remains. Brooks said he plays too often like he would in a pickup game, not controlled like the point guard the old coach envisions. Change, though, takes time.

Brooks said he no longer worries about Knox slipping back to the streets. Perhaps in two years, the coach said, Knox will be a team captain. For now, Brooks said, he plans to surprise Knox with some scholarship help next season. It’s a reward for not giving up — for proving that whether it’s a long-shot NCAA tournament game or the arc of a young man’s life, who’s to say what the result might be?

“I never thought I would be here right now,” Knox said.

He shook his head and smiled.

“In five years,” Knox continued, “I want to wake up and say: ‘I want to go here, I want to go there.’ That’s what I’m aiming for. . . . There’s nothing I can’t reach right now.”