Fighting Their Battles on the Basketball Court, Not the Streets
Coach Thomas Bing talks with his team members during a game last Thursday. The team is part of the Tale of the Tape Summer Basketball League, which was formed last year with a mission to keep the city's youths off the streets.
(By Dominic Bracco Ii -- The Washington Post)
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Thursday, August 7, 2008
The guys from Kennedy Playground slipped on their red-and-white jerseys and started doing layups. The sound of basketballs dribbling echoed through the gym.
But one jersey remained unworn, dangling on a hanger from a nail below the scoreboard. Pinned to the jersey, No. 11, was a piece of paper bearing a photo of a smiling young man and words written in black: "Chris Taylor, R.I.P."
Taylor, 19, was shot in the face July 27 and died a few hours later. Police said the shooting occurred over a game of craps.
Some of his teammates said they thought about quitting the league after his death. It all seemed so futile. They were the worst in their league, and Taylor, a shooting guard, was their best player.
But now, they have pledged to keep playing.
"It's not about just us now," said Teoma Jones, 22, the team's coach and a childhood friend. "It's about Chris."
These are the worst of times for the 80 mostly young men in the Tale of the Tape Summer Basketball League. The purpose of the program is to offer a competitive sport in a safe environment. Curtis Mozie, 42, a community organizer who founded the league, has spent most of his adult life working to curb violence in the city. Organized sports is an important tool, he said.
"I try to get them in here to fight it out on the courts instead of the streets," he said.
Mozie said teams often form around neighborhood territories, which he thinks can foster healthy competition.
"I want them to bond but in a positive way," he said.
He started out more than 20 years ago, carrying a video camera around his native Shaw neighborhood, recording friends as they played basketball and socialized.
But soon, he said, he realized that along with friendly pickup games, he was capturing shootings, men bleeding in hospital beds, and sisters and mothers wailing in anguish. He has continued to update his videos over the years, turning the footage into a documentary that he screens at youth events citywide.
