Grizzlies guard Tony Allen closed out the Grizzlies’ Season of Giving presented by Gossett Motor Cars by providing something invaluable and intangible to detainees at the Shelby County Juvenile Detention Center – life advice.
Just in time for a New Year’s resolution, Allen spoke to the 18 and under demographic about chasing success instead of chasing the streets – one of which Allen has been privy to, and one he has been plagued by.
Allen spoke freely and unapologetically about his experiences with ‘running’ in the streets of Chicago where he saw friends on both sides of the gun – falling victim and pulling the trigger.
He decided to drop out of high school his freshman year to pursue a life in the streets, despite being aware of his basketball talents. The same talents that made his mom say, “You should play more ball.” The same talents that made kids in his neighborhood say he was a “Little Iverson.” The same talents that made his childhood friend, NBA guard Will Bynum ask, “Why aren’t you playing ball no more?” And most recently, the same talents Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant recognized as giving him the most trouble in his fabled NBA career.
He prompted the crowd, “What’s the common denominator for why you all are in here? You were with your ‘partna’ right?”
All heads shook in unison, “Yes.”
He went on to tell his story about how he decided one day that he was tired of running from police, and tired of being shot at. He returned to his childhood home, only to find out that his mother had moved and didn’t even tell him. To his astonishment, he wasn’t allowed back home – unless he enrolled in school.
At the advice of Bynum, Allen learned of a school he could get into on the other side of town. He enrolled, moved back in with his mother and had what he considered an “alright” high school playing career – but he graduated. He went to school for two extra hours a day to earn the credit that he lacked from dropping out.
He then went on to play basketball at Butler County College in Kansas, where he earned Freshman of the Year accolades in his conference. Everything was fine, until it wasn’t. Allen “fell off” and found trouble again and was forced to leave Butler County College.
His Butler County College coach got him an opportunity at Wabash Valley College in Illinois, where Allen led the team to 32-6 in his sophomore campaign. Allen felt he’d played well enough to put himself in contention to be considered to start playing on a real team – maybe even play on ESPN. His D-1 options came through during his sophomore year – schools from all over the country. But out of all of them, he recognized the bright orange logo of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, and recalled the scout who sat front row at all of his games, wearing a bright orange OK State polo - Glynn Cyprien - who is now a member of the Grizzlies Basketball Operations staff. The rest was history.
But again, old habits die hard. Everything was fine, until it wasn’t. Just four days into his campaign at OK State, Allen found trouble again. “That coach who wanted to give me a chance? Yeah, all of a sudden he wasn’t smiling now,” said Allen.
But Allen rose above the distractions and finished his college career at OK State, but more importantly, he obtained his college degree. And again, the rest was history and here we are today.