Dreams to play in the NBA only came true for a few. Dominick was signed up for basketball camps and mentor programs since the age of 9. His father would often take him to Cloverleaf a court near Druid Hill Park in Baltimore to play with the older guys. He was so in to his game that he walked around with a basketball daring anybody to knock it out of his hands.

"Dad, when I go to the NBA I'm gonna buy you and mama a house!" he told his father as they walked to the corner store.

His dad was one of his biggest supporters. Even though his father wasn't the shining example set fourth by Bill Cosby he was a father, the kind of father that walked his son to school every morning and played one on one with him at the local recreation center. Growing up in a two parent household was not that common where Dominick was from but he was one of the lucky ones at least that is how it looked on the outside.
"Dominick bring ya ass down these fuckin stairs now and take out the trash" his mother yelled abruptly.

He jumped up threw his slippers on and ran downstairs.

His mother hit him in his chest with her fist and said "You just like your lazy ass father", she turned away and walked back down in the basement.

He grabbed the trash and headed outside to the alley. As soon as he got to the alley he saw his best friend Tory.

"Hey Tory you wanna shoot some hoops?" they met at the end of the alley where there was a makeshift basketball hoop, an egg crate nailed to the utility pole.

"Tory you ever want to run away?"
     "All the time"
"Where would you go?"
    "I'd go to Paris!"
"Well I'd go to New York and live in the subways like those people on Tv"

They continued playing for what seemed like hours, it was the only way they could let their imaginations run wild. Dominick's mother is a drug addict and his father a drug dealer. His weekends were filled with dreams, anything to escape the walls of his home.