Dime is the premier basketball magazine, covering the NBA, NCAA, High School, Playground and International basketball - as well as sneakers, fashion and music.
"They didn't talk to me directly, but they told my coach over there that whenever I wanted to come back, there was a spot waiting for me on a pro team," says Carr. "That just showed me the possibilities of what playing this game can do."
He's also added to his prodigious reputa- tion with his play in the Carmelo Anthony Pro-Am this summer, where people are still abuzz over a game in July when he dropped his defender and attacked the Sacramento Kings' 6-11 DeMarcus Cousins in the paint.
With Cousins trying to block his shot, Carr floated at high altitude from one side of the rim to the other, kissing the ball gently off the glass with cue-ball English at an inde- scribable angle. He finished with 18 points and six assists, played only half the game and was the only high school athlete on the floor. Smiling from ear to ear, Cousins lifted him in the air with a playful bear hug at the game's conclusion.
When the NBA's Baltimore Bullets fled to
ingenuity. His connection with crowds has moved beyond the entertainment sphere and into a spiritual one.
In early August, within the heart of East Baltimore at the photo shoot for this story, speeding motorists screech to a crawl while passing by, some enthusiastically yelling through open windows. "We see you shin- ing boy! Keep making us proud, son!"
Carr smiles, nods his head and cheer- fully resumes taking directions from the photographer.
"He's just a normal kid," says McCoy. "He just plays with a lot of heart and he hates to lose. He doesn't party and he doesn't hang out. He's either at home, with one of his coaches or in the gym. His idea of fun is going to the recreation centers to help coach the little kids."
"People may think Aquille's cocky on the court, but it's not that; it's his swagger," says Selby, who was selected in the sec-
On a recent summer morning, Carr is relax- ing on the beige leather couch in his fam- ily's living room, inside a tidy row house in a proud, working class enclave of East Balti- more. With his four-year-old nephew, Amare, climbing on his back, he quietly watches a DVD of himself delivering behind-the-back passes, attacking the basket, jumping like a grasshopper, and draining threes at the AAU Nationals in Cocoa Beach, Fla. nine years ago.
"Man, I missed too many free throws," he says softly, through a bright, electric smile that illuminates the room.
Tammy Carr can be heard upstairs telling him to straighten out his room. The white, wood-paneled living room is adorned with trophies and family photos as his mom talks with pride about her middle child, Ashlie, who recently graduated from Towson Univer- sity with a bachelor's degree in Psychology.
Aquille and his dad laugh while watching the old video. Atop the burgundy carpet and white TV stand, a photo of an eight-year-old
"HE'S SAVVY, INTELLIGENT AND HAS AN UNBELIEVABLE WILL TO WIN AT ALL COSTS.
THAT KID'S GOT A SIXTH SENSE, AND
ONLY THE GREAT ONES HAVE THAT." -Mike Dan ie l
Washington, D.C. in 1973, and with no major college program in town, rabid hoops fans directed all of their passions toward the city's top prep players and programs. Remnants of the existing vacuum are still evident today. This winter's elementary school champion- ships drew a crowd to a high school gym that far exceeded the fire marshal's limit.
In Baltimore, basketball is not some mere diversion or extra-curricular activity. It's woven into the daily fabric of being.
For people that suggest that Carr should pack his bags to attend a national prep hoops factory like Oak Hill Academy or Findlay Prep, they simply don't understand what he means to the city, and what the city means to him.
People struggling through financial dis- tress, unemployment, frightening crime and homicide rates and a deepening re- cession leave the gym after a Patterson game feeling better about their own lives, encouraged by the vitality of this burgeon- ing talent displaying his originality and rare
ond round by the Memphis Grizzlies in this June's NBA Draft. "His swag, outside of his skills, is what makes him so good. And coming from Baltimore, you have to have that swag on the court where you feel like nobody can mess with you."
"In Baltimore, we play a real nasty, bel- ligerent style of basketball," adds Kamau Stokes, a rising sophomore guard at The John Carroll School, one of many in the city's seemingly endless battalion of fear- less point guards. "Aquille plays with a lot of heart; he's not afraid to make mistakes. And one of the main keys to Baltimore bas- ketball is that we're not scared of anything, or anyone, on the court."
Watching him pound his chest on the Internet highlights – barking, "This is my city" – you'd assume that he's an arrogant and boisterous personality. But it's the in- verse. Aquille Carr is mellow, soft-spoken and surprisingly humble outside the lines. When he speaks, which is barely above a whisper, you have to lean in to make sure you hear what he's saying.
Aquille stares back at them. He's resting on one knee in the picture, his scrawny arms cradling a football as big as his cranium. He's trying to look mean. But if you look close enough at the head sinking into the mas- sive shoulder pads, you'll notice a sly smile emanating from the little guy's face.
The doubters and haters are easy to find. Check the recruiting websites and Internet message boards, where you'll find no short- age of people deriding Aquille for his height and playground flair, doubting he can play at a major D-I program despite the per- sistent recruiting interest from Kentucky, Syracuse, Xavier, Arizona, Memphis, Wake Forest, Texas, LSU, and a host of others.
"For people who say he won't be a great play- er on the next level, guess what: That tough little son of a gun will find a way," says Daniel. "They said the same things about Shawnta Rogers and Muggsy Bogues. Yeah right!"
To hear more of Aquille's story and see behind the scenes footage of his shoot, visit www.youtube.com/DimeMagazine.
67