EXCLUSIVE BLOG by Jason Richardson: It's Time To Man-Up!

Hey what’s up Global Grind. It’s your boy J-Rich of the Phoenix Suns here!  I’m a huge fan of Global Grind, and it’s great to be a part of the GG family. I’ll be blogging each month, so I look forward to getting real GG feedback. Things are mad crazy right now with playoffs in full swing. This is definitely an exciting time in my career!

As a veteran player in the NBA, I’ve begun to realize something very important. I’ve been super blessed!  Not many people have an opportunity to do what they truly love and make a great living while doing it. Since I was a kid, playing in the professional league was my dream. It’s a great thing when dreams come true. Growing up wasn’t the best, but it certainly wasn’t the worst either. My mom was a single parent raising six children, living in a three bed room apartment. Times were definitely rough. I’m sure you can imagine how cramped things got with six kids in two bedrooms, but we made it work. There were four boys and two bunk beds in one room, and my two sisters shared a room.

Most of my friends got upset when they had to share their bedrooms with their younger or older sibling. I thought only having to share with one brother or sister was a luxury. Being cramped in that small apartment wasn’t only a challenge for sleeping, it was almost impossible to have any personal space. So, I spent a lot of time at the neighborhood park playing basketball because it was the only place that I could find my own space and find a sense of freedom. It was at Sherman Street Park where I started to dream about how life could be different. I imagined what life would be like as an NBA player. I started dreaming.  I dreamed about how great it would be to buy my mother a big house with lots of rooms and space for everybody to enjoy themselves. I had a BIG dream!