JT3bucky
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he middle school teacher saw the boy come into her class with a basketball and debated what to do -- take the ball, or let him keep it.
In most schools, the decision would be automatic, but in this tough Bronx, N.Y., neighborhood, the teacher knew it didn't take much to sour a young man on school and see him leave. She let him keep it so long as he did his schoolwork.
"Rather than get mad at him, I let him have the privilege and just required that he do something for me," said Joyce Lake, a Bronx native who still teaches at Middle School 127.
Lake knew the ball had a hold on the boy. Maybe it would take him somewhere. She was right.
The ball pulled Gavin Grant through that seventh-grade year. It led him to nearby St. Raymond High School, a New York City basketball powerhouse. And to N.C. State, where the fate of a season rests on his ability to shoot and handle what a teacher let him keep.
For Grant, basketball became a constant in a life of jolting change, risks and challenges. He followed his mother to New York from Jamaica at age 9 and didn't take up the game until he was 13. At 21, he is married to his high school girlfriend, who remains in New York. They have one child.
At State, he endured two years of frustration as a reserve under former coach Herb Sendek. Now, the explosive but unpredictable player is being called upon to lead a young and undermanned team through the gauntlet of an ACC season.
All of this is surrounded by uncertainty not only about what Grant will do but also where he will be next year. Last October, federal authorities questioned whether the Jamaica native had legal residency. He will make his case at a removal hearing in Atlanta set for June 13, 2007. If found to be in the U.S. illegally, he could be forced to leave the country.
Grant declined to comment on his case. His attorney, Anna Baird Choi of Raleigh, would not discuss details of Grant's status, but she said his marriage last year "may have some effect."
Randall Stroud, a Raleigh immigration attorney not involved in Grant's case, said Tuesday's election may help Grant. He said the new Democratic-controlled Congress probably will approve immigration reforms proposed by President Bush that were blocked by the current Republican-controlled House. The reforms may make it easier for undocumented aliens to obtain the right to live and work here.
"I would say the outlook for a change in the law that could help Gavin Grant definitely improved [Tuesday] night," Stroud said.
For now, Grant can only wait for the law to determine his legal status, but he has direct control over his basketball role.
Grant, a 6-foot-7 junior who plays guard and forward, is expected to thrive in the up-tempo offense of new coach Sidney Lowe. Grant flashed signs of his wider impact in the season's two exhibition games, averaging 25 points and 7.5 rebounds. Last season, he started nine of 32 games and averaged 8.3 points and 4.7 rebounds.
Grant will have plenty to carry this season. The ACC media picked the Pack to finish last in the league. Grant understands the expectations, but he thinks the Pack will defy them.
"I don't fault anyone for picking us that low, but we have guys that no one has ever seen play, but they're really good guys who didn't play a lot as freshman," he said.
Grant didn't play a lot as a freshman, either. He was behind fellow St. Raymond graduate Julius Hodge. Last season, he played more but was still behind seniors Cameron Bennerman and Ilian Evtimov.
After Sendek left for Arizona State last spring, Grant considered transferring when he heard that West Virginia coach John Beilein -- another advocate of tightly patterned offense -- might be Sendek's successor.
"I was like, 'He's Herb. He's the same coach.' That didn't make sense to me," said Grant, who has grown from a shy newcomer to the Pack's most colorful quote.
Instead of another Sendek, State went for Lowe, the point guard who led the Pack to the 1983 NCAA championship. Grant didn't wait for the new coach to introduce himself. He called Lowe while he was finishing up as an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons and asked how he would coach at State.
"I was really happy how he put an emphasis on having fun," he said.
Lowe knows Grant's scoring will be crucial, but he tells the eager and newly liberated player that "taking over" a game means more than scoring. It also means rebounding, defending and getting teammates involved.
"When he's thinking that way, he's a better basketball player and we're a better basketball team," Lowe said. "That's what I'm trying to get him to believe: "Don't think you have to score all the points."
When he started playing in New York, Grant was one of the worst players in playground pick- up games. He recalled his frustration when a friend tried to show him how to dribble between his legs.
"I could not do it to save my life," he said, "I think I almost cried one day. He did it so simply and it was just so hard for me. I was so mad. I was like this sport ain't for me. I was about to quit."
But Grant's height kept him in the game -- he played center starting out -- and his ball-handling skills developed. As a sophomore at St. Raymond, he was moved up to the varsity, but coach Gary DeCesare preferred to play upperclassmen. DeCesare said Grant didn't like riding the bench.
"He was frustrated," said DeCesare, now an assistant coach at DePaul. "It wasn't that he wasn't better than them. He probably was, but those guys had paid their dues."
That experience taught an impulsive player patience, DeCesare said, and may have helped Grant to wait his turn at State.
Oliver Antigua took over as St. Raymond's coach in Grant's junior year. He started Grant in the season opener.
"He was actually terrible. He was real nervous. He was 0-for-9 from the field, but I let him keep playing," Antigua said. "The next day we kind of spoke and he asked why I left him in the game. I told him, 'You're going to be a good player and I didn't want your confidence being shaken.' From that point on he started playing better."
While Grant was still in high school, his mother moved to Bridgeport, Conn., with his two younger sisters. Grant stayed in New York with a family friend so he could finish at St. Raymond.
Antigua said Grant was somewhat on his own during that period, but kept his grades up and avoided the lure of drugs and the street.
"He had to grow up fast," Antigua said. "He's definitely mature for his age. He's been through a lot of stuff."
Grant has a tattoo on his arm of a baby with a basketball set against a city skyline. He said it's in honor of the community that produced him.
"My neighborhood was a tough neighborhood, but it wasn't tough for me because everyone knew who I was and I was trying to do something positive," he said, "Even when I go home now they show me love."
At St. Raymond, Grant's teams won two Catholic city championships. He was the championship MVP as a senior. "He was the most versatile player I ever coached," Antigua said, "And he wanted the ball in his hands when the game was on the line. He had some big shots."
State assistant coach Larry Harris recruited Grant as soon as he was allowed under NCAA rules.
"The main reason I came [to N.C. State] was because I got a sense of security from Coach Harris. ... I felt like he wanted me more than any other school," Grant said.
Grant lives now between two kinds of court, one that called him and one that may send him away. And the ball he picked up in America, he now holds like a little world in which he seeks his place.  11/10/2006 2:58:55 PM
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