<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Robert Whaley is thankful that when he was 8 years old and an older neighborhood kid arrived at his home to beat the crap out of him, his mother protected him. The teenager was mistaken, she said, because her son was too young to fight. He is thankful that when he was 11 and a woman handed him a gun and told him to get rid of it, the cop who stopped him didn't kill him as Whaley pulled it out of the back of his jeans to hand it to him. He is thankful he didn't end up like his best friend, shot in the back, dead at 16. He is thankful that a jury that could have convicted him of criminal sexual conduct couldn't agree beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime took place. He was looking at 15 years in prison. On this holiday weekend, when so many give thanks, Robert Whaley is thankful for finally having a chance to play in the NBA, to finally prove that he is a different type of man than the boy with nothing but a frightening future who grew up in Benton Harbor, Mich. "I can look them in the eye and tell them I've changed," Whaley said of the people who knew him then. "I can look you in the eye and tell you I've changed, but before you're going to believe it, I know I have to show it. The past is the past. I made mistakes, I recognize that." Today, Whaley is a rookie with the Utah Jazz. Five years ago this weekend, a 13-year-old said Whaley raped her. So began Whaley's life on the precipice. Actually, he had been there for a long time. </div> <div align="center">Source</div>
Wow, a lot of hardships and in the preseason this guy didnt seem too bad when I saw him play on NBA TV.
