<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Alando and Antonio Tucker heard the messages loud and clear when they were kids. It was not just their mother's advice. It was the sound of a gang member crashing through their home's window to escape men who put down their guns only when they saw kids. It was the screams and sobs that followed when Alando, standing on at a street corner by his home, saw a man murdered in a car that then was towed away with the body in it. It was the shocking sound of a bullet piercing their home's front door, redirected off the original path that was headed toward their mother, who was rocking their baby sister. They looked at all of the gang violence, alcoholism and drug abuse that snagged their friends in Joliet, Ill., 40 miles outside Chicago, and formed a pact: They would live clean. No drugs. No alcohol. No cigarettes. No tattoos. Their word was gold. Today, Alando Tucker is on the cusp of his Suns debut in the NBA Summer League. Just two days after he signed a contract guaranteeing him $1.6 million over two years, Tucker is a newly affluent man in the city of sin and temptation - Las Vegas. But just like the past five years at Playboy's top-ranked party school, Wisconsin, Tucker will spend any nights out with an orange juice or a Shirley Temple in his hand. "I don't see it being any different on this level," said Tucker, who will start in tonight's 7:30 game against Cleveland. "I'll be strong. Whenever someone hears the story, they respect it so much. We made a pact pretty much to stand out and be leaders." That was about 13 years ago when Antonio, older by four years, was leaving for the Army without any idea that his younger brother would wind up Big Ten Player of the Year and a first-round draft choice. He was more worried about Tucker's education. "He tried to run away from school, and we had to chase him down," said Antonio, now a police officer in Bolingbrook, Ill. "Basketball became his outlet. Those were scary times then, but you can turn it into a positive. We tried to lead honest lives." Tucker's tongue has yet to touch alcohol, and no needle with drugs or ink has come close to his skin. </div> Source: AZCentral
