<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">These should be the most trouble-free days of Martell Webster's life. His last days of high school. His final fling at being a kid. His most serious decision now should be which video game to play or where to go on a date. Instead, Webster's life is progressing at warp speed. He is being forced to grow up much faster than most 18-year-olds. And he is learning lessons about the greed and impatience of adults he'd hoped he'd never have to learn. Earlier this week, Webster, a senior at Seattle Prep who signed a letter of intent with Washington, announced he was going to investigate the possibility of forgoing college and going directly to the NBA. He hasn't hired an agent, but he is preparing to take the tour of NBA cities to audition in front of the most critical and skeptical eyes in the game. But while he has been mulling this decision, the extended basketball community, which has helped raise him since his mother, Cora McGuirk, disappeared when he was 4 years old, has become fractious. And certain members of that community have begun pulling at him like scavengers looking for a treasure. In the course of researching his decision he has gotten very good advice from some, like former AAU coach Jim Marsh, and very bad advice from others who, he is realizing, have their own agendas. Webster has found himself in the midst of an unwanted, uncivil war. And, in an exclusive interview this week, he admitted it has made him feel more world-weary than any 18-year-old should have to feel. He is being tugged at, like the pull of the moon on the ocean. "There's been friction," Webster said, sitting at the head of the table in a conference room of an office in Pioneer Square. "It's not even a smooth ride anymore. It's like I'm getting bumped off left and right. There's all these words and things I'm hearing that are going around. There's a lot of weird things being said right now. </div> Source
