<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- This afternoon, two young Trail Blazers are taking a trip back in time. LaMarcus Aldridge stands in the lobby of their Memphis hotel, waiting on teammate Ime Udoka to come downstairs. "You know what it is?" asks Portland's director of player development Chris Bowles. Aldridge nods. "It's where he got killed," Bowles continues. "It's the balcony where they offed him. That's holy ground, for real, for real." "Yeah," Aldridge says unconvincingly. Bowles searches for a way to make a player truly understand. Lamarcus Aldridge and Ime Udoka Mike Brown for ESPN.com Portland Trail Blazers LaMarcus Aldridge and Ime Udoka approach the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. The museum is located in the Lorraine Motel. How do you explain Dr. Martin Luther King's relevance to an NBA rookie worth millions? "You wouldn't be balling like that," he says. Ah-ha. A light. Aldridge smiles. "Balling at all," Aldridge says. "We wouldn't have anything." Black History Month has arrived, and with it, another opportunity for Bowles to teach. He's in charge of the Portland Trail Blazers off the court, which, given their recent history, is a difficult but vital job. He's new to this position, and he wants his guys to understand where they fit in a daisy chain of great men and women who sacrificed everything to give them a chance to chase dreams. He wants the NBA players to understand what they are. "They are the fulfillment and the promise of praying grandmothers and grandfathers who swept floors," he says. "And with that comes a sense of responsibility. You should carry yourself with a sense of dignity and nobility." At Fisk University, Bowles studied his history. When he lived in Atlanta, early some mornings he'd walk down from his loft, taking his own trip back in time to the Ebenezer Baptist Church. It's where Dr. King preached. "There's junkies on the street, broken glass and it reeks like urine up and down Auburn Avenue," he says. "You can smell the Church's Chicken, but when you go in the old Ebenezer and you sit there, you feel it. You feel the essence." That's a feeling he will never forget. It was a feeling of togetherness, a connection between himself and the fathers of the civil rights movement. In that room, the man who made millions rise with his words still floats above the pews, his spirit asking the question: What are you doing to carry on my legacy? It made Bowles appreciate what so many others had sacrificed.</div> Source
