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WATARI MARSH
J4 : What are you up to since you put the rock down as a player ? WM : I live in New Orleans where I went to college at Tulane . I train young ball players of all ages , but right now I am focused on 6th graders . I was training pro athletes for many years too . I had Glen " Big Baby " Davis , Garrett Temple ( Sacramento Kings ), Marcus Thornton ( Washington Wizards ), I had Tyrus Thomas when he was in the league . I have a few of the top High School players in Louisiana that train with me plus a few college players that train with me when they come home . I also have my own AAU organization . YGLA ( Young Gifted Leaders and Athletes ). I have about 80 kids in my organization . One of my main things is to get them out of Louisiana , because basketball here isn ' t that great compared to Chicago for example . They have some exceptions , but overall I found that these young ball players weren ' t being taught correctly . J4 : Where are you from and what part of the city do you represent ? WM : That ' s a two part answer . I grew up on 47th in the Rosenwald , but my grandmother she lived in the hundreds . 116th & Troop . I was always in between the two places ,
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# Scribes : Javin4man + Gordon Battle
There was a golden era rebirth in Chicago . When dogs abounded . You could go anywhere in the city and get buckets handed to you . There were guys on the scene like Quentin Richardson , Paul McPherson , Cordell Henry , Corey Maggette , Imari Sawyer , Anthony Johnson , Michael Wright and others . Out in the Wild Hundos Big Lance Williams and his Julian Jaguars were making much noise and were far from an easy out . Controlling the 1 ' s and 2 ' s was Watari Marsh a big PG with a revolutionary mindset . Having grown up in a household under Wallace " Gator " Bradley , where growth and development were a way of life , Watari had no choice but to bang .... on the court . Check his story out .
but for the most part I identify with the hundreds because that ' s where I spent most of my time ; playing ball outside . It ' s where I built most of my relationships . I J4 : Did you originally go to Leo to play basketball ? WM : I was actually a baseball player . I had a baseball scholarship to go to Leo . I didn ' t play organized basketball until I got to high school . I used to just play outside in the neighborhood because everyone plays ball in Chicago . I started playing organized basketball at Leo for the first time . That whole experience was different for me . Being at an all boys school was different and being around White people . I had never really interacted with White people - White teachers and such . I did great my first year as far as baseball and academics , but as far as basketball it just wasn ' t what I liked . J4 : So is it when you started taking basketball seriously when you got to Leo .... how did you make that leap from being a good baseball player to a great basketball player ? WM : Honestly , I wouldn ' t say I started taking it seriously until I got to Julian - my Junior and Senior year when I saw the opportunities that basketball brought . My Sophomore year I was just coming to a new co-ed school - it was finally girls . Basketball was just easy for me . It ' s just what we did . It wasn ' t until colleges started coming in that it got real . Coach Jackson put it in us what basketball could do for us . Once we were going to those nationally ranked tournaments like the one we went to in Vegas , LA for the big time tournament . That type of stuff started happening . I started to see how serious it was . I played with Larry Butler and the Illinois Warriors . I played with Mac Irvin and the Fire when they were first getting off the ground . Basketball just took me so many places . I started seeing the doors that it opened . Had it not been for basketball I wouldn ' t have gone to a prestigious school like Tulane if not for basketball . My family couldn ' t afford to send me to college . It was a way to get out the hood . J4 : It ' s kind of surprising that you started off as a baseball player and up achieving so much success in basketball ? WM : I came up under some older cats that used to stay on me about playing sports especially basketball . I used to want to run with the wrong crowd , but the older guys that saw