Ace...

In a lot of my writing, you have read the name Shannon. Well his birthday just passed, so I feel like now would be a good time to say a few words about the man.

I met Shannon on the basketball court at the YMCA. I was in the 7Th grade. He was this funny looking kid with an afro, wearing this big purple champion sweatshirt. He was shooting 3 pointers for money with another kid on credit, and he had the kid down a couple hundred-thousand dollars. Shannon was banking in 3 pointers, laughing and joking while the amount kept going up. From that very moment, I knew I was going to like him.

That same night, I slept over my friends house. It just so happens that Shannon was spending the night there too, as the guest of my friends older brother. My friends brother was only like a year or two older, so we all would end up hanging out. We had a lot of fun. From that night on, me and Shannon began chilling at that house every single day. We would gamble, watch TV, and go play basketball together. We became tight.

After a while, me and Shannon started doing our own thing. It got to the point where we didn't go to the brothers house much at all anymore. Around that same time, we started chilling with these two other kids, Josh and Tramell.

Throughout our high school years, Me, Shannon, Josh, and Tramell would do everything together. If you saw one of us, chances are the rest of us wouldn't be too far behind. We would play basketball, steal bikes, gamble, get girls, and do every other thing you can possibly imagine together. From early morning to late at night every single day, we would all be together. We were a crew. Those were some of the best experiences of my life, which I will go into full detail about another time.

After high school, it was more of the same. Even though I went to college 45 minutes away, I would often come home and hang with the crew. We started Coming of Age, a summer league basketball team that would compete in all of the local tournaments. Shannon was a key player on the squad, as well as the general manager. We still gambled around the way, but we also stepped it up and started taking trips to Atlantic City. Shannon would always be driving with his head back and mouth open, but swear he wasn't falling asleep. You was sleep Shan. The girls were still around, but now instead of just being with us, they wanted to take care of us. Kim was always ready to climb a mountain, or swim across an ocean for Shannon.

Me and Shannon would eventually end up moving in together. During that time, things became a little different with Josh and Tramell. Josh had a little drug business going, and Tramell had all kinds of trouble surrounding him. I mean we still played ball together, I still loved them and still would do anything for them, but in certain situations I had to keep my distance. I wasn't trying to get caught up in anything that would get me in trouble. Shannon kind of felt the same way.

After living with Shannon for 3 years, I ended up moving out so I could live with my girl. He would eventually do the same. Josh and Tramell were still living the fast life, which would eventually lead to their downfall. Tramell had to deal with the whole bank robbery situation, and we all know how that ended up. Even though Josh wasn't robbing banks, he was hit with an accessory after the fact charge, in which he is doing time for now.

So now with our two best friends in jail, it's just me and Shannon. We still play basketball and go out once in a while, but not nearly as much as we used to. We are older, we both work, and we both have families that take up a lot of our time. No matter what though, I know if I ever need anything he will always be there. When we do go out, we don't drink or dance with women. We just sit and talk. We always ask each other if we could have done anything different to help Tramell and Josh from going down the wrong path. We talk about our relationships, the good times, society, sports, and everything else you can think of. He is the one of the only people I can talk to without ever holding anything back.

Shannon is my best friend. He is my ace. He is a good man, a great father, and I wanted to take this time to let everyone know he is appreciated. Happy Birthday Shan.

Ok that's all for now... thank you for visiting and stay tuned...