- Ma. - Yeah?
I guess. Just let me know.
Zarique: I play basketball because my mom,
she the best thing on Earth.
She's a single parent, and, like,
I just want to give back to her
what she's given to me now.
She's a hard worker.
She work every day. Sometime there'll be days
where I don't even see her,
like, 'cause she come home,
it'll be six in the morning, she'll leave back out.
Newark Central, the part that we come from,
it's a hard place to come from.
It's a gang member or drug dealer on every corner.
People in gangs just to fit in.
I try not to get trapped in the stuff
that's going on out here.
My dad, he's in jail.
It just hurts me inside.
Sometime I cry at night 'cause he's not here.
And when he was, he did a lot of things with me.
He always pushed me.
And I'd get mad and frustrated.
( music playing )
( vocalizing )
♪ Put my art on the line ♪
♪ No time to waste ♪
♪ I've gotta raise the stakes ♪
Zarique: There's times where I wanted to be in the streets.
Like, I wanted to quit basketball.
I have a lot of friends that decided to be in the streets.
Everybody I went to school with from elementary
is in a gang, except me.
But I thought about it. I was like, "No."
And I got myself together.
Basketball is important to me,
'cause I feel like that's the only way
I could get out of here.
( music playing )
( vocalizing )
♪ Put my art on the line ♪
♪ No time to waste ♪
♪ I've gotta raise ♪
♪ The stakes ♪
( intercom beeps )
Woman on PA: Good afternoon, Centralites,
and these are your afternoon announcements.
The Central High School band would like flag twirlers and dancers.
They are having tryouts for the flag twirlers
February the 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, and 12th.
Keep in mind, the National Honor Society
is having their first annual carnival
February the 16th from 6:00 to 10:00.
It's $5 admission.
It's food, music, entertainment,
fashion, and fun.
Also, come out and support the basketball game today.
Thank you and have a great day.
- ( bell rings ) - Woman: Let's go!
Where Haddie at, bro?
Man: Let's go!
Come on, let's go.
Let's go!
Man: Let's go, y'all. Let's go, let's go!
- What's this? I missed you! - Oh, why?
Let's go! Walk and talk!
( man continues calling out to students )
That's why you need my help.
Oh, it ain't-- it ain't what you thought it was.
You just sweated to open a locker.
It ain't what you thought it was.
You were sweating to open a locker.
It ain't what you thought it was.
( bell ringing )
Put that on, man. We don't want to look at that, man.
All right, but, what the--
Oh, man... ( mutters )
Come on, man, start getting dressed, man.
( muttering )
- We listening, big boy. - All right, first of all,
little man, as you're all aware
we playing St. Benedict's, man.
They number 20 in the country.
If they was ranked in the state, they'd be number one.
They're not ranked in the state 'cause they don't play
in the state tournament, so they don't rank 'em,
'cause they recruit.
This gang, they walking in like, "Oh, we gonna beat them."
That's how they probably gonna come in here.
"Hey, we number 20, they ain't nobody.
We just gonna go in Central, beat 'em up and go back home."
You gotta make 'em play, man.
You got aspirations of playing college basketball,
these the type of players you gotta play against.
When I say there's basketball players
and people that just play basketball,
these basketball players.
They bodies bigger than yours.
They probably eat, sleep, write,
they work out.
And if somebody here watching 'em today,
you know who else they gonna see?
You.
Don't doubt your skills, man.
We got basketball players in here, too.
Just gotta work together, man. We can't win on our own.
Just be ready to play, man.
Make foul shots, man. God dang!
We missed 36 foul shots
in the last three games, Quan Quan.
We losing the games, man. They ain't beating us.
We losing the games, man.
County rankings came out. We fifth in the county.
There's 37 teams in the county.
You top five, man.
You ain't top five for nothing.
We got a team. People see it. I see it.
Y'all gotta see it, especially when we get Haddie back
in a couple of weeks, right?
Yeah!
Fear the 1!
Jay: I was up in Bristol two days ago
and then down in Orlando
for the past day, doing work with ESPN,
also doing work with EA Sports.
So, it's always on the go and landed,
and then it was time for game time.
St. Benedict's is one of the top prep schools in the nation.
Everybody on that team has an aspiration to be a pro,
and now everybody on Central has an aspiration to be a pro, too,
but realistically, how many pros do we really have?
I mean, Zarique might be the only one that played Division One.
Today will be one of those scenarios where
he'll be the sixth best player on the court,
and the five players from St. Benedict's will be
the five best players on the court.
This is going to be a beatdown.
It's a character test.
What's up, man? What's going on, bruh?
You doing good? Good, bruh. Happy New Year to you, too.
You may lose by 50 today,
so this is a great opportunity for you to recognize
what high-level Division One talent is.
So it needs to bring everybody back to ground zero,
so we can start working on it.
So we expect you guys to just have fun
and do what you do best.
Good, clean, fair game,
best team win.
Good luck, gentlemen.
Jay, what's up, baby? ( groans )
Just landed from work, man. Came out--
I don't know if I say, happy New Year.
Happy New Year to you, too. Are you doing good?
- Yeah, I'm good. - How you doing?
Hanging in there.
Announcer: Welcome back to the Devils' Den.
After a strong start to the season,
a tough game coming up for Central
against powerhouse St. Benedict's,
one of the premiere programs in all of New Jersey.
Tip off and we are underway.
Here we go, right here, right here!
- Right here! - Dee-End on the right elbow.
Nice handle. Step back, Jay, and got it.
Dibba, dribbles off the screen,
into the paint, scooping layup and got it.
Loose ball, tipped away and stolen,
and Precious Achiuwa with the jam!
Shawn: Passing gotta be harder!
It can't be them lob passes, man!
Joel, to the right side and stolen.
Around the ref goes Dibba and lays it in.
Keep attacking, bro. Keep attacking, bro.
Quick start for St. Benny's. No surprise there.
Brill, fade away and good!
( crowd cheering )
A little lob pass underneath,
and Dee-End rips it away!
Hey, Duke! Duke! Hey!
Over the top, Brill.
A side out, lob underneath,
Dee-End lays it in.
( crowd cheering )
I got two!
Brill and Dibba, the two floor leaders
of these squads, going at it.
Oh!
That's all right, hey, hey! Brill, good D, Brill, good D!
( chuckles ) A little jawing back and forth.
This Central team, unfazed by the big fellas from St. Benedict's.
Shawn: Help, help, help!
- Dibba drives. - Shawn: Oh!
And Omar Terry takes the charge!
Long rebound toward the corner,
and what a heads-up play by Brill.
- Good job, good job! - Great game, Brill!
Shawn: Shooter, shooter! Help, help!
- Oh, yeah! - Push-off on St. Benedict's.
- Time out. - Shawn: Good job, man. Good job.
That's great job, man. Great job.
We good, man, we good.
Everybody bust, yeah? Go get it, a'ight?
Man: Yo, let's go, man. Keep fighting.
Mark Taylor: Guys, are you kidding?
We're taking bad shots, we're forcing.
We have no patience. They're much smaller.
You gotta put a body and then go tag 'em and go get the ball.
I don't know what to say, guys. I really don't.
Taylor: Turn it up.
Announcer: Dibba.
Strong to the rack with a righty layup!
- Shawn: Shooter! - Quiñones, right elbow, three, counting.
Dibba, to the rim! Throws it down.
Souleymane underneath, and one.
- Why we waiting to score? - St. Benedict's starting to pull away.
Come on, man, let's go, let's go!
Jay: There you go, Z.
Drive by him, Z. He can't guard you.
Time winding down, here in the first half.
Bounce pass to Zarique on the right elbow,
drives in, misses the first, gets his own rebound!
Pulls it down and back up with it and good.
Zarique Nutter! Full-court pressure by Central
and it's stolen by Zarique.
( crowd cheers )
Central refusing to go away.
Poked away by David French.
Ahead to Zarique. Another jam!
Zarique, keeping Central in the game,
and Central will go to halftime only trailing by nine.
Good job, Dave.
Every player in every position on their team is shorter than us.
Central is a good basketball team.
You showed them no respect, and look what you're in now.
Are we gonna respect 'em or not?
We playing, man.
Little things, the little things, man.
Little things. Be one step quicker than them.
Come on, man. We all right, man.
Same intensity.
- Game is not over. - It's only nine.
You gotta find that place that we talked about before, right?
Find that place to begin the second half, cool?
Come on, man. We're waiting for you.
Here we go with the second half.
St. Benedict heavily favored,
but only up by nine.
- Shawn: Go to the ball! - Down to Dee-End,
spins free on the baseline and gets rejected.
Oh! No foul?
Precious, on the right wing,
drives baseline and gets blocked by Zarique.
Let's go, Z. Let's go, Z.
St. B's works it to the corner.
The three is good.
Come on, man, we need a bucket, man, we need a bucket!
Brill drives in, gets blocked.
Fast brake the other way, Wilcher for three.
- Count it. - ( crowd cheers )
Wilcher, great pass over to Quiñones
and gets the layup.
Brill drives baseline,
throws up a prayer, won't be answered.
Isaiah Smith, a tough rebound,
and he's fouled.
Isaiah Smith, putting in work against the big guys.
Quiñones, knocks down the jumper.
Need a bucket, man!
Joel, from the corner. No good.
Zarique, flips it back playing above the ring!
Zarique Nutter, showing his stuff.
Bounce pass on the left wing,
Zarique splits a double team and lays it in!
It's been a good game by Central.
They hung around, but St. Benedict's is a powerhouse,
and they're gonna win this one going away,
63 to 44.
( buzzer sounds )
( laughter, indistinct chatter )
Shawn: All I gotta say is,
why we can't play like this every game, man?
Why we can't get up for everybody
the same way you got up for St. Benedict's,
'cause if you do, ain't nobody standing a chance.
I ain't see y'all play shell defense like that
this season, that first half.
It looked beautiful out there, when y'all are playing together,
y'all play, y'all help, everybody taking charge,
everybody rotating.
Looked like a thing of beauty.
But I mean, we gotta sustain it for all four quarters.
I love the effort.
I love the effort.
That's what it's about. Now those guys,
Division One basketball players?
You could play with these guys, man,
so when you play against guys that's not on your level,
you supposed to crush 'em, man.
The same intensity, the same way you played today,
you supposed to crush 'em.
You gonna open more eyes, 'cause people gonna say,
"They was with 'em all the way up until the fourth quarter."
Hey, man, we have a good team, man.
I'm trying to tell y'all. I'll be glad when y'all start to realize it.
If we take the little stuff out,
there's no looking back, man.
There's no looking back.
Have a good night.
Jay: This is interesting.
This is the first time Zarique's ever spoken to me about
that next level of thought about where he wants to be.
Je said, "Okay, does it matter by what school you go to
in order to get looked at?
I know most offers come from AAU, though."
And I was like, "Interesting. It doesn't matter.
I work for ESPN, man. I know every college coach in the country.
You want to play D1?"
"That's a fact," he said.
"Yeah, my favorite college is where you played."
I said, "Then listen to me.
I got two-time National Player of the Year at Duke.
I know a thing or two."
We got a lot of work to do."
Haddie: I told him not to doubt me.
I told Zarique not to doubt me
because I'm a shooter.
And he don't want to believe me.
And he mad. Zarique Nutter?
You look a little angry at me right now.
Yeah, why you talking? I beat you twice.
- No, you didn't. - I just beat you twice!
You beat me once! Stop lying!
- Yo! - You beat me once.
I just beat on those two times we shot around.
Stop, look-- yo, I need y'all to see how he lie,
for Zarique Nutter. That's bad.
That's bad. You lying, you beat me one time!
You beat me one time.
Zarique: Haddie, he's a big defensive player.
His main priority is defense.
That's what he on the team for.
- I'ma blow you out! - Come on.
That's how you know he's strapped. Put the camera on me.
That's how you know this is strapped.
This money in the bank, right here.
I'm talking here. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Hold on.
Here, put this on camera.
Talking 'bout...
- I didn't know you were gonna make it. - That's what I do, man.
- Come on. - Zarique: He's a loyal friend,
and he's a real funny guy.
- Bro, I hate this spot. - I love him. That's my boy.
Haddie: Yo, he cheated!
- Don't wanna play no more. - You see how he cheat!
- Don't wanna play no more. - You see how he cheat?
Tie-breaker. Tie-breaker, come on.
With the pointer finger, man.
You shoot with this finger right here?
That's the finger that gets you into the shot.
This the last finger that come off the ball.
Zakkiyyah: I just have one question.
Do these people know that I'm Zarique's mother?
'Cause they already know nothing can go through
unless I put the final stamp on it.
The St. Benedict coach calling me right now, hold on.
This is comical. Hold on, okay, all right.
Hello?
Good.
I'm at his practice right now,
and they should be finishing up by maybe, like, 8:00?
I have 'em give you a call. Okay.
6:00 in the morning, my phone is ringing.
I'm talking to coaches.
We played St. Benedict prep,
and then Tuesday, my phone was just ringing nonstop,
from a couple of schools.
Some of 'em were looking for, like, immediate transfers,
mid-season, like now.
Some wanted to see what we could do next year.
Oh, cash money!
One of the schools that's been interested
are now asking how much money to get him over there.
I would never take money for my son to go somewhere.
They will never have that type of power over my son.
No.
The goal is to get a free college education,
and whatever happens after that,
whether it's pro or a very good job,
I'm okay with that, as long as we can get a free education.
It's a tough decision.
We don't know what's gonna happen,
but I believe a transfer probably is gonna happen.
Could be next week, could be the end of the season,
could be the end of the school year.
We just really don't know yet.
- That counted. - No, that don't.
That's-- that's an offensive foul.
It counts!
He went to St. Benedict's already.
He went there in eighth grade, and he wanted out.
He didn't want to be there no more.
He wanted to come here.
So... I don't know.
Maybe he thinks he's a celebrity.
Zarique Nutter!
Jay: I talked to him about it, and he's like,
"I'm thinking about leaving the team and going to St. Benedict's."
Yo, I'm about to be a model.
Now I'm thinking, "Okay." I go, "That's gonna be
a hard end of the season decision."
And he's like, "Yeah, I'm thinking about leaving mid-season,
like, you know, like ASAP."
So that's when, like, in my mind, I'm like,
"Oh, shit."
Like, "Whoa, wait a second. Like, this is not
you thinking about leaving end of season.
This is you thinking about leaving, like, tomorrow."
Hey, yo. I should probably be like...
And I'm like, "If you decide to leave mid-season,
I don't know how other people are going to react,
and your reputation is all you have.
It's all you have, and this is not me saying this to deter you,
one way or the other, but that's something
that you have to take into consideration."
And I think that's a lot for a 15-year-old kid to handle.
Zarique: They offered me three years of free education
at their school.
I don't want to do it to the team,
but I want to do what's best for me
that's gonna put me in the best situation
to make my mom happy, so,
I think me going to Benedict's be the best chance,
and chances like this don't come often.
So I wanna take it while it's there.
I don't want them to just forget about me,
and then I'ma be stuck here.
If it was up to me, I'll leave.
If I could leave Friday, I'd leave Friday,
finish the week out here.
This can't wait till the end of the season?
I don't think--
I don't think that's what's best.
You've gotta dribble the basketball. I don't.
I'ma help you do what I think makes sense,
but you gotta dribble the basketball.
That's why I won't force you to stay somewhere
where you don't want to stay.
But this type of situation
is going to get probably a little messy
amongst coaches and things like that.
I want whatever is best for you guys.
It's not me trying to sway somebody one way or the other.
I know that's a big decision for him.
I had to make big decisions before
when I was younger growing up,
and I was thankful to have the help
of my mother and my father and my coach.
OG, what do you think?
Because you've dealt with this before.
Actually, this is the first time I've heard
someone wanted to leave mid-season.
I mean, I know how the game go,
and I'm not mad at people, because that's what they do.
That's they job. It's a business.
But, you know, sometimes
we gotta be loyal to who we're loyal to.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, when Jay did the team goals and all that,
his goal was to win a state championship for me and hisself.
- Yeah. - You can't win that there.
I mean, not this year,
not next year, not the year after.
I don't know. It's just-- I'm just caught up.
Like, mid-season, I don't agree with that,
where I'm supposed to be loyal to some guys
and they're loyal to me,
and then I just walk out the door on 'em.
End of the season, it might be a little easier.
But right now? It's, like, what benefits me if I leave right now?
You know what I'm saying? You gotta weigh that, too.
Like, I mean, you gotta think about everything.
You can't just say, "I'm out."
They get six pair of sneakers.
They go here, they go there.
Sometime that stuff don't mean nothing, man.
But like I said, it's your decision
and your mom's decision.
Jay: Ball's in your court.
Think about it.
Whatever you do, I got love for you.
All right? I'll see you tomorrow, man.
- Okay. - All right, brother.
I mean, I don't think he's mentally ready for that, personally.
He barely said two words.
He talking about he mature? He barely said anything.
And you talking about trying to play at St. Benedict's?
That's what I'm saying. But I don't think it's him.
I think that somebody said, "You gotta get out of here.
You gotta get out. You ain't gonna go nowhere from Central.
You ain't going nowhere."
He thinking about leaving.
- Mid-season. - St. Benedict's.
- Mid-season? - St. Benedict's, though.
He gonna go there and he ain't gonna have
that connection with the coach.
And he ain't gonna have that connection with the players.
We more than just practice and games.
Ain't gonna be no, "Yo, I need to talk to you after practice,"
in a situation like that.
'Cause your problem is going to be more than what they used to.
They just going to find a replacement.
Why would he commit career suicide like that?
- Uh, cool. - ( line ringing )
- Zarique? - Yeah. Hello.
- How you doing? - I'm good. You?
Good. How was your meeting today?
- It was good. - You had an interview?
Yeah, we having an interview.
They recording right now, too.
I don't know if I want to be recorded.
( chuckles )
Uh, give me a call when I'm not recorded.
All right.
I don't know, Zarique.
I'm still a little nervous for you.
I mean, y'all on a good run right now
and you got something special going on.
I just want you to finish what you started.
They saying that they are going to work on my skill level
to make me a better player
and try to get me ranked in the country
so I can get more looks from colleges.
And, like, you want to hear stuff like that,
say you're gonna blow up and stuff.
So I wanna-- I wanna--
that's what's feeding into my head, like, "Just go."
That's what's making me want to go so bad.
His reaction was, "Why you gotta leave, bro?"
I said, "I want to do what's best for me and mom."
He said, "Well, do what's best for you and your mom.
Just make sure you come support me when you can,
and I will support you whenever I could.
And if you blow up, don't forget about me."
That's what happened.
I still don't think you should leave mid-season,
but Zarique has to play, not me.
♪ No time to waste ♪
♪ Now I've gotta raise ♪
♪ The stakes ♪
( music playing )
( vocalizing )
♪ Put my art on the line ♪
( vocalizing )
♪ Gotta move like it's mine ♪
( vocalizing )
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