I'm Hip!

Back in 1975-76, I was in Junior High School. The popular music was like Shake Shake Shake Your Booty and Earth Wind and Fire, The Hustle, probably the Eagles...stuff like that I remember. Anyway, I played on our school basketball team and we had a guy in 8th grade named Alex. He was mostly soft-spoken, but could occasionally be loud and funny, had a good sense of humor and a really big giant afro that kind of went all over cause it wasn't a tight curl. I believe Alex was multiple ethnicity's. Anyway, I liked him and always got along with him, and we depended on him on the court - he was one of our "big guys." He could run and move well but had suffered some kind of accident when he was younger so he always had a kind of limp, as if one leg was a little shorter than the other, which I think was true. I had long hair at the time and had been nick-named "Hippie" by the track coach. (My hair wasn't all that long, but you know, such were the days). Our basketball coach was from inner-city Detroit, and had played a stint in the ABA, and had come west to work and teach, but still had a shoe on the court and an eye and ear out for another contract really. He could do some pretty amazing things on the court. At some point in the season something happened, some conflict and Alex was off the team. Later he got reinstated though and finished out the season. Late in the school year, after the school basketball season was over, coach organized a three-on-three tournament for us. Alex was one of my two teammates for the event.

Flash forward over the years, and I had forgotten about Alex, about the three-on-three tournament, and what became of a few other friends from that time. Then by chance I read an article about a murder trial. Alex's name (he has an uncommon and unusual last name) appeared on the page as a witness who had been testifying. Apparently Alex had met and befriended the suspect when the charged party was doing some time in prison. Alex was, and still is locked up - serving a very long sentence apparently, for what I don't know. I vaguely remember hearing rumors or discussion somewhere, someplace of some event that happened...but I can't recall. My memories are we were just kids, and he had a good turn around jump shot in the key, and came from or lived at a place or a home that was "different," like supervised or something...I don't really know, can't remember. I remember him laughing and arguing and all the things we did, hair flying, and all of us saying "I'm hip" in response to any and everything.