In a world of change, a lot has happened. Black people have fought for many equal rights such as freedom of speech, life liberty, and property. While some blacks could not stop fighting, others found a dream. Michael Warren is a former all American basketball player from UCLA, who was coached under hall of fame coach John Wooden.

He was raised in South Bend, Indiana Michael Warren explained that his “childhood was probably not unlike most kids in my town.” As he grew, he faced many obstacles, one of which was dealing with a racist neighbor. He said,” I use to come outside to play and my neighbor who was a little kid from Oklahoma use to always call me Nigga… I use to always beat him up, everytime he’d call me this name. Eventually I figured he got he got tired of the beatings because he stopped… we became really good friends.” That was the only racist thing he went through while smiling, he sighed,” my neighborhood was pretty peaceful.” Clearing his throat, he comment,” I had white and black friends and most of them are still friends of mine now.” Micheal really didn’t have any problem with racialism, there wasn’t places where he couldn’t go where there were whites.

As Michel grew, he remained in the love with basketball. He later attended South Bend Central where he played basketball for an integrated school. He was the leading player in points and assist. His ability to lead his high school to championships caught a lot of majors college’s attention.”I had phenomenal parents” sighed proudly. They encourage him with anything he wanted to send his mind to .” Once I decided I was going to UCLA, I wanted to go visit my parents.” They never told me that a college was offering to pay off the mortgage of the house because, they said,”If you knew that the school was offering you this you would of taken it to help us.It would of been for the wrong reason for you to go to that college.” expained Michael. Even though money was an issue for his family as he grew, he realized doing something he loved was worth more than money. Michael did not play for the money or the fame and although it came with it, he played for the love of the game. He played because he was a leader on and off the court. Michael said,” People who are underprivileged they seek out the money first and when you make money your goal you usually end up in the a bad place.”