JD Jackson

Elijah, seventeen, has always been sure of just one thing--basketball--and believes it will be his way out of West Baltimore, but when gang violence knocks him down, helping a veteran repair his rickety home helps Elijah see what really matters.

"The Education of Kendrick Perkins is an intimate memoir about race, fatherhood, and basketball, from former NBA player and outspoken cultural critic, Kendrick "Perk" Perkins. At age eighteen, Kendrick Perkins left his grandparents' run-down yellow house in Beaumont, Texas for the last time. Sure, he'd traveled the country for camps and tournaments. He'd banged and bruised with the biggest and most skilled players the amateur basketball world had...