Craig Tucker never had to travel far to hone his basketball skills.
As a young man growing up in Flint in the 1970s, opportunities to compete and improve were everywhere.
In the neighborhood schools.
In the various parks around town.
Even in his cousin’s basement.
It was in the basement of cousin Trent Tucker that the two aspiring basketball players got their start. “We’d go in the basement and he had a full court set up where they’d make rims out of cardboard and a hanger,” Craig said. “He had them on both ends of the floor. That’s how we started playing basketball as little guys, just makeshift rims that he made. So, when I went home, I made one in my house. We used to shoot on curtain rods when we were little. We used to get in trouble for doing that.”
When the Tuckers outgrew playing basement basketball, they took their game to the streets.
“I never went to basketball camp,” Craig said. “I always played in the parks. The parks were open. That’s how me and Trent got the competitive spirit of playing against each other. We never had the opportunity to play with each other. If we played with each other, any high school team we were on would’ve been undefeated, no doubt.”
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