Before center/power forward Marquese Chriss agreed to a one-year training camp contract with the Golden State Warriors in September, he celebrated another trip around the sun. For Chriss, his 22nd birthday on July 2 was cause for reflection.
Accompanying an adorable baby photo of himself, he starts with a joke about how quickly the years fly by. (If he’s feeling this way now, imagine when he’s Stephen Curry’s age!) But then he expresses being surprised by his own success.
“Look how far I’ve [come] in such a short time,” Chriss writes. “[M]an, God is good!”
But before that expression of gratitude, Chriss opened up about being discounted early in life, in the worst kind of way, by the people who should never write off children: teachers.
Chriss wrote:
My 5th and 6th grade teachers were the first [people] to ever doubt me. [T]hey told me I wouldn’t amount to anything and [would] end up in jail.
[That] definitely wasn’t the last time [I’d] be doubted by someone, so to those who support me [through] everything I been [through], I love you.
He ended with the hashtag #TMC — to whom it may concern, to whomever needs some uplifting.
Less than three months later, Chriss is under contract with the Western Conference champion Warriors, with coach Steve Kerr excited about his abilities and the team’s stars pleading with general manager Bob Myers to convert his training camp contract into something more.
