BOOK

In My Brother’s Shadow is a riveting cautionary tale about the relationship between two brothers, unified by a passion for basketball, forced apart by tragic choices with life-altering consequences.

Growing up in the Historic District of the Griffin Park public housing project, built in the 1940s for low-income Black families and later added to the National Register of Historic Places, the brothers found solace in the game of basketball. Despite living in conditions where people inhaled soot and toxic fumes from restless, pollution-riddled highway traffic, the brothers each developed their own brand of what maturity looked like.

Like most siblings, the brothers competed in all areas of life and sports, especially the same sport, and it escalated the intensity of their rivalry. Robert and William’s passion for basketball fostered a mutual motivation between the two, a closeness, a sense of competition. Playing basketball at an early age helped the brothers make friends and connect with peer groups, fueling extensive connection and companionship.

But in their adolescent years, something changed. One fateful decision instantly transformed the two brothers into strangers without a connection, forcing each to go in different directions, drastically altering their lives forever.