Duke University’s Cameron Indoor Stadium. Clouds cover the setting sun behind me. I feel like I need a shower. I just interviewed a kid who didn’t want to be interviewed, and we talked about things he didn’t want to talk about, all under the supervision of a man who’d be far happier if I wasn’t there, just so that I can write a story they’d both prefer that I not write — a story that isn’t even the story I first set out to write five months ago.
In 2009, Andre Dawkins was a 6’4 high school junior at Atlantic Shores Christian School in Chesapeake, Va., ranked by ESPN as the No. 10 overall recruit and the No. 2 overall shooting guard for the class of 2010. Recruited by Duke, he graduated from high school a year early just to help the Blue Devil’s razor-thin backcourt for the 2009-10 season. He then suffered a terrible tragedy: A little more than a month into the season, his older sister, Lacey, 21, died after a car accident on Dec. 5, 2009 while traveling to Durham to watch him play in a game against St. John’s. It would have been the first college game she’d seen him play.