Tremendous read.
"The opportunity to play basketball surrounded me with good people," Trent said.
Reading this reminds me of one of my best friends. He grew up in a large disfunctional family that was always in trouble with the law. Their long standing family tradition was that the police were the enemy. Subsequently they had multiple run-ins with police that didn't end well. By their thought process the cops were always out to get them. They weren't in an illegal enterprise (drugs, robbery, etc.) but they were always in alcohol induced trouble which would be exacerbated when they would confront the police. Luckily for him he played sports and it was his exposure to outside influences he was able to avoid the same traps his family was (is) in. He always said his lightbulb moment was when the brother of one of our friends got pulled over and he was polite and the policeman was cordial back. He had never been around anybody that had handled it that way. Now his situation wasn't nearly as bad as Gary's but it does show a similar perspective.