A clothes hamper was pushed to the corner of the room and it became a basketball basket, with rolled-up socks as balls. This is how Jerome Kersey, then 4 or 5, began playing hoops.
Kersey, a Clarksville native who starred at Longwood, went on to play 17 years in the NBA (1984-2001). But there was no indication that was on the horizon during his early years of organized competition, or even as a freshman and sophomore at Bluestone High School.