PORTLAND —When Rodney Hood speaks at his annual youth basketball camp in his hometown of Meridan, Miss., there invariably comes a time when the gym falls silent.



The speech is never the same, for it is spoken from the heart, not from script, but there is always one part that hits home for the 400 kids, when the chattering and shifting stops. It’s when Hood begins to talk about his story, and when he relates his journey to the NBA with having goals, and aspirations. It’s then that he tells them for the first time the message he wants them to take home: Protect Your Dreams.



Hood as a youth wanted to be a professional basketball player. And everywhere he went — school, church, camps — he said it, and was met by mentors who told him that maybe he should think of being something else. Not that he wasn’t a good player — he was — but he was told over and over that seldom do boys from Mississippi grow up to be NBA...