She found basketball when she was 7, sampling it and sensing a talent. “I picked up a ball and played in the park with friends,” she said. “I knew if I practiced, I could be good.”

When she was 9, her parents separated. For two years, Chicken and her younger sister remained with their mother, Cinthea Franklin. Chicken and her mother repeatedly clashed over Chicken’s staying out late and her diffidence about cleaning up. She left to live with her father and his girlfriend at his girlfriend’s apartment. Soon afterward, they broke up. Her father was not working. He wrote rap songs and aspired to be a rapper. For several years, they rotated through homeless shelters.

Basketball helped hold her together during this rootlessness, Chicken said. When she turned 10, she began playing in tournaments on boys’ teams, the only girl on the court.