(CBS DETROIT) – For young athletes, it’s important to listen to those that blazed the path before them.
It’s an opportunity to know what to do at the right moments, and what not to do when put in certain situations. It’s what former basketball player Alexander Newell wishes he had growing up.
He’s now passing on what he learned in his journey as an athlete to the next generation.
“I wanted to write a book to inform the youngsters of my life,” Newell told CBS Detroit. “And how I was going down the right path. And all of a sudden, I just went down the wrong path.”
His book, “If These Bricks Could Talk,” is an autobiography of his life as a Detroit high school basketball star from the Brewster Projects and how his decisions led him away from possible fame and fortune.
As a high schooler, Newell averaged nearly 25 points a game at Murray-Wright High School, a school that produced some notable athletic alumni, such as Detroit Tigers legend and MLB hall of famer Hal Newhouser.
Newell committed to Alabama State but soon dropped out after finding limited success with the Hornets.
“I basically got in my own way,” Newell says.
Still determined to make his pro basketball dreams come true, Newell tried everything he could, even taking a chance against a Detroit Pistons legend.
“I got a team, just so I could play against Isiah Thomas because I wanted to measure my game,” Newell says. “Isiah Thomas, I knew he played for the Pistons, the bad guy from Chicago, but I want to see where I’m at.”
It’s an opportunity lost for Newell, but he would end up rebounding from it without ever suiting up in the NBA.
Over the past seven years, he’s held a basketball camp for underprivileged kids, giving them the guidance and support they need to succeed.
Along with his wife of 20 years, Newell says he wouldn’t be where he was today if it wasn’t for her.
“I wouldn’t be sitting here right now, if it wasn’t for her, to tell you the truth. Words can’t describe what she’s done [for me],” Newell says.
Newell hopes that his teachings will inspire the kids at his camp to achieve things he never could.
When asked how it would feel if one of those kids made it to the NBA, and mentioned his camp as a reason he made it there, Newell said that would be when he knows he made it to the NBA.
“Yes, I do. Yes, absolutely,” Newell says.
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