Jabari Parker's decision to sign with the Bulls this offseason was about much more than basketball.
The Chicago native is proud of his city, how it shaped him and his plan to contribute to the betterment of the areas in desparate need of it.
That much was made clear in an article Parker penned for The Players Tribune, in which he goes into detail of what his hometown means to him.
Parker touches on growing up on basketball black tops, wearing his first pair of Jordans (IIIs), idolizing Michael and Scottie and Kukoc and Paxson, listening to Common and Chance, watching President Obama and his family arrive at Grant Park in November 2008, and the terrifying violence plaguing the city.
The entire article is worth a read. Here's our favorite snippet:
It’s the feeling that you can never have too much company, and too much time with family and friends.
It’s every single friend who reached out to me during my injury rehab. And the entire section of people who would cheer for me when I’d play away games in the United Center. Parents, brothers, aunts, uncles, coaches, teachers. Too many people to even name that never missed the chance to see me come home.
It’s my new teammates and my new team. The glory days of the past and the ones coming in our future.
But it’s not any one place or thing or person. It’s everything together, you know? Like the way a dream feels real but hard to really explain at the same time. It’s the entire culture and community. It’s the people living here right now and the people who lived here in the past.
Parker gets it, and he's going to fit right in with the young Bulls.