25 Years Later

Twenty-five years ago, the #1 ranked high school basketball player in the nation was shot and killed.  Ben Wilson's death resonated across the country.  In the Sunday Chicago Tribune, he's remembered by K.C. Johnson who was a member of the Evanston basketball team that lost to Wilson's Simeon team in the state championship, in his last high school game.  His violent death came to personify the rising violence that was part of the growing drug epidemic in Chicago.  Today it's worth being reminded by the continued sadness at his death that unfortunately the problem of urban gun violence is not also a story of the past. 

Ben is still probably not the most famous basketball player to wear #25, though.  Another famous man born in the 60s who also wore #25 likely wins that honor, and now maybe has the chance to do something about the violence still ongoing.