d happen, than to go visit your son in jail or behind a wall or in the g

The thought still sends a shudder down Cameron Smiths spine.What if Darren Lockyer hadnt intercepted that pass?Queensland hope to honour the 10th anniversary of their landmark 2006 State of Origin III win by sealing a rare series whitewash at ANZ Stadium on Wednesday night.History shows Lockyer launched a Maroons dynasty when he pounced on an errant Brett Hodgson pass and scored the winning try to break NSWs three series winning run.Smith remembers it fondly as the match that not only sparked Queenslands unprecedented Origin dominance but ignited the careers of some of rugby leagues greats.But Smith - now the Maroons captain - admits he sometimes wonders what would have happened if Lockyer hadnt been lurking that night.I do now and again, he said.It was a turning point in Origin history and a lot of our careers.Back in 2006, the Origin landscape could not have been more different ahead of game three.A dominant NSW were on the verge of a then-record four straight series victories.It wasnt just Origin careers on the line.The Origin concept itself was under fire due to the Blues unprecedented winning run.That was the most worried I had been before a game I reckon, Smith said about just his third full series for Queensland.Everyone thought their job was on the line.Back then I think only Lockyer, Petero (Civoniceva) and Steve Price had won a series victory - they (NSW) had won three in a row.Ten years later Queensland are in a different predicament ahead of game three.They have already sealed their 10th series win in 11 years.And they hope to clinch only their fifth whitewash.The survivors of the Queensland team - Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Nate Myles and Sam Thaiday - have come a long way since that 2006 scare.But Smith said memories of how things could have been so different 10 years ago would ensure the Maroons never took success for granted.That game changed the course of Origin itself, Smith said.That put us on the course of eight straight.That night helps your confidence, your self belief - that nothing is impossible.That is what is great about sport - it can have a positive effect on your life.The man who helped inspire their decade of dominance - coach Mal Meninga - may have moved on this year.But Smith - ahead of a record 39th Origin - said the spirit of 2006 still ran through the team under new coach Kevin Walters.Thats what I thought Mal brought back that was lost I think - that trust in each other, valuing your teammate and jersey, Smith said. 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"We won that game because of Tony Parkers aggressiveness," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "His juice; his aggression all night long. This story appears in ESPN The Magazines Dec. 12 NFL Chemistry Issue. Subscribe today!YOUR SON IS the starting point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, a 20-year-old cast as their next superstar. It affords you luxuries once unimaginable. Mansion shopping in Brentwood? Perusing European sports car dealerships in Beverly Hills? Dream bigger. Yet here you, Antonio Russell, are on a late August afternoon, idling in your black GMC truck outside a vacant lot in a misbegotten patch of Louisville, Kentucky. The Southern sun is kicking the temperatures into the 90s as you roll down the drivers side window and start rebuilding the wooden shotgun house from memory: the marble floors, the stained glass windows, two built-in waterfalls, one on both floors. It was the jewel of Louisvilles West End, half a dozen blocks from Muhammad Alis childhood home. Your grandparents poured their lives into it, and you dreamed that someday theyd leave it to you -- it was all you ever wanted -- and, sure enough, they did. Then you put all their blood, sweat, love and trust in the name of a family member who took out a loan against the house, even though it was paid for, and eventually it fell into the citys hands. You learned the real estate business to try to buy it back, to save it, but you couldnt. So all that exists now is ankle-high grass and a few stone steps that lead to nothing but your mistake.You wish you had a picture handy. Oh, it was really something. Theres a reason you stop here 10 minutes into what will become a three-hour tour of your sons life. Once, you couldnt bear to be anywhere near here. That home was your responsibility, and you trusted the wrong person, and look what happened. And though the pain is still there, always will be, now you feed off it, reminding yourself how easily one mistake can destroy what it took a lifetime to build -- how without eternal vigilance, the most precious things can be taken from your life and bulldozed. These days, you visit all the time. Sometimes you grab McDonalds and pull up here to eat. Sometimes youll tell friends to meet you beside it. Sometimes youll drive by, just because, like today, when youre snaking through Louisville, from its inner city to its suburbs, pausing at parks where your son played, schools he attended, houses where he lived. Its a lesson that shapes you.I cant put my kids life and the outcome in anybody elses hands, you say. Anybodys.ABOUT A MONTH earlier, at high noon on a triple-digit Las Vegas scorcher, your son DAngelo moseys into an empty hotel conference room just off the Strip. As NBA custom dictates, a player of his caliber -- drafted No. 2 in 2015 -- should dominate summer league here, and so he has. In a few months, hell extend his hot streak into the season, serving up a buffet of 3-pointers and further evidence of his high-end court vision, establishing himself as the leading candidate to fill the vacancy left by Kobe Bryants retirement. But he cites, instead, another goal -- a family motto, he says, one his father instilled: Create new headlines.Going around the league, people know, Oh, he got in some trouble or He didnt play well his rookie year or Hes a bust. Thats the headline, DAngelo says. Im going to have a million more opportunities to create new headlines, and I cant wait. Cant wait.You remember the old headlines. Vast sums of ink were devoted to DAngelo last season when the Lakers capsized to a franchise-worst 17-65. The rookie clashed with then-Lakers coach Byron Scott, who publicly, and frequently, called the 19-year-old immature. Then in late March, a video surfaced of Russell filming a private conversation between himself and teammate Nick Young, who didnt appear to realize he was being taped. Russell, on camera, asked about Youngs love life outside of his relationship with his then-fiancée, Australian rapper Iggy Azalea. (Im glad you told my video all that, Russell could be heard telling Young. Huh? Young replied, turning his face toward Russell before the video cut out.) At a breakfast meeting soon after, no Laker would sit at Russells table, a source told ESPNs Ramona Shelburne; in another instance, the source said, Russell came into the locker room and sat next to guard Lou Williams, who got up and walked away. The resulting tension, sources say, played a role in the Lakers 48-point loss to Utah on March 28, tied for the worst loss in franchise history.How exactly the video leaked remains unclear, but Russell had broken one of pro sports most hallowed codes, exposing the inner sanctum of athlete hedonism. Even worse, hed done so to one of his teammates. DAngelo Russell goes down as the worst teammate in sports history!!!! Knicks guard Brandon Jennings tweeted in response to the scandal.Russells fledgling brand was dented. A high school coach in California contacted Ron Harris, a former assistant basketball coach at Montverde Academy in Florida, where Russell spent three years. Ron, your boy DAngelo? he said. The young guys out here do not care for him anymore. They dont want anything to do with him. They said theyre going to stop drinking Gatorade -- which Russell endorses -- because of what he did to Nick Young. Says Harris, He was like enemy No. 1 of the people for a while.Ask family members, childhood friends, teammates and coaches to describe Russell and youll hear prankster, jokester and fun-loving -- and some intimate that those traits led to the mishap. Sometimes, you can tell [players], The iron is hot, dont touch it, says Thomas Scott, an assistant/player development coach with the Lakers last season and Byron Scotts son. Some people want to find out.Still, others who know Russell well say the incident isnt like him at all. It was an accident, an aberration. Russell and Nick Young were friends, after all. D went to his sons birthday party and everything, says Jamie Johnson, Russells childhood friend. That situation was just over the head and the video got into the wrong hands, but thats not who he is.Russell, for his part, compares the situation -- and all of last season -- with being whistled for a foul; complaining wont change the verdict. What I went through last year was horrible, he says. But I can learn from it and turn it into a positive.Listen to those words again. As his father, you recognize them; its like listening to a tape of yourself. They are your words. These are the things youve said for years. But where were you through all of this? You try to tell yourself its all part of Gods plan. But still: You werent there. And look what happened.YOU HAD DESIGNS on moving to LA to protect DAngelo from those who might seek to prey on a newly minted teenage millionaire. But you didnt. You had a 3-year-old daughter, Chloe, back in Louisville. You couldnt stand to be apart from her. So instead you told DAngelos two older brothers -- Antonio and LaShawn Gilliam -- to leave college at Northern Kentucky University, take online classes and move in with DAngelo in LA. You called DAngelo five times a day, texted countless more, seeking every detail. My dad is one of the smartest guys I know, DAngelo says. Whenever he speaks, you listen. He can talk your head off. He can lecture your head off.You constantly worry that your kids are tuning you out; youve felt that way for years, even back when youd drive them to AAU tournaments all over. Pops, you been preaching to us all day, theyd say from the back seat, and youd pause. But then youd consider the circumstances. You werent just driving DAngelo. You were driving DAngelo and his brothers and two or three friends too -- and that wasnt cheap. Youd have to rent a truck or a van and cover food, hotels, everything. And youd have to drive all night sometimes, headlights stabbing through the darkness, the road disappearing beneath you. But you were happy to do it, since it meant keeping all these kids -- your kids -- involved in something positive, safe.All you asked for in return was their attention.YOU ALWAYS LIKED the road. It gave you peace of mind, and youve spent plenty of time on it, missing only about 10 of DAngelos games during AAU, high school, prep school and college. Ten games. In five years. You even managed to attend about 60 games during DAngelos rookie season with the Lakers, shuttling back and forth between Louisville and LA.As for DAngelos troublesome year? You peer out at Louisvilles downtown, pausing for a beat to consider the skyline. Youre not justifying anything, but your son is young, in a new city, a new tax bracket. Hell make mistakes, sure, but you believe adversity is necessary for achieving any goal. And yes, you wonder whether being there wouldve stopped it. But here it gets tricky. You dont want to feel controlling -- you know it could backfire -- though youre not above stepping in. I will do it. I will. I will, you say. Because this is my son. Id rather be overprotective ... than go visit my son in jail or behind a wall or in the grave. And its my responsibility. I brought these guys into this world. This is my responsibility.For hours youve talked with your eyes forward, on the road, but now, at a Louisville stop sign, you turn and make direct eye contact, your hands clenching the steering wheel. You hold your gaze for a long moment before returning it to the road.LAST SEASON, AS an assistant coach for the Warriors, Luke Walton watched clips of DAngelo Russell and thought, This kid could be special. Since Walton became the Lakers head coach, the words he has used to describe Russell have included great, awesome and coachable. These are not the words Waltons predecessor used just a year ago. He can be as good as he wants to be, Walton says.DAngelo suffered through the worst season in Lakers history, one of the most tumultuous seasons a rookie could endure, and if all that didnt change him, its unclear what would. I take it as a positive because all I know is what I came into, Russell says. I got drafted into a farewell tour. I got drafted and came into Byron Scotts era and what we went through as a losing team. Thats all I know in the NBA. All he knows is what it felt like to be removed from the starting lineup 20 games into his first season, to be ridiculed publicly by his own coach, to watch an injury-prone 37-year-old dominate the ball on nearly every possession. While other lottery picks drafted alongside him played huge minutes for awful teams, Russell was often benched late in close games, a seeming indication that he wasnt ready for the moment or couldnt be trusted or both.If his faith in the Lakers was shaken, who could blame him?I dont want that ever again, Russell says. I dont want to come in with a losing record. I dont want to go to a losing team and youve got guys going every which way after practice -- the chemistry just wasnt there..dddddddddddd I feel like with this team and with this organization, people want to be a part of it. People want to be Lakers. Theres just so much pressure, and some guys handle it and some guys cant. Ive always been a guy that, I dont know, just attacks pressure. I want to be a part of this whole thing turning back around. Ive seen what it was to be at its lowest point. I want to be a part of a playoff run this year ... next year, Finals.YOU STEER THROUGH the West Ends Section 8 housing and faded factories. You call this area Lost Hope. You never joined gangs, but you hung out with those who did and saw how easy it was to fall in with them. Then you had kids, the first when you were 19, and soon you feared the West End would consume them. You moved your family to different homes in the neighborhood for years, but it wasnt until DAngelo reached middle school that he and his brothers -- hes the third of four boys -- started living with you on a full-time basis. You were separated from their mother then, and it was only then that you could watch your children constantly. For them to live in my house and to worry about them every single second of their day, it saved my life, you say. Thats really how I feel.Your mission was clear: Avoid the stain of a criminal record. And you called upon the West End to drive that message home. If you want to do exactly what everybody else is doing, youd tell your kids, then youll be on the corner one day, saying, I had good grades. I had all these colleges reaching out to me to do this and do that. But youre still on the corner of the ghetto talking about what you used to have going. Says your son Antonio, You can either go left or right, especially in the environment that we were in, and [Dad] was destined to not let us go the wrong way. Every chance that we got, he was on us. Lecturing us. Telling us. Just anything and everything.Lectures werent enough, though. You had to keep them occupied, out of harms way, especially DAngelo, who, you say, was a kid who didnt mind getting in trouble. He took karate, played baseball, soccer and football. But then there was basketball, which DAngelo liked more than the others, and so did you. Why? That was a way to control him, you say. If you didnt do everything that was required of you to play basketball, then you couldnt play basketball. That was the only way that I could get to him -- basketball.You remember DAngelos first game, feeling overjoyed yet remaining critical. I seen something in him! you say today. I stayed on him. And when one of the parents told you it wasnt that serious, just a little league basketball game, you rose from your seat and walked away silently, though inside your head you were screaming. I want to yell at my son. I want to push my son the way I want to push him. So let me do what I want to do.One day, DAngelo, your goofball, your incorrigible prankster, told you, I think Im going to take this serious.You know, you can take this serious, you told him, and it can change your life.YOU SURVEY THE row of modern, multilevel homes with their two-car garages and spacious, well-manicured lawns, the nearby rolling hills providing a scenic backdrop. Its quiet. I wanted to bring them to a place where there was no negativity, you say. You just feel happy out here. Youre miles from the West End, in an area southwest of Louisville named Valley Station. All along, you knew that to change their lives they needed to leave the West End for good because no matter how close an eye you kept on your kids, DAngelo was a target. If there was an older kid and he liked him and that kid was a cool kid to him, but he didnt go to school and he hung out in the projects or he gang-banged over here, DAngelo couldve followed that footstep, you say. So it was my job to get him away from here.And so you moved your family to a three-bedroom brick home along Pleasure Court; DAngelo was about to start seventh grade then. Finally, your sons could play outside and leave the front door unlocked and you could sleep a little easier. But just two years later, as a high school freshman, DAngelo was dominating to the point that his coaches kept telling you that your son wasnt being pushed, that theyd have to lace up sneakers and practice against him because hes killing everybody.Uh-oh, you thought, this could be bad. Perhaps DAngelo would pick up bad habits, especially in the classroom -- and you knew where that could lead. You, after all, had played basketball too, and had grown accustomed to the spoils of being the tallest (6-foot-4) and best on youth teams. But when coaches told you to run or do pushups, youd lie and say you had asthma or bronchitis. Youd show up just before school ended and practice started. You thought you knew everything. You didnt listen to anyone. And coaches let it slide. They gave you an easy road, and you took it. Then in high school, friends dropped out and you followed their lead. I just gave up, you say. You never graduated, never attended college. You let your grandmothers house fall into the wrong hands. You could go on and on and on. Those are my lessons.Now youre 41 but look half that, more like your sons brother than their father. You hear that one all the time. You tell everybody, My kids keep me young. Are you always on them because your father never could be, dying, as he did, when you were 5? Perhaps. I didnt have nobody in my corner, nobody to push me. I wish I really did have someone to push me. My whole reason for doing this was just to keep my kids out of harms way. I know how the devil is, you say. I know how the devil is.DANGELO WANTED OUT, to go back home to Louisville, but you werent having it. You believed he needed more routine, more structure, more competition. So you sent him off to Montverde Academy, a Florida-based prep basketball powerhouse led by hard-nosed coach Kevin Boyle.Ron Harris, then a Montverde assistant, remembers Russells first practice as a sophomore and recalls that DAngelo, one of the top guards in his class, was destroyed by Montverdes veterans, some of whom would go on to play at Kansas, Kentucky, Florida and Clemson. I put my hand on his shoulder and said, Dont worry, son, its going to get better,? Harris says, and I didnt know if it was going to get better. Boyle wasnt sure either: He had high-level ability, a little bit too cocky at first, too confident, so I had to break him down a little bit and build him back up.In one game late in Russells first season, Boyle said he didnt care if the sophomore took 20 shots, but he didnt want him shooting the first time he touched the ball ... and thats exactly what Russell did. Boyle benched him for the rest of the game. DAngelo couldnt believe he didnt get much run, but he didnt play hard enough at the time. That kind of became an awakening for him, Harris says.Rae Miller, an assistant coach, says Russell would be the one to pull up his shorts too high or take wild shots in practice to break up the monotony. Boyle says that if Russell were to miss five shots in a row, he might blame the ball or the rim or whoever passed him the ball, but never himself. At the end of Russells rocky sophomore season, Miller drove him to the airport, believing Russell could be gone. I think his dad understood that he needed the discipline from me as a coach and the school, Boyle says. I knew he was going to make it. I knew from that moment that his father had laid down the law and said, This is what youre doing, and I think he just started to get better and buy in.Russell stayed for two more years, and he says his three seasons in Florida fast-tracked his maturity. But the joker in him remains. Ohio State womens basketball star Kelsey Mitchell recalled how at OSU DAngelo would wet a wad of paper, stick it in someones ear and act like it was someone else. With the Lakers, Thomas Scott says Russell is the type whod tell someone he had a smudge on his shirt, then run his finger up to the guys nose when he looked down: Made you look!Now imagine, for a moment, how those antics would align with Kobes maniacal, no-nonsense mentality. Still, you believe that all things happen for a reason, that the powers that be orchestrated that your son could spend his first season alongside Bryant, who was in his last. DAngelo, if you can get that killer mentality from him or that business savvy from him, or if you can just get the mentality of what it takes to make it, youll be great, you told your son. Youll be in a better position than anyone.JUST ABOUT EVERY day, if theyre looking for you, theyll find you in the West End, where plenty of family still live. The area hasnt changed much, you say. It drove you to push all your sons, not just DAngelo. You couldnt let any of them fail. Now one of those sons is studying to become a lawyer and another hopes to become a CEO. You like to believe that the weight of your words, the sheer onslaught of them, pushed your kids to think: I gotta find something and succeed at it because if I dont, Im going to be the one left at home with Pops, listening to his lectures. Im saying it as a joke, you say, but thats probably what was in his head.You tell your kids that you dont know it all, that you know only from all the mistakes youve made and those youve seen, and that if they just do the opposite, theyll be fine. You, like any father, want them to be better than you were, and to you theyve already surpassed you. I feel like I have a dynasty, you say.At times, you thought youd pushed so hard that theyd grow up to hate you. Yeah, you talk too much. You lecture too much. You might even get on their nerves. You know it. But they understand your story. They respect where youre coming from, which comforts you. Because even if you told them 20 times not to try to beat a yellow traffic light, it needs to pay off only once to be worth it.You tell DAngelo that pressure either bursts a pipe or forms a diamond. You plan to observe that process in person -- to move to Los Angeles for the 2016-17 season, to sign a one-year lease in the same Westside neighborhood as your son, just to make sure everything is going smooth, you say. Or maybe, just maybe, youll stay longer than one season. Youll make that decision in time. And yeah, you know how all this sounds. But youd rather be overbearing than have something bad happen, than to go visit your son in jail or behind a wall or in the grave. Its your responsibility, you tell yourself. And if you forget, you just swing by the vacant lot where the family heirloom once stood. Remember: You brought these children into this