FAST FRIENDS WILL BE FOES BRASWELL AND DIXON USUALLY TEAMMATES.Byline: Steve v. t. 1. To pack or stow, as cargo in a ship's hold. See Steeve. Dilbeck Staff Writer ANAHEIM - They've been asked about it for days now, ever since they learned this moment was coming. Still, their answers have not become routine, only more powerful. Kevin Braswell and Juan Dixon Juan Dixon (born October 9 1978 in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.) is an American professional basketball player currently with the NBA's Toronto Raptors. Dixon rebounded from a traumatic childhood to make the NBA. grew up together. Basketball started it, brought them together, but their friendship grew beyond moments on some playground Playground - A visual language for children, developed for Apple's Vivarium Project. OOPSLA 89 or 90? court. Moments of hardship neither could have imagined. Yet even after they went to different high schools and then different colleges, they became even closer. What they never had to do was play against each other. They were a backcourt back·court n. 1. Sports a. The part of a court between the service line and the base line in tennis and other net games. b. pair on traveling Baltimore Baltimore, city (1990 pop. 736,014), N central Md., surrounded by but politically independent of Baltimore co., on the Patapsco River estuary, an arm of Chesapeake Bay; inc. 1745. youth teams. Never opponents. That will change today at 4:45 p.m., when Braswell leads Georgetown on the floor at the Pond and looks across court to find Dixon and Maryland Maryland (mâr`ələnd), one of the Middle Atlantic states of the United States. It is bounded by Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean (E), the District of Columbia (S), Virginia and West Virginia (S, W), and Pennsylvania (N). . And it's not just some insignificant nonconference game but a battle of the Sweet 16 in the NCAA NCAA abbr. National Collegiate Athletic Association West Regional. At stake is a chance to advance to the West final and earn a berth to the Final Four. Yet to advance, one will have to fall. Best friends as opponents, with their college basketball College basketball most often refers to the American basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA. History
``It's going to be very emotional,'' Dixon said. ``We've always played on the same team. Hopefully, we can go out there and just have fun and try to win the game.'' It's not like they're just two minor role players. Dixon, the shooting guard The Shooting guard (SG), also known as the two or off guard,[1] is one of five traditional positions on a basketball team. Players of the position are often shorter, leaner, and quicker than forwards. , is Maryland's leading scorer (18.3 points per game). Braswell, the point guard, led Georgetown in assists (6.25) and was second in scoring (11.3). Best friends with games that always complemented each other, now having to battle to survive in the postseason. Yet they talk to each other every day and say no basketball game could ever come between them. Not after all they've experienced together. ``It gets me very emotional when I think about all we've been through,'' Braswell said. ``Juan is the man he is today because of what's happened to him. He's so strong-minded. Nobody can get to Juan, nobody who can ever hurt him. ``So many people in Baltimore can't believe how far he's come after everything that has happened to him. We feed off each other. Outside of basketball, we just do things. We go out together all the time. We were close, but maybe if what happened to his parents hadn't, we wouldn't have been as close.'' Dixon lost his mother, Juanita, when he was 15, and his father, Phil, when he was 17. Heroin heroin (hĕ`rəwən), opiate drug synthesized from morphine (see narcotic). Originally produced in 1874, it was thought to be not only nonaddictive but useful as a cure for respiratory illness and morphine addiction, and capable of relieving addicts, both died of AIDS after being infected in·fect tr.v. in·fect·ed, in·fect·ing, in·fects 1. To contaminate with a pathogenic microorganism or agent. 2. To communicate a pathogen or disease to. 3. To invade and produce infection in. by dirty needles. Despite being at different high schools, through tragedy, the two basketball players grew only closer. ``I can't explain how close he is,'' Dixon said. ``He's like my brother to me. He was there like a security blanket security blanket n. 1. A blanket carried by a child to reduce anxiety. 2. Informal Something that dispels anxiety. Noun 1. for me when I lost my parents. My brother, Phil, was away at college, so Kevin was really the only male my age who was around that I felt comfortable around. Just someone to talk to.'' Braswell said they knew neither time nor distance would impact their friendship. ``We grew on each other,'' Braswell said. ``It was one those friendships where you meet a person and it's a lifelong friend. We knew once we met each other, how it would be. ``After his parents passed away, he was staying with his aunt and sometimes I would go over there and sometimes he would come over to my house. We'd get up early and go play basketball. It's still like that. There are times where I will stay with him for days, then come home and he'll stay with me.'' Later, Braswell had his own trouble with an arrest for drug possession as a high school senior, and it was Dixon's turn to offer support. Now they talk by phone daily. During the season, they'll take in the other's game when they can. In the offseason, they're back together again. Now about the only thing the junior guards haven't done awaits them today at the Pond. ``(Today) is going to be one of those emotional days,'' Braswell said. ``But once the ball goes up, we're too competitive to sit back and say our friendship is going to stand in the way of us trying to win the game. It should be fun.'' CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1) Juan Dixon (3) of Maryland got needed support from Georgetown's Kevin Braswell when family tragedies hit. Usually they're on the same team. Paul Sakuma/Associated Press (2) Georgetown's Kevin Braswell, left, has long been a pal of Maryland's Juan Dixon. Jack Smith/Associated Press |
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