>I read on msn.com that he "hung out in bad crowds" in high school.

Hung out in bad crowds, did he? It must be true if it was written somewhere.

Allow me to retort ;-(. How many black professional athletes DIDN'T grow up in bad crowds? That's the reality. That is not bleeding heartism and is not meant to excuse the genuine bad dudes among them. But to subscribe to some airy cliche like "hung out in bad crowds" diminishes all of us. We have to somehow get beyond that. Until I know otherwise, that's a human life lost too soon.