"Geese was my mentor," says Jackson. "He actually gave me my nickname 'Action', and yes, I can definitely still do the reems (routines and tricks with the basketball that the Globetrotters are famous for)."

"After the eighth grade, my mom moved me and my brother (Tyree) from Chicago to Mississippi," he said. "You can teach a kid talent, but you can't teach him heart. And the one thing I had brought with me was heart. I had never played basketball in my life, but I played in the 10th, 11th and 12th grades and I had a scholarship (at Louisiana State) within three years of actually picking up a basketball."

"I know a lot of the gang members there (YMCA). They look to me kind of like a big brother and I can actually talk to them. I have a way about me, a kind of tough-love way that they understand. They might think I'm a little bit crazy because I'm so hard-core, but I'm only begging them to follow me; like I was the Pied Piper, and I can show them the right path."