Can't Stop Me | Story of Kendall Jenkins

[beast10]

	SCHOOL	INTEREST	OFFER	VISIT
1	Northern Colorado	Medium	Yes	None
2	San Jose State	Medium	Yes	None
3	Nevada	Medium	No	None

RECRUITING: Kendall Jenkins debuts after not playing against Gorman

[beast10]

November 24th, 2014 - 5 day before season debut @ Bishop Gorman

---

He stood spotting up on the perimeter expecting the ball as usual, instead he watched his teammate Kris Wells break down Jerrold and get a shot that hit the back iron and fell into the hands of the defense.

"I'm not gonna say this **** again, pass me the ****ing ball Kris. You're really starting to piss me off."

"I do what I please, bitch." Kris responds with a smirk to the now furious Kendall who still hadn't gotten use to the newcomers absurd responses. He had been the only person to really ever talk back to him on the consistent basis.

A team with two star players was anybodies dream come true but when both of them were also arrogant sons of bitches then not so much.

That's exactly what Las Vegas's Mojave High School had, the school's iconic senior Kendall Jenkins and freshman big shot Kris Wells. Jenkins had been able to accomplish quite a bit as a junior but when Kris came along the next year the duo was no doubt destine to bring home the state title but before that was possible the two had to get along first and that didn't seem to be happening anytime soon.

Instead they constantly argued, both secretly envying each other's skills. So in response to Kris's exploitative remark towards him, the rather large 6'7 200 pound wing pushed him to the ground.

Kris who saw the shove coming but was late to react gets off the ground in a heartbeat and gets all in the face of Kendall before the entire team rushes over to stop the emerging fight. Coach C on the other hand stood watching everything unfold while sporting his famous volcanic face, seconds from exploding.

"GET THE HELL OFF MY FLOOR!" He finally blurts, loud enough to be heard outside of the building. "ITS ONE THING TO HAVE A ****TY TEAM WHO ACTS LIKE THIS BUT WHEN YOU HAVE A STATE CALIBER TEAM THIS IS JUST RIDICULOUS! COME BACK WHEN YOU HAVE SOME DAMN COMMON SENSE!"

Kendall walks off the floor as if he didn't care even though he really did. He knew inside he needed to change or else the word would get around about his attitude and college recruiters would back off. He was just being himself. He never bowed down to anyone.

Coach Austin came along and trailed the two to the locker room to give them a talk. As bad as their attitudes were, everybody knew there was no way that coaching staff would let either one of them go. Richard Austin sat them down looking just as angry as Coach C.

"What the hell is wrong with you guys?"

Kendall just stared at him and Kris did the same.

"I'm asking you a question." He says with his tone steadily rising.

Kris takes a second then replies, "Coach I don't see what I did wrong… I can take anybody on this team so I did just that and—"

"You hear this? This kid got too much confidence, I'm telling you coach. We didn't have no problems until he came along."

"No this has been a problem ever since I could remember Kendall, you two are clones. Got all the potential in the world yet act like little two year olds. Kendall you underestimate your entire team, you don't have faith in any of them. Kris, you play like you don't HAVE a team. If this was Bishop Gorman, Findlay Prep or something you both would've gotten cut because your goddamn attitudes but this is Mojave, you two are our only hope. We can't afford to not have you guys so you've gotta change," he glares at them both during a short pause. "Now get back out there."

"Yeah, man, whatever." Kendall says.

"Ok coach." Kris adds.

They head back in the gym and resume practice with the rest of the team, occasionally continuing the trash talk on a low profile. It was over eventually. Kendall followed the team to the locker room and they discussed practice as usual but avoided bringing up Kris and Kendall's situation to prevent starting more controversy, once Kris left it was mentioned.

"So it looks like the freshman isn't afraid of you." The team's shooting guard Curtis Warren broadly says towards Kendall. "It seems like he's trying to outshine you bro."

"Five seconds left on the clock, we're down by two. Who do you pass it to, me or Kris?"

All Kendall's teammates simultaneously said his name opposed to Kris.

"That is what I thought. I'm not getting outshined by anyone."

In reality, with Kris's insane skill it was actually a possibility that he wouldn't be the star this year. Kendall knew he had to bring it this year and nobody could get in his way.

[beast10]

November 28th, 2014 - 1 day before season debut @ Bishop Gorman

---

Kendall walks into his coach's office after being asked to at the end of practice. He knew it would just be coach complaining as usual so he takes a seat in front of his desk and stares him dead in the eyes.

"What." He firmly says, Coach C couldn't help but to laugh at the kid who didn't seem to have any respect for his superiors.

"Man you're insane," he continued laughing. "I called you here to tell you your ineligible for the season opener, maybe for even more games if you don't pick up your act."

"What!" Kendall face grows much more engaged, negatively. "That's against Gorman! That's the game all the scouts will be at, you can't suspend me! What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm not suspending you, you're ineligible. It's quite simple, you're grades are no good."

He slid Kendall a folder that contained his grades.

He looked through them in awe. Despite having a good season last year, Kendall knew nobody payed any attention to Mojave so this game was very important to him. He was still on square one when it came to basketball and that was his only way to an easy life because his grades sure weren't good enough to take him anywhere and his single mom couldn't afford to get him into a good college.

Kendall remained speechless drained in the thoughts of failure. In result, Coach C gave him an unappeased sorry and dismissed him from the office.

Outside in the hallway waiting for him after track workouts was his best friend Daryl, they'd been friends since middle school where they balled together. He could've easily made the team here at Mojave but he had his issues with coach so he stuck with AAU ball which he considered much more important.

"What'd he want?"

"Says I'm ineligible, can't play against Gorman."

"Really?" He raises his eyebrows. "We will get blown out without you and that's the game where all the scouts are at."

"What do you think I just told him. That was my chance, our pipeline isn't good enough to get me anywhere better than some bull**** college. I needed that exposure."

"Well, it looks like you ****ed up for the time being."

"Yeah, I guess so. Well you need a ride?"

"Nah, I'm gonna stick around with Vanessa."

"Alright see you later." Kendall goes out to his car, angry, he kicked his door before opening it and driving home. He wanted to go take his anger out on the courts of the community park but remembered he had to take his little brother to a piano recital later on.

[beast10]

Bishop Gorman outlasts Mojave

By Tom Brewer (contact)
Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014 | 10 p.m.

Mojave's Kendall Jenkins who plays a huge role on the team was ruled ineligible for the Saturday night game against power house school Bishop Gorman. His team would go on to lose by surprisingly a slight amount; final score being 69-60.

''This school is extremely good year in and year out,'' Mojave's Head Coach Tom Cane says. ''We did a good job holding our own. We challenged them for all 32 minutes but in that last quarter they were able to pull it from us.''

In the fourth quarter he spoke of was when Gorman sealed the game, out scoring the Falcons 25-16. The Gaels run was led by senior Vincent Mario who scored 11 of his 18 points all in that single quarter.

Vincent would be 1 of the 4 Gaels to finish the game in double digits along with Issac Wallace's double double performance consisting of 18 points and 10 boards, Blake Washburn's 13, and Erik Riley's 11 points and 7 assists.

''They're team is full of college bound athletes, one of the best in the nation, I'm happy at the fact that we actually stuck with them. Shows that we have a lot of potential looking forward.''

A freshman, Kris Wells led Mojave in scoring with 21 points in a high percentage fashion for his varsity debut. Very much hyped, the combo guard has already been mentioned in the college recruiting world.

''Kris will be the best player here at Mojave very soon. You guys saw what he could do against this tough competition.'' Cane brought up.

Behind Wells in scoring was sophomore forward Frances Guy who added 12 points and 6 rebounds. Backup guard Earl Alan had 9 assists, making great use of his limited minutes.

Mojave will look to rebound from the loss and get a win this Monday against their host Sunrise Mountain. Jenkins will most likely be debuting this game.

[beast10]

November 29th, 2014 - New things

---

Kendall was upset that he didn’t get to play against Bishop Gorman. So upset that he didn’t even go to the game to support his team… Instead he stuck around at home, luckily his brother was at his friends house so he didn’t have to watch him all day. He was open to do something, he received a call from Daryl and quickly answered it.

“Aye, what’s up.”

“Sup Kendall, you tryna’ hit up this party later today?” Daryl says from the other line.

“Ah yeah, definitely. What time?”

“Around 8, I’mma have Ant and Cody with me too.”

“Alright I’ll be ready.”

Those three made up Kendall’s small crew. He anticipated the party, getting ready until they arrived. He walked outside, seeing an unfamiliar pitch black Chrysler 300 decked with huge chrome rims. The window rolled down revealing Daryl who yelled to the confused Kendall to get in.

He did so, opening the front door to see Cody sitting shotgun, that didn’t last for too long as he quickly found himself in the back.

“Who’s car is this?” Kendall quickly asked, admiring the car’s exterior.

“It’s mine *****, who’s you think it is.”

“How you get it?”

“Man you know I’m in the game,” he says while glancing at his phone. “Matter of fact, before we get to this party we gotta make a stop.”

“The game?” Kendall questions. “What game, drugs?”

“Man, yo clueless ***.” Cody laughed at Kendall.

“Yeah, your mom did a get job keeping you down. It’s all about hustling, you see what it gets you.” Daryl says.

“Man I didn’t know y’all hustled like this until now. Why’d you never get me in on this?”

“You mister basketball and what not, we gotta protect you. You got a future, our future is on these streets.” Ant says.

“Ok but short term, I need the money. My mom doing all she can to keep our fam grounded and its almost still not enough. Y’all ain’t gotta protect me I can hold my own.”

“Well, I can get you into it. But, it’s risky man. It’s real risky, find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time and that’s your life.”

“I told you it’d be short term, I just need that money. I gotta help my mom.”

“Alright, well here. You can start today,” Daryl hands him a small plastic bag of marijuana and stops the car on the side of the street. “You see that dude right there?” He points at a man leaned against the wall in the small alleyway.

“Yeah.”

“Go give that to him. You keep the cash, that’s your introduction bro.”

Kendall nodded and got out the car, walked towards the man who seemed to be middle aged with a full beard and a hoodie with the hood up.

“Who the **** are you?” He says, quickly pulling a pistol out to his side.

Kendall jumps back and repeatedly says he’s with Daryl but he continues to yell until Daryl gets out the car and rushes over, the man recognizes his face and puts the gun away.

“Oh, my fault man. You got my stuff?"

“Uh, yeah. Here.” He hands it over and receives several twenty dollar bills in exchange. Kendall doesn’t hesitate to get back over to the car.

“Man what was up with that? I almost got shot!”

“You said you were there for Daryl didn’t you?” Daryl asks.

“Yeah why?”

“My bad man, I thought you would know street names existed for a reason. That’s why they call me Ace.”

“Can we just get to this damn party, I don’t know **** about y’all.”

“This exactly why we keep you away from the streets. Stick to that court man.” Ant surmised as Daryl began to drive off.

"Aye Ant shut up, everybody start from somewhere." Kendall says in defense, feeling like an amateur.

"Whatever man, you a grown man, I ain't gon' tell you how to live your life." Ant says.

Daryl shrugs, "Same here man, but I'll show you around these streets and how things run if that's what you want. Just don't say we didn't warn you."


They party was more live than any other party Kendall had been to. People were scattered all over the place in the single family home and the music was so loud that he couldn't even hear people right next to him.

He stuck around with his crew for the most part before he saw a couple of girls snickering and pointing in his direction, he went over there to see what was up with them.

"Aye I saw yall pointing at me, what's up?"

"Oh nothing, we just recognized you." An attractive looking girl with long black hair said. "You go to Mojave right?"

"Yeah, yeah, how'd you know?"

"You're that basketball player everybody talks about."

"Yeah that's me too."

The same girl starts to write down her number on a small strip of paper and hands it over to the overwhelmed Kendall.

"That's my number. You should hit me up sometimes." She suggests with a smile.

"Fashoo, we could definitely chill. I'll hit you up as soon as possible. But I got to get back to my crew, I'll catch yall later."

She smiles and says bye. Kendall walks away thinking about how picking up girls had never been that easy. He enjoyed the rest of the night until things got out of hand and a huge fight broke out that even Kendall was involved in.

[beast10]

November 30th, 2014 - Revenge

---

The next day was havoc, Daryl had shown Kendall around the streets like he said he would but it wasn't any fun and games. Daryl was seeking revenge from last night's party.

It all ended in a fight between two groups who had bumped into each other. Kendall foreshadowed gun violence and thought of fleeing the scene but went to find his crew beforehand, from there he saw they were in the mix of the fight. Kendall jumped in from there in attempt to defend his friends.

Things changed when a shot was fired, people went crashing at the exit door while others joined in and pulled out their weapons.

Eventually there was a room full of guns pointed at one-another. It wasn't long before Kendall realized they were all pointed dead at him, his friends and a couple of other familiar faces from school. A man dressed in the majority of black tells them to stay out of their territory and if he saw them again it'd be a 'different story'.

Well now, Daryl wanted vice versa, he wanted to go right back to their territory and have them receive that 'different story'. Throughout that Sunday Kendall met all sorts of people; mainly a bunch of high school drop outs who all claimed they were down to kill anyone.

Now, Daryl had led Kendall to some little house that the gang was having some sort of meeting at. The topic of revenge was discussed, how they would get back on the ones at the party.

"We gon do a drive-by on them fools! Claim what's ours." Vibes suggests, the reckless one of the gang.

Kendall remained open-minded. He'd almost been killed two times in one night but something kept him fascinated with the sudden change in lifestyle.

"Yeah that's perfect, we can catch them at night, that'll get them." Daryl says. "We gotta plan it right though, I don't want nobody in jail."

"Right, the city already broke down so there aren't any cameras. We just gotta get away with no witnesses, it's easy." LJ adds, Kendall found out he was the leader of the gang.

"Aye we family, somebody disrespect us I'll take em out." Vibes stands. "I don't care about no damn jail time. I'll take the L for anybody I consider family." He adds.

"We need you though, we can't just do some stupid obvious crime, we smarter than that." LJ says.

Kendall's head swivels as the back to back conversation continues. He was very intrigued until he looked at the clock on the stove that displayed the time eight minutes before midnight. The fact he had a game tomorrow snapped.

"Aye I gotta get going, I just remembered I got a game tomorrow."

He quickly gets up and heads out the door and into his car and drives home. He thinks the way he left was maybe a little suspicious in the others point of view... But nonetheless he reaches his building, goes to unlock the door and sees his mom sitting right there with a disappointed look on her face.

"I called you a thousand times, had me thinking you were dead. You were suppose to pick up your brother, you were suppose to pick up dinner, and

She continued with the nag but it was all a blur for Kendall, he just wanted to get to sleep after what seemed to be the craziest weekend of his life.

[beast10]

December 1st, 2014 - Time to eat

---

Kendall had waited all draft to hear his name be called and it hadn't happened, the final pick was in.

"With the last pick of the 2019 NBA Draft, the San Antonio Spurs select Andris Petersen."

"NO! I don't even know who that is!" Kendall slaps the lamp off the end table and paces back in forth across the living room.

Kendall wakes up out of the nightmare with a long breath. He gets out of bed and looks at his alarm clock that he noticed hadn't gone off, it wasn't even turned on. He looked at his phone, it was 8:12. School started at 7:30.

"****!" He mumbled before scrambling around the room and gathering some random outfit before rushing out to his car. The last thing he needed was yet another thing coach could use against him.

Kendall walks into the main office relieved, he signs in tardy and heads to Mrs. House's first period class.

"Good to see you're interested in showing up Kendall, unlike the game." What were the odds, Kendall looked up and it was Coach C in the classroom fixing the screen projector with Mrs. House.

Kendall was tied in his words as he was put right on the spot in front of all his classmates.

"I was busy." He firmly says and sits in his assigned desk.

Coach C nodded and eventually left after after a couple of minutes and class resumed. Kendall was tired and used any minute he could to rest his eyes, the day was going by slow and the only thing that was going through his mind was dropping 30 later today.

When lunch period came around Kendall was starving considering he skipped breakfast, he came in the cafeteria a little late and the line was crowded but he still made his way to the front.

He hears his name called out from around and turns around to see it was Daryl.

"What up?" He asks.

"Got some news, they said you walked out suspicious yesterday, they barely knew you and you was hearing all that planning stuff. I tried to defend you but they just don't trust you right now."

"Ok so what am I suppose to do?"

"You have to talk to LJ, he might force you in the gang."

"What do you mean force?"

"Have like four people jump you."

"What the ****? And what if I don't let that happen?"

"Then they gon fire on you, you know too much. They think you undercover for the Rollerz."

"You'd let them?"

"Let's get from the middle of this cafeteria. We gotta talk about this."

They find a circular table that is later filled by Anthony, Cody, and a couple of other seniors. Daryl fills them in on what has to go down.



"A senior, forward, 6'7, Kendall Jenkins!" The crowd gives a loud cheer for Kendall while he high fives his team and does a chest bump with Earl.

The announcer finishes the lineup and Kendall pumps his team in the center of the huddle.

"Alright I'm back yall, those bitches are named Sunrise Mountain, that sounds like a day care, we better go out and blow them out. Falcons on three; 1, 2, 3."

"FALCONS!"

They jog over to the bench were Coach C discusses the match ups. The starting buzzer rang and before Kendall could get in position for tip-off Coach grabbed his shoulder and holds him back.

"You better stick to this gameplan Kendall, don't go insane or you'll find yourself on this bench."

"Yup," Kendall replies.

[beast10]

Posted December 2nd, 2015 - 7:09pm
RECRUITING: Kendall Jenkins debuts after not playing against Gorman

---

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Jenkins, a senior, is a pretty exciting player whether it comes down to his smooths finishes at the rim or his big blocks on the defensive end. The small forward has wrapped up his official season debut with a 67-56 win over Sunrise Mountain after being forced to sit out with a suspension last Saturday against Gorman.

Expectations were high for Mojave's fanbase after the small forward's good outing last season when he had his breakout season, averaging over 15 points a night that played a key role in getting his team a spot in the state sectionals.

This time around Jenkins has help on the team, a freshman named Kris Wells who's good enough to drop 21 on Gorman defense. Wells offered 11 points this time around and with the Sunrise sticking around it queued Jenkins to take over and he did, finishing with a double-double, 23 points, 11 rebounds and stuffed the rest of the stat sheets with 3 assists, blocks, and 2 steals while shooting 8-13 from the field.

"Coach told me to stick with the gameplan before the game and I tried hard to do that but it just wasn't working, I just want to win games and then get into college afterwards... If I have the skill capability to do those two things then I don't see why I shouldn't use it." Jenkins said regarding the game

Being only a three star prospect who's not getting much college attention at the moment will make these type of performances have to happen frequently for Kendall Jenkins if he wants his stock to rise. Otherwise, he'll mull over his offers from Northern Colorado, San Jose State, and Nevada.

We'll keep an eye on him as his team takes on the currently undefeated Durango Spartans.

---

Comments

Jon Flowers - 7:20 P.M.
Played this dude last season and all he does is talk garbage

Paul Rider - 7:43 P.M.
He's not active at all, unless he gets the rebound and takes it coast to coast. Otherwise he just stands around and waits for the ball.

Tim Lacey - 8:02 P.M.
Great player, Kentucky needs to recruit him