As a Chicago-born sports journalist raised in a blue-collar household, I’ve seen how raw belief shapes greatness long before the spotlight. In this piece, I revisit that training camp moment—when Shyrik Alexander looked me in the eye and said, 'I’m going to be more than a star.' Not with bravado, but with quiet certainty. This isn’t just about talent. It’s about the unseen weight of self-belief in systems that don’t get measured by stats. Let me tell you why we only understand a star after the game.

I grew up in Brooklyn watching games where stats lied—but the human story behind them didn’t. In this breakdown of cross-cultural analytics, I expose how algorithms quietly favor underdog teams not because they're 'better,' but because systems ignore their rhythm. This isn't just about shots—it’s about who gets heard when the data doesn’t match the eye. Read on if you’ve ever questioned: Is victory really measured in numbers—or in soul?