Sense of awareness carries Fields from Brooklyn to Pittsburgh

Fields is one of the main reasons Pitt is an NCAA tournament favorite. Cal Sport Media

The neighborhood still tugged at Fields, though. One night, Xaverian president Sal Ferrera drove Fields home, but when he reached the student's block, Fields would not get out. Drug dealers were standing on the corner. They wanted the hoops star to sell for them. "He had options," said Ferrara, who arranged for Fields to live with a teammate's family for two weeks. "He made the right choice."

On the court, Fields also struggled. When Alesi sat his star player for three games, the coach said publicly Fields had caught the flu after a middling stretch, but, in reality, it was a cover. "He was suffering from the disease of 'me'," Alesi said.

Adds Fields: "I was being kind of a cancer to my teammates."

The message clearly resonated with Fields. The Clippers, who were 12-11 before Fields sat, won all three games without him and parlayed Alesi's gamble into city and state titles with Fields directing the team. "Great players have his selfishness," Alesi said. "He had to gain composure."

There were things Fields needed to learn when he went to Pitt. At the Panthers' first weight-lifting session, Biggs, Fields' roommate, noticed the stocky guard struggling through bench presses. Asking if he was OK, Fields reassured him, but then disappeared. Searching for him, Biggs saw vomit on a backroom door and then happened upon Fields throwing up into a bathroom toilet. "He's hit the iron hard ever since," said Biggs, a chiseled forward.

Extending Pitt's lineage of New York metro area point guards, Fields played behind Bronx native Carl Krauser as a freshman and has developed under former Pitt star Brandin Knight, now in his third year as an assistant at his alma mater. No matter the challenge, whether it is his weight, last season's broken left foot or last week's sore back and groin, Fields has overcome all obstacles. "The toughness never had to be taught," Knight said. "He took the baton from Carl."

Fields' unwillingness to back down backfired on Sept. 16, 2007. Exiting a nightclub in Pittsburgh's Strip District, Fields had a confrontation with an off-duty police officer that resulted in him being tasered. Fields was charged with disarming a police officer, public drunkenness and aggravated assault.

After completing 50 hours of community service and entering an Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program for alcohol offenders, all charges were dropped and he missed no games. On Dec. 20, 2007, the ninth-ranked Panthers faced No. 7 Duke in a marquee battle at Madison Square Garden. Rallying from a 16-point deficit to force overtime, the Panthers lost senior small forward Mike Cook, who served as Fields' training partner that summer, to a serious right knee injury. Down two points with 4.7 seconds left, Fields dribbled between his legs from left to right at the top of the key, then crossed back over on Duke guard David McClure. Looking for separation, Fields jab stepped, sprang backward behind the arc and buried the game-winner. "He's an assassin," one NBA scout said. "He plays for the big moment."

Atop a dresser in her second-floor apartment, Thomas preserves a photograph of her son's biggest basket in a black-and-gold frame. After retelling the tale, she walks into her son's bedroom, motioning to a corner where a Fisher Price basket once stood. There, in the compact space, she details his first neighborhood challenge. Playing one-on-one against his mother, the 8-year-old boy was defenseless to her dunks. "He'd cry," Thomas said, reenacting her moves. "I'd say, 'Stop it. No one will give you anything. You have to earn it'."

All these years later, it is Fields, who gives the projects denizens something. "Hope," she said. "When neighbors see him, they think they can make it, too."