Michael Brown "Captain Mike"

Amar'e Stoudemire made more than 167 million dollars playing basketball and went into the Hall of Fame two months ago. Today he graduated from the police academy. He is 43 years old and he has wanted to do this since a career day in grade school. Here is the whole thing. Here is what he says when you ask him why. "It's something I always wanted to do since I was a kid." And this. "They asked you on career day, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' And my initial response was a police officer." Now here is the part that explains it. "It runs in the family. My uncle was a captain. His brother was a deputy. My cousin is a captain. My sister's in the academy. So, it's a family tradition, basically." Read that again. An uncle who made captain. That uncle's brother, a deputy. A cousin who is a captain right now. And a sister who is going through the academy at the same time he was. He also says his high school junior varsity coach was in law enforcement. Here is how he describes all of them. "These are all positive influences that steer me in the right direction." He actually started once before. Years ago, while he was playing for the Miami Heat, he went through an auxiliary program and told nobody. "I actually went through a little bit of an auxiliary program back when I was with the Miami Heat that no one knew about." Then he went to Israel and played four more years, and coached in Brooklyn for two, and the qualification expired. So he did the whole thing again from the start. 10 and a half months. 848 hours. A state exam of 200 questions in three hours, and you need 80% to pass. And he did it without telling anybody that either. "I didn't ask for any celebrity handouts. I was there with my regular classmates." He is going to the Miami Dade School Police Department. First some in-house training, then a month or two riding with a field training officer, then out on his own. Here is what he says the job is. "Our first line of business is to protect and serve the community, and that's what drew me to the field the most." And this. "A lot of players who retire have a hard time finding that second act. And for me, this is something that I've really embraced." Now the part that is worth sitting with. He never went to college. He went from high school straight into the league, won Rookie of the Year, made six All Star teams for the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks, and made a fortune. And the thing he wanted at eight years old is the thing he went and did at 43. His uncle was a captain. His cousin is a captain. His sister is in the academy right now. And as of today, so is he.