Twin brothers from St. Louis Park overcome the odds to succeed at basketball
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. -- They're as close competitors as you can get - twin brothers. Marley and Micah Curtis both have a big hoop dream and they had to work hard to keep their head in the game.
"Those were good days. Life was very simple. We were actually more of baseball guys I think. We were really focused on baseball back in the day," Marley Curtis said.
That changed after they grew four inches in one summer, they say.
But basketball didn't always like them.
"We actually got cut our first year, but the next year we came back and we really enjoyed it, playing for the team," Marley Curtis said.
Eventually, they changed and it changed, blossoming into prospects with high-end potential and high-end goals.
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"I really want to go Division I, but NBA, G League, overseas - it really doesn't matter to me. I just want to say that I play professional basketball," Marley Curtis said.
But this is not a fairy tale of happily ever after. Their lives have been filled with challenges that most do not face.
"Times have not been easy at all. And I've always been with my brother this whole time. We talk through things. We go play basketball, get our mind off things," Marley Curtis said. "Everything we do is for each other's benefit. Its helped me so much. I really don't think I would need anybody else except for him."
And this is about leaning on each other - because sometimes that's all they had.
"He's always someone I can go to no matter what. We can talk about anything. There isn't anything we don't share with each other. We can always talk to each other," Micah Curtis said. "Feels great having someone you can just release everything about 'life's been hard,' and you just always have someone to play with."
In the middle of it has been basketball - this has become their refuge - without self-pity, but with reality.
"You can have hope along the way but in the end of the day, it's how much we want it, how much we want to succeed and make it in life because life isn't gonna wait for us," Micah Curtis said.
They are each other's best friends and best competition.
They are part of an AAU circuit - a program that demands discipline, something they are keenly aware they need.
"It means a lot, playing with a lot of people who know how to win and know what it takes to win. It's really making me better," Marley Curtis said. "The people around me just are very competitive."
The two boys want to maintain their unbreakable bond that started before they were even aware and have learned the hard lessons of life.
"In reality, nobody really cares as much as you think they do. You've just got to keep excelling at what you're doing," Marley Curtis said.
Because of basketball, that bond is bigger - it's a brotherhood.
