Friends Central Grad Loves Returning Home, Giving Back

Third in a series of profiles spotlighting Friends Central School hoops stars.

The smooth glide is still there. It never left. As is the ankle-breaking, cross-over dribble Mustafa Shakur perfected on the playgrounds of Philadelphia. But the 26-year-old, 2003 graduate now comes in a more explosive package.

He’s been able to display that in the Delco Pro-Am League each week at the Competitive Edge Sports Complex in King of Prussia.

On July 6, it was almost like a reunion of sorts for Shakur, who was nursing a tight back. He got a chance to play with other Friends Central alums like Mike Cook and Hakim Warrick. He also got a chance to play against Temple alum Marty Collins, who played briefly in the NBA.

For Shakur, it pushed back time. It meant battling many of the guys he grew up playing against—and with—in summer AAU tournaments and camps. For the 6-foot-4 lightning-fast point guard, it meant coming home.

“It’s always special to come home and just have some fun and to be competitive at the same time,” said Shakur, an Arizona University graduate who’s played in the NBA with the Sacramento Kings, Oklahoma City Thunder, New Orleans Hornets, Washington Wizards and, recently, for Pau-Orthez in France.

“I think your home base is definitely your most important thing, because you laid your foundation there and you get to come back and share your success with people you came up with.”

There will always be that connection to home, whether it’s playing in high-level rec leagues like the Delco Pro-Am, or bouncing around various NBA cities or learning a new language playing in Europe.

“We have a lot of guys out here that are trying to stay in shape, whether they play in the NBA or are going to play overseas,” Shakur said. “Some guys you know are maybe just working out, but it’s fun seeing these guys again. I grew up playing with Cook and Marty Collins. All these guys I grew up playing against, playing AAU together, going to summer camps together, a lot of us go way back. This is kind of like a reunion, even though you’re being competitive. This is definitely a fun time.

“I think your home base is definitely your most important thing, because you laid your foundation there and you get to come back and share your success with people you came up with. It’s important to share information, too; provide information on what it takes to get where you are, and for me, that was sharing with other guys what playing overseas was like. Everyone wants to know what that was like and there is a lot of knowledge you can share with everyone.”

One thing that’s never lost on Shakur is his connection to Friends Central. He credits the school for creating a sound academic base that’s allowed him to move forward and graduate from Arizona. Shakur always knew the basketball talent was there, it was a matter of gaining the discipline to hone his academic skills.

“That’s one of the other great things about coming home, going back to Friends Central and seeing some of the people that have helped me,” Shakur said. “Friends Central has been a very positive influence on my life. It did help shape me. It was definitely a blessing being able to go there from public school and being able to continue academically.

“That was the biggest part for me. I had basketball skills, but I needed to continue focusing academically. There are life skills I learned there, too. The crazy thing now is that I’m starting my own foundation, which is called Part Of The Solution Foundation (Potsorg.com), and I have a lot of Friends Central people working with me. It’s about helping kids get a greater stable foundation in their lives and raise awareness that it’s not just about basketball. Hakim is involved, the 76ers' Andre Iguodala [Shakur’s former Arizona teammate]. We’re using this as a springboard of everything we wanted to do.”

It seems Shakur has grown beyond more than the ball distributing point guard he was once known for the most. He’s giving back to the home area that’s made him so successful.