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  • Am I right in thinking, Jamie, that one of the reasons

  • why this story kind of resonated with you is

  • because your own father was in the system?

  • You know, it's personal.

  • Michael called me up, and I was so humbled and honoured

  • to be a part of the project, but doing

  • this project - it's personal.

  • Being a black man...

  • ..and the perception of us in America

  • is that we are already guilty of a crime,

  • and I can personally touch it because my father -

  • they put my father in jail for

  • $25 worth of illegal substance.

  • They put him in jail for seven years. Oh, wow.

  • This man was an educator in the hood, in the inner cities,

  • educating kids.

  • The judge that he would have come to the school

  • and talk to the kids presided over his case and put him in jail,

  • and what they didn't understand was that Father

  • taught me everything - taught me how to throw

  • a football, basketball,

  • taught me how to play tennis,

  • and I was like, "Why am I learning how to play tennis?"

  • He said, "Because I don't want you to be limited."

  • So me as a young black kid in Texas, some of my childhood

  • heroes were Vitas Gerulaitis, Ilie Nastase, Yannick Noah,

  • Ivan Lendl.

  • So when they put him in jail, however, what did we do

  • as a family?

  • And I don't like visiting jail - I don't like that type

  • of perception,

  • so I told my pops,

  • "I can't come see you,

  • "because I see you as a king."

  • But I wrote him a letter.

  • I said, "Hey, you know, things have gotten good for me.

  • "When you get out I'll save your life."

  • And he's been living with me for 20 years now.

  • Oh, wow. The same house.

  • APPLAUSE

  • And here's the good part about it -

  • he loved tennis, so I got a chance to take him to the US Open

  • when he got out, and we watched Venus and Serena play,

  • and we sat there and tears ran down our cheeks, but...

  • ..when he got a chance to see this movie he said,

  • "You tell that young brother Michael B Jordan

  • "keep doing what he's doing, because this is so important for us."

  • Yeah.

  • APPLAUSE

Am I right in thinking, Jamie, that one of the reasons

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