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Monday, June 24, 2013

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Piston's star and Crane alum, Bynum, speaks out on school closings.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Piston's star and Crane alum, Bynum, speaks out on school closings.:

Piston's star and Crane alum, Bynum, speaks out on school closings.

Bynum starred at Crane
As a high school basketball junkie, I got my thrills watching Will "The Thrill" Bynum play for Crane back in 2001. Will, a tough, smart kid who grew up on the south side and went to school on the west side, went on from Crane to Arizona and then to Georgia Tech where he helped lead his school to the Final Four. He bounced around professionally for a few years before landing in Detroit and now is a star guard for the Pistons. He still comes back to Chicago and tries to give back a lot to the community by assisting homeless students.

He's also got a lot to say about Chicago school closings today in Sun-Times sportswriter Mike Clark's column.
"To me, it just doesn't make sense," Bynum said. "I'm from the inner city. I grew up on some of these turfs.
"They may look at it like, these kids can transfer 5-6 blocks to another school. [But] they'll have to pass three different gangs. I don't think it was well thought out."
He has thought about the implications of the closings, drawing from his