It’s a busy sports weekend in Rhode Island between the high school football state championship games, URI football trying to clinch a conference title, Bryant men’s soccer hosting a NCAA Tournament game, Providence College men’s basketball playing Penn State, and the URI women’s team taking on nationally ranked NC State.

So I have the perfect weekend read for you.

God Shammgod, the star point guard who led the Friars to the 1997 Elite Eight and is the namesake for one of the great crossover moves of all time, wrote a memoir, "The Word of God."

And it’s really good. You’ll want to read the whole thing because his stories about growing up around famous New York City rappers and becoming an icon in China are worth every penny, but he also has a few interesting stories about experiences in Providence.

Kobe Bryant’s trip to Providence
Shammgod was roommates with future legend Kobe Bryant at the famous ABCD youth basketball camp, and a few months later, he writes that they met up at a camp in Providence. Bryant cooked everyone, and before long, the word was out that he was going to jump from high school to the NBA.

‘Providence was not the first college on my list’
Shammgod was a McDonald’s All-American in high school, but he wasn’t even the most famous player in his own city. That honor went to his close friend, Stephon Marbury, who landed at Georgia Tech. Shammgod claims that he landed at Providence because he got caught hopping a subway turnstile and famous New York City coach Bobby Gonzalez helped him avoid a criminal charge. Gonzalez ended up as an assistant at Providence, and successfully recruited Shammgod.   

‘The Shammgod’
He explains that his now famous crossover against Arizona was not a planned move, and he laments that in the moment, the announcers didn’t quite realize what he had just done. "This time, I pull out arguably the greatest crossover in basketball history, and it was crickets,” he writes. Of course, he missed the layup badly, but a teammate picked him up with the putback.

He was homeless in Providence
After his professional career, Shammgod returned to Providence to earn his degree, but couldn’t afford an apartment. He slept in his car for a month, and would shower at the gym, he claims. Finally, someone realized he had nowhere to go, and he was given a dorm room at 33 years old.

A low blow
He had a job picking up towels with the team and helping out where he could, but after a tough loss one night, coach Keno Davis was tearing into the team. Shammgod writes: “Then he pointed to me in the middle of his speech, and he said, 'Look at him. Is that what you want to be? You want to be 33 years old and picking up towels?’” Davis lost his job a few years later, Shammgod helped develop Kris Dunn into a NBA lottery pick, and then ended up coaching in the NBA.