[TheRealVille]

To the Siva haters, you might want to read his story. I gained a ton of respect for him after knowing what he went through, and his determination to not go the same path.

Early life

Siva, of Samoan descent, grew up in a troubled Seattle neighborhood near the intersection of three gang territories. His mother worked three jobs to try to support the family. His father was mostly absent, struggling with drug and alcohol addiction throughout Siva's childhood, and was frequently jailed on drug charges. His older siblings, a brother and a sister, also had many brushes with the law, with his sister regularly being caught shoplifting. At age 13, by which time he had taught himself to drive, he went out to look for his missing father and found him in a drug den with a gun, and contemplating suicide. The younger Siva successfully talked his father out of killing himself.[2]
Siva, determined to escape the fate of other family members, plunged himself into Sport. When he first tried out for youth football, he was too light to play, but managed to make weight by stuffing his pockets with decks of playing cards and several cell phones. He soon developed a reputation as a relentlessly aggressive athlete in both football and basketball, and as a promising young prospect. Siva also made it a point to avoid alcohol and drugs, and helped many other boys in his neighborhood avoid gang involvement, partially by persuading his mother to let them stay at her house on weekends.[2]