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SPORTS
SPORTS
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19-YEAR-OLD CEO ONORS HIS MOTHER
Photo bv Jacob Thomoson
BY JACOB THOMPSON
SPORTS EDITOR @SPORTSEDTHOMPS
A s Clackamas Com m unity College’s m en’s
basketball team wanned up for their season
opener, the Cougars dawned fresh w hite
warm-up shirts with red and blue claw marks
ori the front.
The design came from a once-hom eless
teenager w ho’s now a Clackam as student
and basketball player, freshman point guard
Devon Banks.
His company, Make Them Respect You, has
a m uch bigger mission than making good-
looking clothes.
Growing up in Oakland, California, Banks
was in and out o f foster care from the time he
was nine years old, and though his mother,
Nidja Marshall, would later regain custody,
Banks often had to go back because, his m om
wasn’t financially stable enough to take care
o fh im .
“ We didn’t have that much money and we
were homeless and stuff like that when I was
livingwith her,” Banks said. “ She used to do
a lot o f stuff to get money for us to put food
in our stom achs.”
It’s those past experiences that give Banks
a different perspective on people w ho are
struggling and homeless.
“ I remember being hungry, cold,” Banks
said, “ so when I see a homeless person out
there, I don’t see a homeless person. I see
m yself in the mirror. I see m y m om , I see m y
Clackamas Print
little brother. I see us when we were staying
in a motel. I felt that, I lived that life being on
the street.”
A fter experiencing those struggles first
hand, Banks knew if he ever had money, he
wanted to give back.
“ I w ish somebody gave m y m om food,”
Banks said. “ I wish somebody gave me money
when I was homeless. So, Ijust try to give back
and do what’s right.”
Banks said his mother had been a victim
o f domestic abuse for a lot o f his life and the
final abusive relationship left her paralyzed
from the neck down.
“ When I saw her in the hospital, they had
tubes and stuff like that all over her, and it
looked like her hair was b u m f a little bit/’
Banks said. “ I asked the doctor what happened
and they told m e, ‘We don’t know, we just
found her in the middle o f the street. ’ ”
Marshall was badly battered arid for the first
fewweeks couldn’t speak. Eventually Marshall
was able to tell Banks about the attack, but she
never regained the ability to move.
For the next five years, Banks’ mother lived
in a hospital two hours away from Banks.
Without a car to make the drive, Banks typically
saw his mother only once every three weeks.
“Just hearing her voice and telling me to
keep going,” Banks said. “ She’d say, ‘Devon
you know m e, this is nothing. I’ve been doing
this m y whole life. This ain’t nothing. Use this
as motivation and if you feel like giving up and
don’t want to do it foryourself, do it for m e.”
While his motherwas in the hospital, Banks
began to live with his Amateur Athletic Union
basketball coach Jensen Best, where he stayed
throughout his time in high school.
“ It was like having normal teenager in the
house,” Best said with a chuckle. “ Teenage
boys will be teenage boys, but you know he’s
like m y son.” .
It’s under Best’s roof that Banks learned
more aboutbasketballbut also thé daily chores
oflife.
“ I consider [Best] one of my parents,” Banks
said. “ Basketball-wise, I learned a lot because
he’s a basketball coach, but I also learned being
a m an like washing your clothes and doing
your dishes.”
Although Banks had a late start in basketball,
it’s because o f Best challenging Banks that he
was able to make up the experience gap.
“ lBest]’ s always m aking m e go through
different types o f challenges, so he always
made me abetter man and a better basketball
player,” Banks said. “ [Best] is the one who
influenced me to [take basketball serious].
He said, ‘If you’re going to do it, you better
go all out.’ ”
A s Banks found stability livingwith coach
Best, his mother’s body was starting to wear
down. Five years after first being admitted,
Marshall’s brain started to swell and her heart
stopped for five seconds, Banks said.
“ You can only take so m uch,” Banks said.
“ She passed away from that. So overall she
passed away from domestic violence from
her boyfriend, itwas just overalonger period
o ftim e.”
The passing o f Banks’ m other in 2017
gave Banks the inspiration to take his idea
theclackam asprint.com
o f starting a clothing line and put a bigger
purpose behind it than just wanting a good
looking shirt.
“ W hen m y m om passed away last year,
that’s when I was like, alright I want to keep
her name alive still,** Banks said. “ I was like,
you know what, I can do it through my clothing
brand. I started taking it serious in 2017 arid
that’s when everything took off. ”
Banks started designing shirts and hoodies
with some of the merchandise paying homage
to his mother by featuring her birth year of
1972 on them.
Photo by Jonathan Villagome.
Banks estimates that they fed somewhere
between 60 to 70 people. Banks and his
friends ordered pizza, bought chips, water
and passed them out around the homeless
Banks. H
“ Where I ’m from a lot o f people hate on community.
“ It was a blessin g [to be able to give
you,” Banks said. “ They don’t want to see
you make it and they don’ t want to see you b ack ],” Banks said. “ To see w here you
come from, I came from not having food,
doing better than them .”
Banks was able to overcome the critics to not knowing where I was going to live,
with the help o f friends like Dwayne Leaks, to haying a good clothing brand, to being
Beltz, and coach Best cham pion in g his able to give back to people that don’t really
have as m uch as you do. Itfeels good. Their
clothing line arid its mission.
“ W hen your friend says, ‘Hey I’m going facial expressions were thebest. They were
to start a business, ’ you want to be there for so surprised and so thankful and like I said
them , but at the same tim e you have your when I see them I see m yself.’4 .
Now at Clackam as, Banks is looking tm
doubts,” Beltz said. “ I really believed in
[Banks] once I saw how m uch time he was obtain a degree while m aintaining a 3.0
dedicating to [M ake T hem Respect You] GPA, get a basketball scholarship to a D-I,
school and raise enough m oney through
and the m essage behind it is really good.
[Banks] isn ’t doing it-as a business, h e ’s- Make Them Respect You to host a give back
event in Oregon..
doing it because he wants to help people.”
? --"Alot o f my sales came from Oregon and
Once Make Them Respect You started to
grow and produce sales, Banks was looking I’m not justtryingto help where I came from
for a way to give back to h is com m unity I ’ m trying to help around the world, ” Banks
said.
and decided on feeding som e hom eless.
Along his journeyBanks had gained the
respect of a lot of people and even though
he’s been at CCC less than six months, he’s
already gaining the respect .o f the team
»especially teammate Matt O ’Brien.
"[Banks] and I are really close,” O’Brien
said. “ From day one, we’ve bonded. I love his
story and how he helps put people. ”
The coaching staff is also excited for Banks
Starting M ak e T hem Respect You in
Oakland was tough because a lo to f people
there are very skeptical and critical, said
to be a part of this program forwhat he brings
on and o ff the court.
“ Life’s kicked him around a lot,” said head
cpach Clif Wegner “ He’s had a lot of reasons
to fail and treat him self like a victim , but
h e ’s got the m entality o f a survivor, he’ s
extremely positive, he’s extremely energetic
and he’s always looking forward. He’s a great
addition as a human being to our program
and he’s also going to be a great player for
“ He got inspiration from his m om ,” said
Banks’ friend and business partner, Jim m y
Beltz. “ She was his biggest supporter and
us.”
It’s through struggles and trying times that
Banks learned if he ever got the chance he
wanted to help people who were struggling,
now with Make Them Respect You Banks has
found aw ay to honor his mother and give
back to the people whose shoes he once wore.
that’s where some o f the symbolism o f the
brand comes from. She loved helping people.
In the community she was really well known
as being a good person and being the first one
to help people out.”
----- ------------------------------------------------- -- November 28, 2018
Clackamas Print
Banks designs and sells hoodies, shirts and beanies. You can buy Make Them
Respect You products on https://makethemrespectyouormtry.godaddysites.com/
theclackam asprint.com
November 28, 2018