By: Jeff Latzke (AP via USAToday.com) –
OKLAHOMA CITY — B.J. Mullens has seen the worst and made the best of it.

While he was growing up, his family bounced around to a dozen different homes with stops at a homeless shelter in between. He got shuttled around from one school to the next. His brother got in trouble for dealing drugs.

Then basketball helped change everything.

As he kept growing, opportunities started opening up for Mullens. He was accepted to a prep school on scholarship and then committed to Ohio State when he was in the ninth grade and already 6 feet 8.

And now, he’s a first-round draft pick of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“I know there’s been some other players that have gone through some worse — and some of probably the same — situations I’ve been through, but I want to put it out for other kids to see that. It was rough, but hey, I’m here now,” Mullens said. “Without that situation being in my life, who knows if I would have made it this far?”

Mullens, a 7-footer, never really had an idol during his childhood days in Columbus, Ohio. He looked up to Michael Redd, another local kid who went through Ohio State on his road to becoming an NBA All-Star. But Redd only provided a glimmer of hope that someone from his area could reach basketball’s highest level.

He leaned on himself and the help of friends such as Remon Nelson — whose family took him in for a time — to keep his focus on making a better life.

“I had everything around me that was bad, so if I wanted to do something bad, it was right there in front of my face,” Mullens said. “It would have been easy, but I really didn’t want that to happen for my life and my future.”

Mullens spent only one season in college before declaring …..

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