(Continued from Page 3)
Duke recruited me, and going
there turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life — yet the hardest, because I missed home so much. Freshman year I cried literally every single day. I remember after a game I came back to the locker room and just dropped to my knees. The trainer’s like, “What’s wrong?” I [sobbed], “My parents are leaving.” So the coaches went and got my parents, and my dad was like, “We’re going to get your mom an apartment here.” I was like, “No, no, I can do it.” They came up so much [from Louisiana], though. My dad’s a trucker, and he would make sure he got runs toward North Carolina. And he would call me up and say, “Pooh, I’m coming in.” But the best therapy was just
going into that gym at night and just shooting, just hearing the echo of the ball bouncing. I didn’t think about anything when I was between those lines. I’m not going to lie; it was very hard. But I kept pushing. It was just: gym, school, gym, school, gym, school. If I had a lunch break, I’m in the gym shooting. They were out partying; I was at the gym at twelve, one o’clock in the morning. I enjoyed the journey, but like
in college, I never got that big championship. And I wanted it. And I haven’t gotten it here [in Washington]. I used to ask
myself: I worked so hard, so hard, so hard, so why did I just have a bad game? Or, Why can’t
we win, you know? I felt like I always had to be in the gym. But Sheri Coale, the Oklahoma coach, told me to hold on loosely. Sometimes you can hold on so tight, want something so much, that it can just slip away. When you hold on loosely, everything else will come. Just sort of let go, and let God, you know, handle it. I’m working on that.
ANSWER Samuel L. Jackson
4 THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE | MAY 16, 2010
For the original story, go to
washingtonpost.com/magazine.
Whatever Happened To
BY KRIS CORONADO
The popular Eastern Market fashion designer
expand by joining 59 merchants in Limelight Marketplace in Manhattan. Built in a 12,000-square-foot space that once housed a church and, later, a nightclub, Limelight is less mall and more hip menagerie of up-and-comers in the food, fashion and decor industries. Wye’s neighbors include Grimaldi’s (yep, the Brooklyn pizza joint Michelle Obama visited in March) and Brocade Home (a two-year-old home decor brand by West Elm founder Lisa Versacio). For the fi rst month and
Jon Wye is expanding to Limelight Marketplace in Manhattan.
CINCHING IT
One week
How long
it takes Wye to make
100 belts
The number
of hefty machines in Wye’s workshop for functions such as cutting belts and applying the protective coating
8
Jon Wye is rubbing two
belts together inside his work shed at Washington’s historic Eastern Market. The belt and alternative clothing designer has just discovered that a thin protective coating for his belts holds up quite well. “I’m so excited,” he says,
beaming — so much that you wonder what his reaction was like in February when he signed a contract to open his fi rst store. Wye already had a strong
following when he was featured in The Washington Post last October. He launched his brand in August 2007, set up his Eastern Market tent and Web site (
Jonwye.com), and locals were quick to snatch up his vibrantly patterned belts, graphic T-shirts, wrist cuffs, dog collars and more. This month, Wye, 30, will
a half, Wye will work his 250-square-foot space solo, ringing up T-shirts, and measuring and cutting his belts to fi t customers on site. When stock gets low, he’ll call Jeff Ball — a fan who became Wye’s fi rst full-time employee last year — to send more belts from their D.C. workspace and shirts from their Alexandria-based printer, Dead Bat Designs. Wye’s career seems to be
falling into place, he says, just as his personal life has taken a hit: A four-year relationship ended in October, and Wye’s 10-year-old malamute-retriever mix, Fred, died in March. “It’s defi nitely been the worst year and the best year of my life,” Wye says. But he doesn’t have time to
sulk. Recently, he was training Ball and brainstorming ideas for the rest of the store’s custom-made furniture. “I feel like I’m a Pinto
switched with a Porsche engine, and the Porsche engine likes to run faster and hotter,” he says.
2005 PHOTOGRAPH BY PILAR VERGARA
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