That’s been your motto since forever because you’ve always loved a good challenge. Somebody put up a barrier, you’ll figure a way around it. If there are roadblocks, you find another path. You can make things happen, you’ve got friends where you need them, and Heaven help the person who tells you “no.”
Author Drew Sharp knows someone just like you, someone who focused on what he wanted and worked until he got it. In the new book “Dave Bing: A Life of Challenge,” you’ll read about that man.
Dave Bing was in a bit of a pickle.
He had promised Detroit residents that he wouldn’t seek more than one term as their mayor. He had been “swept into power… on a wave of political, social, and cultural reform,” but he was realizing that it would take more than just one term to fix the city’s problems.
Bing was used to working for what he wanted.
He was born in Washington DC in 1943 and grew up idolizing his father, who could make anything with his hands. The young Bing also shared his father’s love of baseball and dreamed of being like Jackie Robinson, but an eye injury sent him in the direction of another sport. Bing became a first-class basketball player, which eventually led him to become the first African American to be second overall pick in the NBA draft.
Bing fell in love with his new hometown and Detroit Pistons fans loved him back. But when the team was sold, Bing eventually was traded back to D.C., but basketball had lost its allure for him by then. It was time for Chapter Two.