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Coleman is holding an event in Dearborn, Michigan the week after the All-Star game to honor Gervin and Washington, but that is not the main purpose of the event. The Detroit chapter of the Retired Players Association is trying to raise $20 million for a full makeover of the Saint Cecilia gym, which has been more or less shuttered for the past 4-5 years. “I used to take the bus down there for a quarter at 8 in the morning, eat lunch at Burger King, play ball all day and not leave until 9 o’clock at night,” said Earl Cureton, who played in the NBA, in Italy, in Puerto Rico, Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico before returning to Michigan, where he is now a team ambassador for the Pistons and also calls University of Detroit games as a broadcaster. “Kids these days do not have a safe place like that where they can be surrounded by role models, and we want to bring that back. It kept you around the right mentors and the right people.
The 24-year-old Appling played for Michigan State from 2010-2014 and had two brief contracts with the Orlando Magic. He was arrested last August after driving away from a traffic stop in Detroit. Gun charges also are pending in two other cases in Dearborn and Detroit.
Keith Appling, a point guard for the Orlando Magic's NBA Development League affiliate, is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in Dearborn, Mich., after the Wayne County prosecutor charged him with carrying a concealed weapon, a felony; possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle, a misdemeanor; and possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor.
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