FROM THE HARDWOOD TO THE OSCARS: MAHERSHALA ALI’S BALLER ROOTS

Mahershala Ali won his second Oscar for Best Supporting Actor last night for his role as Dr. Don Shirley in the film Green Book. But before Ali played Shirley, or Cottonmouth (Luke Cage), Remy Danton (House of Cards), Juan (Moonlight), or Detective Wayne "Purple" Hays (True Detective) he was known as Hershal Gilmore, a DI basketball player at Saint Mary's College, just outside of Oakland, CA. Ali was born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore, but changed his given name to Ali when he converted to Islam in 2000.

Ali played four years at Saint Mary's, his best season coming as a senior when he averaged 7 points and 2 rebounds in 27 games as a starter. Interestingly, his college basketball career ran the same time as Steve Nash at Santa Clara, a fellow member school in the West Coast Conference. This means the two-time NBA MVP faced off against the two-time Academy Award winner at least twice a year for four years.

A 6'3" guard known for his slashing ability offensively and his physicality on defense, his 2017 Oscar win earned Ali the privilege of being the first Muslim to win an Oscar for acting and the first Division I basketball player to win an Academy Award. I see you, Purple.

According to Kareem Sufi, a former teammate of Ali's at Saint Mary's, Mahershala always had interests that were outside of basketball. Not only was he into fashion and was notably the best dressed player on the basketball team, but he also wrote poetry and charged his teammates and friends $5 haircuts. "He just had a different energy about him", Sufi said.

Ali elaborated on his shift from basketball to acting in an interview with NPR, he explained, "At a certain point, basketball became the thing I was doing the most, but it was really in my periphery. It was really a focus on how to, in some ways, keep moving in this direction towards something that allowed me to express myself in a way that sports didn't:' Upon graduating from Saint Mary's, Ali enrolled at New York University to pursue his Master in Fine Arts degree from the Tisch School of the Arts.

In 2017, CBS tapped Mahershala to narrate the opening for the NCAA DI basketball National Championship game.