The path Jai Lucas takes in life is made smooth by the cracks he has avoided.
His steps and choices are reflected by the tangled world he has seen and the people who have shown him how wrong life can go in such short spaces of time.
"When people have problems they always somehow come to me," Lucas said. "I guess that's just part of being a point guard. It's being that guy that everybody feels they can come and talk to."
Listed at a generous 5 foot 11 and 150 pounds, Lucas' small stature is in stark contrast to the heavy life he has lived.
Lucas' father, John Lucas II - a former NBA player and coach - has spent his life gathering wisdom by traveling down a broken road.
Lucas' father's life is often caught in the spotlight of his days playing for the Houston Rockets and coaching stints with the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and recently the Cleveland Cavaliers. Most of the questions he answers for the press deal with his two sons, John Lucas III, who played for the Rockets, and his youngest, Jai.
But perhaps hidden somewhere along those lines is his troubled past, which comes to light in the personality of UF's young point guard.
Lucas' father's NBA career was cut short by drug problems, highlighted by a fateful moment when he found himself out in the street one day, shoeless in a drug-induced stupor.
And at that moment the decision was his. He could slump down the road addicts take, which most tell you leads straight to jails, institutions and death, or he could change and help people just like him turn wrong decisions right.
Lucas' father is the founder of the Houston-based John Lucas Treatment and Recovery Center, where athletes and other people come to try to fight their problems and lean on John Lucas II for life experience and motivation.
Lucas has grown up around this his entire life, and his experiences with patients and with his father have molded him into a player who understands what it means to run the show.
"Just growing up around him, I think I have a better feel of how to handle situations," Lucas said. "I don't get overwhelmed or anything."
Perhaps just as powerful has been the influence of the estranged former NBA player Roy Tarpley. Lucas referred to Tarpley as a "godfather" and spoke of how he helped teach him life lessons even his father couldn't explain.
Tarpley was a standout at the University of Michigan before being selected seventh overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the 1986 NBA Draft. Tarpley made the All-Rookie Team and seemed destined for success until his career was derailed in 1991 when he was banned from the league for violating the drug policy. He returned briefly in 1994 but was banned again for the same problem that originally sent him packing.
Lucas remembers Tarpley as a mainstay in his house growing up and pointed to his advice as one of his driving points in life.
"I would never try drugs or anything like that because I've seen everything it's done to his career and everyone who's been around him," Lucas said. "That's one thing I stay away from."
