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Photo bomb
Life dealt David Rodriguez a bad hand. But hope-inspiring handshakes with Klay Thompson and Chris Paul push him back toward the positive.
By Randy C. Thompson
Photos by Aristeo Sampablo
When the Golden State Warriors came into San Quentin, it was nothing like Elmer David Rodriguez could ever have imagined.
Despite thinking about it for so long, he wasn’t ready for the moment he shook hands with Klay Thompson and Chris Paul III, men he had been watching on TV for years.
“I find joy in basketball,” says Rodriguez. “But to have outside people come in to play the game, it’s like we matter, we’re not invisible to them. They see our human side, and yet, them coming in humanizes us.”
Playing for the San Quentin Warriors, there was a point in the game when Rodriguez had to forget the cameras and focus on the game — focus on giving his all for his team.
Rodriguez picked up a basketball for the first time in sixth grade; the game immediately became his favorite hobby. But games became less of a priority around middle school when his mom went to jail, leaving him alone with his three sisters. To cope financially, Rodriguez got a job selling goods door-to-door as a means to provide for his younger siblings.
School counselors and teachers had no idea that Rodriguez was acting as a caregiver for his sisters and that his mom was in jail. He flew under the radar until a teacher made a house call during Rodriguez’s first year of high school, discovering there was no adult at home. As a result, he was taken along with his sisters to a group home with a nice Filipino family. Unsatisfied without his mom, Rodriguez stole a car and attempted to find her — thinking that if he could, they would be a family again. When he was found and told he would be sent somewhere without his sisters, Rodriguez ran away again. At just 16, he and a friend fled to Las Vegas.
After turning 18, Rodriguez returned to California with the intention of gaining guardianship over his sisters. Although he was initially denied, he didn’t give up. Rodriguez learned that to gain guardianship he would have to find steady work, secure steady housing, and go to school.
So he enrolled in community college.
Using grants, scholarships, and even drug money, Rodriguez funded his education — attending a program that eventually transferred him to a four-year university.
“I always knew that to obtain a job that could provide for my family, I would need a higher education,” he said. “I just knew ‘successful people go to college.’ My ultimate goal was to someday take care of my family.”
While attempting to rise, Rodriguez began his fall. He would be arrested for petty misdemeanors, regularly taking deals so that he could get back out and keep attending college. His hustling mentality and desire to obtain a steady income led him to sell drugs. Despite an arrest for possession with intent to sell, Rodriguez managed to skate by on his luck and graduated in 2014 with a four year degree.
The next year he was at Sacramento State, going for a master’s degree. His success was short-lived, as he didn’t finish the first semester before being arrested, this time for a strikeable offense. After taking a deal, Rodriguez served nine months in prison. He went back to school, but it was different now. Prison had changed him.
“It was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,” he admits. “It was hard for me to handle stressful situations the same. I felt angry, believing that my community had failed me from the beginning. All that was ever presented to me was obstacles. No guidance or help, or parenting.”
He felt pressured to reintegrate, but couldn’t. Instead, he felt depressed. Rodriguez no longer had a purpose, as his sisters were growing up without him. After almost a year, in 2016, he caught a second strike, a seven-to-life sentence that was doubled up.
Rodriguez arrived at San Quentin in April 2023. He had chosen to come here after reading about the basketball program in the San Quentin News. At the time he had no idea that the games were against free people. He managed to join the SQ Warriors after a month of being here, having made a good impression with head coach Jeremiah Brown during the intramural league’s season.
Since this term began, Rodriguez has given up drugs, gangs, and violence, choosing now to become a better person. Basketball doesn’t just bring him joy, but also makes him feel like he is positively contributing to a community, the same as he will when he gets out.
“Hope is what the outside people bring in,” says Rodriguez. “Hope that not everything is lost.”
