There are a lot of Latin Americans in the United States. Most just blend in with everyone else and get normal jobs, and live a normal American life. On the other hand, there are sometimes those special people that make it big and become famous because of a talent of theirs. .

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             Felipe Lopez is a professional basketball player who plays for the Vancouver Grizzlies. He has had a very successful life. He started out as a small Dominican Republic boy who loved basketball, and he has now transformed his life into becoming a pro basketball superstar. .

             Felipe was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on December 19th, 1974. As a young boy, he grew up in a big family. His parents were Carmen Maria Lopez Alix and Luis Felipe Lopez Garcia. He was in a family of four children. He had two brothers and one sister. His brothers are Anderson and Anthony. His sister is Sayunara. He has many nicknames such as Lipe, Tinaja, La Manquina, and El Senor. He got these names as a kid, and they have stuck with him ever since. When he was 13, his family moved to Manhattan, New York, where he continued to play basketball for Rice High School. By his senior year in high school, he was the number 1 high school player in the nation, and was named High school player of the year. .

             When his high school years were up, his basketball life was well from being over. Even before he started his freshmen year in college, he was put on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the top freshmen.

             in the country. He was recruited by St. John"s in 1993. He was one of the best players in St. John"s history. He has a huge list of what he succeeded in college, for example, he holds St. John"s record for the most three pointers made in a single season, and he is the sixth highest scorer in Big East history.

             with 1,222 career conference points. In his four years at St. John"s, he averaged 17.