Turning points can happen anywhere for an athlete. In the game. At a practice. Weight room gains. In a locker room.

For B.J. Mack, the trajectory of his life changed at his kitchen table.

Years of frustration, stress, and work slowly faded, finally boiling over between his 10th and 11th grade years.

It was all too much for Mack, his family and especially his father, Brian.

"That was one of the big breaking points," B.J. told GamecockScoop. "Where I was really thinking, like, 'This might not even be for me and him to have a conversation or anything.'"

Eventually, B.J. and Brian had that conversation.

Over six years later, B.J. is a college graduate after four successful seasons at Wofford. He is playing his final year of collegiate eligibility at South Carolina, averaging 14.9 points per game for the 11-1 Gamecocks.

It would be a remarkable achievement on its own. For Brian, it cuts deeper.

"My dream was for him to go to college for free," Brian told GamecockScoop. "His dream was to go to the NBA. Once he graduated from Wofford, my dream was completed."

The first thing you notice about B.J. is the smile. A 6-foot-8, 270 Ib. man his father describes as a "gentle giant." An easy counter to the stereotype that bigger post players are more aggressive, meaner types than their backcourt counterparts.

"He's a super goofy dude," Mack's childhood best friend JC Tharrington told GamecockScoop. "You see B.J. and would think this big, intimidating guy, but he's a super nice, fun guy who is a good guy to be around. He's someone you want to be around a lot."

For all he has been through, that much has never changed from his youth basketball days.

"I think he's got a really good sense of humor," South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris said. "I think the guys like being around him."

His basketball life stems from age nine in an official capacity, but in his dad's barber shop outside Charlotte well prior. In addition to all the typical jobs you would expect a barber's son to do for a few extra bucks — sweeping up hair, keeping the stations clean — he also had a mini basketball hoop in the back. He spent hours and hours there. Sometimes to keep himself entertained, other times lengthy shooting competitions with another friend, current Auburn guard Aden Holloway.

All of it was a natural progression for taking up a sport. A kid starts playing, enjoys it and wants to do it more.

Everything was as it should be.

As it turned out, he dominated rims well beyond the confines of a barber shop.

At 6-foot-8 in middle school, how could he not?

His mini hoop sprouted into a real one, and so did his potential. It is never too early to get on the map in the modern world of recruitment and travel teams, which Brian was acutely aware of as a parent who ran his own AAU team.

And this was where the train diverged off the track, nearly derailing completely. The talent was transcendent, maybe even too much for the time and space.

"He got on me about not posting up, not calling for the ball when I'm open, little small stuff," B.J. said. "Sometimes it wouldn't even be me, he would yell at the whole team about somebody not passing the ball to a wide open person. It was just stuff like that. He wants the game of basketball to be played the right way."

Not only did basketball have to be played the right way, it needed to be the perfect way. The ideal way for team success, and for B.J. to maximize his personal potential moving forward. No detail was too small, no point too fine.

He knew there was something special, and wanted to unlock it the only way he knew how.

"I just remember at AAU one time we were playing 9th grade in Las Vegas and B.J. was just settling for too many jump shots," Tharrington re-called. 'And this was at a time when B.J.'s jump shot wasn't what it is now. He was settling for too many jump shots, and B.J.'s dad gave it to him like he had never really given it to him before."

As Brian tells it, things went much further. It was not an isolated incident in a big tournament where his son did not play well or even trying to push him through a rough stretch, but an obsession he looks back on almost in disbelief.

"How much is too much?" is always a question for sports parents, a constant internal battle of trying to stay involved without completely crossing the line into control. In this case, there were no questions or gray areas.

Not for anyone else involved, and not even for him.

"I was the poster child for a dysfunctional AAU dad," Brian admitted. "I was the guy that yelled, screamed, cussed. But we made it through it all, and I think with him having the personality he has allowed us to be able to navigate it.

"To see him come through that, as a father I thought I broke him. I thought I broke his spirit for the game of basketball."

The early years of high school were even more tumultuous. On top of the AAU circuit, Mack transferred from his home school at Charlotte Christian to the prestigious Oak Hill Academy in Virginia.

It benefited his basketball prospects — Oak Hill has produced 33 NBA players and is widely regarded as one of the top prep basketball landing spots — but not his mental health, moving away from his friends and former teammates.

"I was getting recruited by all these different colleges," B.J. remembered. "He was just going crazy and I was like,' bro, I don't want to play anymore.' And he was like, 'bro, you came too far to stop.'"

This was it, the ultimate fork in the road.

Something had to move, some decision about B.J.'s future. Was there any way forward through this level of burnout, fatigue and anxiety surrounding the sport? On the flip side, could he stop with a path to a scholarship in play?

"We sat down as a family and had a conversation," Brian said. "And I had to step back on some things and make some choices on whether I loved this game more than I loved my son. No, that's not a comparison. Me and my son sat down and talked, and we came up with a plan, and luckily that plan has worked."

It was one conversation on one day in the middle of years of emotional peaks and valleys on a winding road.

But it changed everything.

"We hashed out a plan saying that he has to calm down in games," B.J. said. "It was me, him and my mom. We all came to the table and were like, 'you have to calm down a little bit because there are college coaches looking, and they are basing me upon you, too.'

"Since, he's calmed down. I can still sometimes hear him and I sometimes see him, but he's calmed down a lot. Some people may see him and think he's like crazy, no, this is like a two [out of 10] compared to what he was in high school and middle school."

It would be easy to forget B.J. ever walked this journey right now. He spent four seasons at Wofford, emerging as one of the dominant forces at the mid-major level. He was an All-SoCon player two seasons in a row, garnering interest from top programs nationwide.

The final destination of his collegiate career landed him at an SEC school just 90 minutes from his hometown, a beloved teammate and a regular starter on a team enjoying just its fourth 11-1 start in program history. His dad and uncle were sitting courtside when he hit a game-winning shot on the final possession against Virginia Tech, and he had over 30 family members in attendance when the Gamecocks won at East Carolina on Dec. 9.

"What makes me the most proud is just being able to have my family at the games," B.J. said. "That's a really big thing for me. I'm blessed to be able to have my mom, sister, grandma and my dad be able to come to the games. I know that was a dream my mom and dad wanted for me."

It is a cautionary tale for youth sports families everywhere, but also a triumph of love, understanding and work to end up on the other side of the equation. A testament to the work both put in, B.J.'s personality and core value of family guiding his perseverance and Brian's awareness of the situation.

"By the grace of god, me and B.J. have a great relationship," Brian said. "I know some people that don't."

It takes two shovels to bury a hatchet.

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