Tor'i Brooks won three national championships in the high jump at Davenport University. He had a dream of being an olympian in 2016, but that did not come to be.
"I had a love and a passion for all that stuff," Brooks said, "but throughout all that the biggest thing that remained consistent was basketball and was something that always got me jobs or got me in front of the camera."
Bionic, as Brooks is known after his recovery from a knee injury early in college, got on opportunity to play a season with Harlem Globetrotters.
That stopped when he dealt with complications with his heart.
"I knew that after I was cleared by my doctor to perform and play that I wanted to play basketball at a high level," Brooks said. "I wanted to continue to pursue basketball at the highest level that I possibly could."
So he has moved to Los Angeles where he has his hand in many different ventures all involving the roundball.
He is part of Ball is Life, a five-on-five tour that goes into communities to play and inspire.
"We get the opportunity to go to these communities and shed light on the basketball talent that they have in their communities as well," Brooks said. "That is something that I would like to do with my community and bring those guys back to Grand Rapids and shed light on the community that I grew up in and what got me to the point that I am today."
He also plays three-on-three with FIBA where hiS dream of making a USA olympic team still burns.
"Ultimately, the best of the best go at it, last year was at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Boston where we went head up against one another indoors to see who was the best 3x basketball team," Brooks said. "This is in from of USA basketball coaches, it was an amazing experience to be able to experience that with my teammates and be able to keep basketball alive in a different way."
Brooks also had the chance to participate in NBA All-Star weekend last month in Cleveland where he was part of the new skills challenge.
"They allowed for me and these nine other massive influencers to come in and be able to try these things out, test it out and create content for ourselves and be able to do it in record time," Brooks said. "It was a lot of fun participating on that side of things, but I also go to create content around other events like the Clorox rising stars challenge where I was in attendance, All-Start Saturday, the All-Star game."
Brooks has his own company called Bionic Brooks where he puts his content on display on all social media platforms as well as Youtube.
He is also part of the Crew League, four-on-four basketball where he is on team OHB with Chris Brown.
Brooks has made basketball his life, because he loves the sports and sees it as a way to help others.
"I want to be able to touch and reach as many people as possible," Brooks said. "Spread the message and visions and share my testimony as just never giving up on your dreams and encouraging the next person to do so themselves."
Brooks still has dreams of playing professionally, either overseas, in the G League or even in the NBA.
