That's the way it was done in the Carroll house. Ed and Cynthia would sit down with each of their three boys and ask them what they wanted to be - ''you know, a doctor, a policeman, a fireman, that kind of thing,'' Ed Carroll recalled.

And once the goal was identified, Ed and Cynthia would begin to help the boys understand what it would take to get there.

But when DeMarre insisted that his only goal was to play in the NBA , Ed sent him off to think about it.

''I'd say, 'Well, OK, that's good. But what do you want to be for your vocation?''' said Ed, who played college Basketball at Samford and understood first hand just how long the odds were of playing big-time college Basketball, much less making it to the NBA .

''And DeMarre would say, 'I don't want to be anything but an NBA player.' Every time we'd come to him and say, 'Have you figured out what you want to be?' He never moved off 'I want to be in the NBA .'''

Ed tells the story while on his way to Birmingham-Southern College, where the NBA Memphis Grizzlies have been holding their first week of preseason camp, hoping to build a team around veterans such as Allen Iverson and Zach Randolph, and promising young players such as O.J. Mayo and Marc Gasol.

And first-round draft choice DeMarre Carroll.

''A lot of people say it just fell into place,'' Ed said. ''But we know it was part of the plan.''

Basketball was in DeMarre Carroll's blood. Besides his father having played at Samford, his uncle is Mike Anderson, former UAB and current Missouri

head coach; his cousin is T.J. Cleveland, who played at Arkansas and is now an assistant to Anderson at Missouri. Another cousin, Yvonne - Mike's daughter - plays at the University of Texas.

To the Carrolls, Andersons and Clevelands Basketball was anything but a game.

''It was very competitive,'' said DeMarre, whose team will hold a soldout public scrimmage at BSC today. ''We used to always talk noise about each other, about who is best. Right now, I've got to say the Carrolls are the best, because

I'm the first to make it to the NBA .''

Once the family determined the NBA was indeed DeMarre's goal, they were determined to help make it happen.

Ed began putting together traveling AAU teams, where he kept running up against a rival AAU team with a flashy point guard named Ronald Steele. When it came time to go to high school, he picked up the family and moved from Forestdale to Homewood and enrolled DeMarre at John Carroll Catholic, where Steele and Carroll teamed up to win back-toback Class 6A state titles.

By that time, Anderson was head coach at UAB, but DeMarre wanted to play on a bigger stage so he signed with Vanderbilt, only to leave after two years when Anderson got the head coaching job at Missouri. As a senior, Carroll helped lead

Missouri to its first Big 12 Tournament title in 16 years and the Elite Eight of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Carroll averaged 16.6 points and 7.2 rebounds while earning All-Conference and conference tournament MVP honors.

Faith tested

The journey to his dream has not been easy.

Along the way he was shot outside a Columbia, Mo., nightclub; NBA scouts told him he would be a free agent at best; and his pro career almost ended before it began when it was disclosed he had a medical condition that would likely force him to undergo a kidney transplant at some point in his life (doctors have determined that might not happen for 20 to 25 years, however).

''My faith has been tested tremendously,'' Carroll confessed. ''But I have to tell you, right now I feel there ain't nothing I can't handle. I've been through the worst.''

And he has watched as the career of his friend and former teammate, Steele, has gone in the opposite direction - from possible NBA lottery pick after his freshman season at Alabama, to eventually quitting the Crimson Tide Basketball team because of injuries, to now playing overseas in Israel.

''It's been tough to watch,'' Carroll said of the struggles Steele has gone through. ''Been tough for myself, and been tough for Ronald.''

But as committed as the Carrolls have been to Basketball, the family stressed faith - Ed is senior pastor at Perfecting Kingdom Church in Homewood - and education. DeMarre graduated with a degree from Missouri, is 15 hours shy of having his master's and insists he's going to get his Ph.D.

''My goal is to start a foundation here in Birmingham and in Columbia,'' Carroll said. ''It's going to be like a mini Boys and Girls Club for inner-city kids.''

And while that sounds like what every young professional athlete says these days, Carroll has been actively involved in working with kids in Columbia, organizing a Halloween Night of Fun as a safe alternative to door-to-door trick or treating, hosting a Basketball camp for the Special Olympics and participating in one-day youth Basketball clinics.

His family approves.

''We've always told our kids that whatever you want to do, it's a family goal,'' Ed

Carroll said. ''We're here to help. You stand on our shoulders to reach the next level. That's our family history - you stand on your parents' shoulders, who stood on their parents' shoulders, who stood on their parents' shoulders. And when DeMarre has a family, his kids will stand on his shoulders, too.''

There was a time when DeMarre stood on his father's shoulders, literally.

When he was four years old, Ed took DeMarre to a local church to sign up for his first Basketball league. The goals were too high, and at first Ed would hold DeMarre up so he could get the ball to the hoop.

''But eventually,'' Ed said, ''we lowered the goals.''

It didn't last, of course.

Lowering goals has never been DeMarre Carroll's way.

EMAIL: rmelick@bhamnews.com