Growing up, I am under the impression that basketball loving kids will not succeed academically. As far as I know nobody in the Honour Class ever tried out for the Varsity team. Although it is noteworthy that I was heavily studious back then. So I may not be credible. But Tiger Mom may agree with me.
Fast forward to present, I have Stefan who is so into basketball. He started playing on a makeshift court – a dollar-store ring resting on a safety gate.
Until we got him this Little Tikes Shoot and Slam. This is currently the main piece of our living room. Tsk tsk tsk, to my dismay. There is no point in moving it around as he plays basketball every single day.
He logs onto http://www.whatifsports.com/nba-l/ whenever he asks to use the computer. It's a SIM League for Basketball where you can build you own team and match them up, using stats from 1951 to present. His memory is so remarkable. From this activity, he can deduce which player played for which team for which period, with a knowledge of their jersey numbers to boot. And that will be the topic of conversation on the dining table.
He’s been on several basketball programs in the past, and recently he started on another one. This is a class of about 25 kids from age 6 to 8. You can tell right away he’s the smallest, if not the youngest. He's a little off the centre in photo below, in purple.
But it seems, size doesn't matter to him.
He volunteered to be the 'it' on a game of tag, which they did for Warm Up. He also raised his hands a lot when questions were thrown at them. If only he can do all the talking, he would. He even asked to do the Jump Ball.
He was up against a big kid after the next smallest backed out. I was a proud Mom right there. My son is the smallest kid with the biggest enthusiasm. I'm sure his little brother is just as proud.
So, if he wants to be the next Steve Nash someday as he said. Why not? But he also says he wants to be the next Jose Bautista. So you don't know what to believe. For now, I will just be a proud supportive - nevermind if also a helicopter - mom!
