He shoots, scores, rebounds

Watching the kid play basketball convinced me, hey, he may be an all-around athlete before all is said and done. The "kid" is my oldest grandson and Saturday morning Cynthia and I went to a Little Dribblers basketball game for the first time this year. We went once last year, but Brandon hardly knew enough to play.

What a difference a year has made. He’s almost 10-years-old now (in June), but he did things that makes me think this may be his sport. Brandon already plays baseball and he is good enough to play third base, second base and shortstop. Not all at the same time, I mean, but he is good enough to play all three infield positions. His statistics in the basketball game were modest, but he did collect nine rebounds, make three steals and score six points. Playing at post is not what he wants to play. Not enough action, he says. “I want to play wing where there is more action, where I can get the ball more.”

He wasn’t bad for a position he doesn’t care for, though. He grabs rebounds and throws the outlet passes or turns around and shoots just fine, I thought. He made a few steals by stepping in front of opponents passes. The only thing I noticed was that he missed a wide-open lay-up and a couple of free throws. Those are things I could never do either, but I’ll never admit he got that from me.

Playing Little Dribblers is much better this year. Teams are not loaded with the best players. The players are picked by numbers, so the best players aren’t always together. And the same players are not always together. The boys on the team all practice together, but on game day the coach announces the division of players into groups of five so they don't know who they'll be with until then. Brandon’s team is 2-2 and in one game, he scored the winning basket. (FYI, this isn't just coming from Papa John, it's coming from an ex-sportswriter who has evaluated players for almost 30 years.)