Youth Basketball

[UGetPaid]

My 12 year old is starting her third year of playing basketball - this year in the 6th grade. She is a dancer at heart and spends much more time and effort (and we spend much more money) on dance, but she does seem to enjoy basketball as a fallback activity.  She started out pretty timid in the 4th grade and got a little more aggressive in the 5th grade, but not much.  This year in their first game last Sunday, she scored her first ever basket - immediately after pulling down an offensive rebound!


She asked me a few weeks ago if she could get some knee high athletic socks. I happen to have a pair of socks with Larry Bird graphic images on them.  They are tight fitting and she has big feet for 12 years - so I told her earlier this week that she could wear them to practice.  She didn't want to because she is a Cleveland Cavalier fan and these were "Celtics Socks"  When I told her, no they were Larry Bird socks, she hit me with "Who's Larry Bird?"


Her mom rolled her eyes and waving her arms NO said something like: "Why'd you have to ask that?!?" knowing that I would likely go into a fanatic and lengthy sports history lesson complete with multiple YouTube videos.  I showed restraint and did neither, but I bribed her into wearing the socks to practice yesterday.  When she came home we had dinner and she said only one person asked about her socks - another sixth grade girl who asked her who is Larry Bird.  I went and put on a Larry Bird t-shirt that I own over top of my dress work shirt and when I asked her how practice went in general - she got a little bit excited and said that she made a 3-pointer.


I immediately pounded the shirt on my chest and proceeded to tell her how Larry Bird was the original three point king and that it was the socks that gave her the extra power to hit that shot and how lucky she was to have worn them that day... She said, no - it was the new confidence she had after hitting a basket in a real game that allowed her to make a 3 point shot - which is more likely true, but I still went on my spiel = complete with a YouTube video of Larry winning the 3 point shootout against Dale Ellis in 1988.  (Google it folks, it was impressive!)


She watched it obediently and I have to say that she was impressed with the way he hit his last three shots (all three necessary to win) and that after letting the last shot go, before it even got to its peak, he had his arm and index finger raised up in victory and was walking to center court before the ball even hit the basket.


A proud father's teaching moment!  LOL!