The Future of Basketball

http://www.parentdish.com/2010/04/02/nba-scouts-eye-10-year-old-hoops-prodigy/?icid=main|main|dl3|link6|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parentdish.com%2F2010%2F04%2F02%2Fnba-scouts-eye-10-year-old-hoops-prodigy%2F

A ten year old basketball player by the name of Jaylin Fleming is looked at as the future NBA star.

Please watch the videos in the following links

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx1YNft8MP8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jME6TEctLLY

I have a couple things to say about this; (1) He's ten and has a better ball-handling skill than practically my entire high-school basketball team (2) If this kid can grow under parents that teach him how to be humble--he's the second coming of basketball interest all over the world (3) Will he be a child-wonder and a flop later on in his career?

To tackle my first comment; a kid who is ten that can dribble with two hands and cross-over cones like he's Mike Bibby's Better Basketball instructor. To maintain the focus of dribbling two basketballs while looking up and crossing cones is more than just skill or talent, it's determination. This kid has immense focus and is trusting the obstacles that his father plays before him--that's how to get a kid to learn what basketball is about.

I have a nephew who is ten years old and I've been trying to get him to dribble for the past 3 years (not even dribble between cones, just dribble... and not shoot... for one day)--epic fail after every single attempt I had. Kids are simply stubborn and want to shoot like LeBron or they want to chuck up unorthadoxed shots like Kobe (the difference is Kobe is forced to take those shots and he is double-teamed, my nephew shoots against my four-year old nephew who eats ice cream 24/7--I'm sure the 10 year old kid isn't under much pressure). This leads me into my next commentary.

When a kid can play ball and understands his place not on the court but in life--society is blessed to have such a character. Kids on the basketball courts that can really ball, end up taking every shot no matter how difficult it is because they're the best kid on the court. Jaylin has a more basketball-quarterback like mentality. In all the clips I could watch this kid; I see him calling picks and taking advantage of players with a slower step (practically every kid against him) and if they double up on him, he pushes the opposing team to a corner and hits a reset man who is patiently open.

Basketball is a game of understanding spacing--that's how players get good shots, that's how players get dunks, that's how alley-oops occur, that's how you stop a team; it's spacing that matters. Sure the kid has phenomenal ball-handling skills and we saw him make a couple of shots either swished or high off the backboard because he's so small, but I'm more impressed by his attitude than anything.

And finally the last topic of conversation is where will he be in the future? I hope he succeeds--I really believe that the NBA needs more players with this kids mentality. I want to see more intellectual and multi-dimensional basketball players in the league. I want to see an Okafor gpa and a Dwight Howard skilled player. If this kid can progress at this rate and keep his mentality, my only prayer is that he goes to college and be an inspiration to the future kids growing up with basketball interest.