Road to the NBA, Step 1 of 1,000,000

Jacob's been into basketball for a while now.  It's been on the fringes for years, as evidenced by his 7th birthday cake and a batch of older Raptors gear in his closet.  I'm not entirely sure when it officially took over, but it seems to me it was last spring when the Toronto Raptors were on a bit of a playoff run.  At the same time, he was very disenchanted with lacrosse, and with that, basketball's takeover began.  He got the basketball hoop for his birthday, had a Raptors cake for his very belated birthday party, and finagled two Raptors' games this fall.  He played basketball for a good chunk of each day at camp over the summer, and based on everything we saw there and at home, it was clear he had skills.  And all through this time, Jacob was talking about playing on a team.  Unfortunately, the easiest basketball league to get into didn't even have signups until early fall, and it didn't begin play until January.  It's been a very long wait...but finally it got here.  But then the snowstorm postponed game one by an extra week, and finally yesterday was the big day, probably eight months in the making.

Over these past many, many months, there's been a constant dialog from Jacob about playing basketball--wishing it would get here sooner, which sneakers he should be wearing, what kind of balls are best, what Division I college he'd like to play at, and what kind of first house he'll buy with his entry level NBA salary.  All of it.  Constantly.  I kid you not.  I'd be lying if I said it wasn't exhausting and often frustrating, as there's something like a .03% chance of making the NBA after playing on a high school roster.  We're still a long way from high school, and even that will be a challenge as the school he wants to attend is a pretty good basketball school.  Needless to say, we have a long way to go and he's hesitant to even have a "normal" backup plan.  His backups currently include being a college coach or playing in the G-League, which is basically the NBA's development league.  There's a fine line between keeping it real and crushing dreams, and I'll admit it's a very tough line to walk as a parent.  But listening to all that when he hadn't even played in a real basketball game?  UGH.

Jacob is playing for an Upward team, which is part of a Christian-based youth sports organization.  We'd heard good things about it and it's right here in our town.  At the third practice of the year, we got a bit of a sneak peak of what was to come with Jacob's little three-point shooting challenge from the coach that I mentioned in my last post.  We have a very confident kid on our hands, and a talented one at that, but all bets were off until I could see him play in a game and interact with teammates.  It's easier to shoot threes in the driveway without a defender in your face, and knowing when to pass vs. shoot is also something that can't be learned playing solo.  So when the day finally came, we were looking forward to seeing it all come together.

See that blurry foot?  He likes hearing his sneakers squeak on the floor and was repeatedly scuffing his feet in order to do that. 😒

Despite decent lighting it was almost impossible to get a good picture of him in motion, so these will have to do.

He was also quite chatty on the bench.  I can't imagine what he was talking about...or maybe I can!

Considering the challenge it is to keep him moving in lacrosse, seeing him so fleet of foot in basketball was nice!

He played about half the game as there are two sets of five players and the coach is very fair about switching them out.  Jacob's team is really pretty good, which is a nice change of pace after watching 18 straight losses (and counting) with his house lacrosse team.  Yes, his FCA team won all summer, but when he wasn't playing a prominent role (or any role), those don't seem to count for much these days.  So his repeated losses have pretty much killed lacrosse for him in the meantime, and I almost forgot what it was like to watch his team win and see him be a solid contributor to that success.

I also forgot what it was like to see him feel at home playing a sport.  For a kid that has always loved sports and played them well, he often doesn't look super coordinated.  Even in his best lacrosse moments there was always a certain degree of awkwardness, although he often made it work for him anyway.  But he looked right at home out on the basketball court.  To see him dribbling up the court, passing behind his back, and darting around opponents was pretty darn awesome.  We were thrilled when he got a couple baskets under his belt, as well as a couple beautiful assists!  But then, early in the second half, he had the ball around the three-point line and didn't have a lot of space, so he shot.  And sure enough, that sucker went in!  It was the first three-pointer of the season, and the crowd went nuts!  One of his teammates got another later in the game, and they won 35-16.  He might have had more, but his coach had them back off a bit in the second half when their lead got larger.  They focused on passing to those who hadn't scored, which was welcome bit of sportsmanship.  Jacob got a nice little shoutout (again bringing up the practice incident) post-game, so I think we can call game one a success!

The bad news, of course, is that this does nothing to tame his big plans, but at least now I can confirm his talent while reminding him that he's got a long road ahead and it will take a heck of a lot of hard work to make it happen.  While he's poo-pooing lacrosse in the meantime, I keep reminding him that the pressure is off there and it's just another opportunity to keep himself conditioned, to cross-train, and to think about how he might be able to apply what he's learning to basketball, as there are similarities in playmaking and agility.  We're thrilled that he's found something to love and succeed in (even if we're sad that our pricey investment in lacrosse isn't really going to pay out), and I can't wait to see him play again this week!

In other news, I just wanted to share what Carter and I were working on leading up to the game.  As a continuation to last weekend's fun, we successfully built a magnetic tile building (a fail from last weekend), and used it to create another epic Hot Wheels track.

In case you wondered what the inside of a magnetic tile building looked like...

Carter was pretty excited about it!  It's hard to tell from here, but that magnetic tile building is a foot and a half high!

Here it is in action, complete with multiple fun tunnels and an ending on his Stow-n-Go ramp!

It's always fun to create with him, and I can't wait to see what we build next!

Now it's on to another busy week, including Craig leaving on Thursday for a road trip and finishing off the weekend with the Super Bowl.  Oh, and let's throw in a forecast for wind chills cold enough to potentially close school, just for fun!  Never a dull moment...