A Basketball Milestone

Any basketball-enthusiast child has probably shot baskets in the driveway or at the local park pretending to be his or her favorite player. (And for some of us, reaching adulthood hasn’t been a mandate to stop doing this). Last night, my two year old participated in this hoop junkie rite of passage.

A couple of months after his first birthday, I bought him a Lil’ Tikes basketball set. When we opened it, he could barely dunk the ball on the lowest hoop setting. Now, at almost two and a half and with lots of practice, the hoop has been raised a couple of notches and he is able to throw the ball in from a short distance rather than just dunking. When he makes it in we cheer and high five, and when he misses, apparently a lot of the time I say “aww, man”, which I didn’t realize I was doing until he started mimicking me. We have also started to share the ball a little, passing back and fourth and taking turns shooting. After a few minutes, he goes on to something else, like his firetruck or bus.

In parallel, we have also watched the Celtics a fair amount this season. Being away from Boston, I usually try to take advantage of times when the C’s are on national TV if I can. RJ doesn’t have nearly the attention span to follow a game, but he does so in spurts, and during these times I point out the key players to him..KG, Rondo,the truth, Green, Bass, etc. He seems to have taken a primary affinity to KG, and my only guess why is that it’s an easy two-letter nickname. I also think he likes “Green” (i.e. Jeff Green) because it not only refers to a person but also the color of the uniforms. It’s not the most basketball-sound reasoning for picking favorites, but at age two it makes sense.

So fast forward to last night when he and I were playing with the ball and hoop, and I happened to be wearing a Celtics t-shirt. Instinctively, without any cue from me at all or any past times of doing this, RJ exclaimed “I’m KG!!!”. I asked him who I was, and he said “you’re Green!”. We continued playing, passing the ball back and fourth to each other, shooting, and rebounding as Kevin Garnett and Jeff Green. The moment lasted only a few minutes, but I will remember it forever.

Fatherhood Short: A Tale of two Kevins

One Kevin is a white man in his mid 50’s. He was born and raised in Hibbing, MN, a small town about two hours from the Canadian border whose population is 95.6 percent white.

Another Kevin is 36, born the same year the first Kevin was a senior in high school. Kevin #2 is a black man born and raised in the south…specifically Greenville County, SC.

Based upon geography and demographics, there’s no reason one would ever expect these two men each named Kevin to ever meet each other, or to have much in common besides their first name. However, they have one extremely unique thing in common, as they are two of the greatest power forwards to ever play the game of basketball.

If you hadn’t guessed it yet and that last sentence wasn’t a giveaway to you, I’m talking about Kevin McHale and Kevin Garnett. Their connection began in 1995 when McHale, an executive and later coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves drafted Garnett. They spent significant years together before moving on to other teams.

Fast forward to last night, when the Boston Celtics played the Houston Rockets. The two Kevins were reunited on the basketball court, McHale as the head coach of the Rockets and Garnett as the emotional leader and veteran big man for the Celtics. A basketball game was played and one team won and one team lost.

Then, this happened. And, oh, by the way…one other meaningful commonality between the two Kevins is that they are both fathers to daughters. McHale’s daughter tragically died of Lupus earlier this month. We can only guess what was said between the two Kevins during their embrace, but it is a touching moment to see for yourself.

Thanks to SBNation for capturing this moment and realizing the significance of it.