My basketball Star!!!

Tate recently started basketball. Let me tell you, it as competitive as every other sport is here in cali. I swear all the kids were born holding a basketball or something. Anyways, Tate is fighting to keep up with the rest of them. It has taken home a while, but he is finally getting the hang of it and I am so proud of him. Well, sort of...

The one thing with basketball... well, probably any sport, is you get the really talented kids who aren't good at sharing the ball. This is the case on Tate's team. There are a few boys who are pretty dang good and they know it. I have to admit that I myself am impressed with their skills. However, it does suck to see your own kids trying and not ever being passed the ball. Actually, the worst is when you see your child opened for a pass, standing near the hoop, yelling for his teammate to pass him the ball, then just as the teammate see's who it is that's opened for a pass, (which is your son), they decide to take their chances at making a basket that is literally impossible. Now, I am not saying that their is no reason for these boys to be concerned about giving Tate the ball. He does have a hard time focusing and you can sometimes catch him doing spiderman moves on the court, but he he does have some good basketball skills he can do if given the chance. I understand competitiveness, but come on, the kids are ages 5-7. How do you expect the other kids to get better if they aren't given a chance. Then again, try explaining that to competitive 5-7 year olds.

I think because of this, Tate has learned to become more and more aggressive at getting that ball. He has gotten several rebounds and made some great passes, but regardless of his improvement, the boys still don't pass him the ball. Recently, Tate had practice and I nearly fell off my seat... One of the boys was actually passing the ball to Tate. Now this wasn't just a couple of times, it happened several times. Not only was Tate getting passed the ball but he made some great plays and even got a couple of baskets. I was so proud of him. I thought to myself, "It's about time those other boys realized Tate is a descent player"!


After practice I went up to Tate and the excited mom I was, I told him how proud I was of him and how he played really well. I then continued to tell him that I bet the boys were passing him the ball because he was really focusing and paying attention to the ball.
"That's not it", Tate said.
Then I replied, "Well, How do you know?".
"Well, it was just Brett passing me the ball and when I ran into him at Chucky Cheese the other day, I told him I would give him some of my tickets if he passed me the ball the rest of basketball (season)"!

So maybe the boys didn't realize Tate was a valuable player on their own. Tate knew they needed some persuading. That's my boy! One day he is trying to by a box of popsicles for $100 dollars then the next he is paying off his team to use him more ;0) I love that kid.