I've Never Been so Proud of Him

We go to watch pro basketbal a couple of times a year, and have done so for the last couple of years. We support the Thames Valley Tigers, and this Saturday they were playing the Brighton Bears.

They announced during the first half that for a pound you could go up and take a shot at the basket. I asked my little boy if he fancied having a go and he immediately said, "Yeah!."

He's been training for over a year, but is still only six and they will now no longer let any kids that young into the club, so he has a wonderful opportunity. They train with eight-foot hoops, whereas in the Men's League they use ten-foot. However we also go to watch the West Herts Warriors, which is the men's amateur team of the club he trains with, and at every opportunity all the kids flood the court and practice on the ten-foot nets, so he's no stranger to that height. Still.

At half-time he took his pound coin and queued up with everyone else to take his shot. When they saw how little he was, they let him stand a bit closer. Let's face it, he was never going to hit a ten-foot net from the free-shot line.

He missed.

So I gave him another quid. He queued up and missed again.

I gave him another pound ..... and he only scored!

I have never been so proud of him! To put a ball through the hoop in front of the Thames Valley Tigers crowd was phenomenal!

He wanted another go, and to prove it wasn't a fluke he scored again!

They took down the names of all those who scored. There weren't many. Remember, even the pros don't always score when they take a free shot. Everyone's name went into a hat and one name was picked for a prize. His name was pulled out of the hat! Between the 3rd and 4th quarters he went up, collected his prize and received a round of applause from the whole crowd. His first basketball trophy!

I just wanted to share that with someone.

P.S. And now he's been picked to play for the under-elevens on Saturday. His first game!