For The Kids

The next day after church, I went to a kids program with the basketball team where we were helping kids in the basketball program learn how to shoot, dribble, and practice with different techniques. It was fun working with the kids as I was able to take Ivy and Isabella with me. They watched from the side as I played with the kids one on one.

The kids enjoyed their time getting to play with actual basketball players; some kids kept asking me whether I was in the NBA, but I had to tell them that I was still at high school, and sooner or later, they will be seeing me in the NBA. They started to cheer me on, which got them all pumped up because they saw that I had kept shooting and had not missed yet after doing a little show for them.I was just shooting it from all sides of the Court, even the grown-ups that had organized this event was surprised with my shooting and thought I was a monster. After the event, I had taken out Ivy end Isabella to watch a basketball game. The 76ers were playing the Wizards so seem like Iverson was in town and wondered if I'll be able to link up with him but that it would probably be impossible and didn't know if he would remember me from his tournament a few years ago.We got seats real close to the front row seats, and we were enjoying watching the game. The wizards were losing once again, making me wish I was there to help them out. Iverson was having a killer game at halftime when they were about to go to the locker room Iverson had glanced my way and had noticed me as he nodded his head at me saying that he saw me and saying what's up at the same time I nodded back. Even Ivy had caught on and said: "you know that guy"?I told her I played in his tournament once, which surprised Ivy. She said" well do you know all the celebrities out there causing me to laugh and say" no but one day they'll probably be normal people to me after a while" which caused her to roll her eyes and say that even if I do become a celebrity, she would never ask for my autograph. I could only shake my head as I told her just never to change even when I have. She could only shake her head and say, "kids these days."I was surprised by this. I knew that she was older than me. Still, I'd honestly forgotten after everything that had happened, so after she said that made me realize how much older she was than me. I didn't want to overthink it. I knew she was around the same age as my older sister Flo so now I felt like I was a cougar chaser or something. The game continued as the wizards tried to make a comeback but still ended up losing to a very hot Iverson who had caught on fire during the fourth quarter to put them out.After the game and doing all the interviews, Iverson had walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to have a one-on-one match with him; this surprised everybody around as everybody started taking notice to me. Some of the locals noticed me after staring hard at me, but most of the people had no clue who I was. I got up and said, "sure, why not"  causing Iverson to shake his head as he said that "anybody would love to have a one-on-one match with me, but you aren't excited about it."I told him that if he loses his image would look bad on the media, and mine will blow up, and all that sounds troubling, so I don't want to face you now unless you don't care about what they say about you after the game. Iverson got mad and said `` I'm not going to lose to you first of all because you're just from high school, and I'm an actual NBA player. I quickly stopped him and said, you know what, let's play, so I can prove you wrong.The game got started. The refs tried to stop it, but they let us do it just for media coverage. They were trying to say that Iverson was a good role model for having a match with me, so they thought of this as a petit match, which was helping a poor boy who was meeting his fan for the first time. When I stepped on the paint, I was surprised by how big the NBA courts were compared to the little gyms that I'm used to.It had been some time before I had gotten on the court, so I had forgotten that feeling. The crowd started cheering, being able to see a surprise game from an NBA star. Iverson asked one of the refs to come and watch over our game as Iverson said that since he's the star, he should get the ball first. Still, I quickly stopped him and told him that this is my home court, so once you're at home, you have to respect my rules, and I got the ball first. This surprised the media with the way I was talking to him.Iverson said, "alright, champ, let's do this." The game was going up to six points; we were playing by ones and twos playground rules. We also had to let the ref know that too, which Iverson could only shake his head as he thought that I was taking this way too seriously. I got in position and checked it up to Iverson, as soon as he passed it back I shot the ball from the three-point line. Iverson had let his guard down as he let me get the first two points, the media and the photographers were taken every footage as I shook my head and told Iverson that it was not too late to back out.Iverson just got mad and checked the ball up as he tried to defend me as much as possible. I had grown quite a bit since the last time he saw me I was now 6'2 just a little bit taller than Iverson, and I know that I probably would be stuck there at that height for the rest of my life because I stopped growing, but I didn't mind this height at all.