ON JAN. 26, 2006, an 11-year-old boy received a writing assignment from his sixth-grade teacher at Northeast Elementary School in Parker, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.
He stood about 5-feet tall and was rail thin. He played baseball, tennis and football, but he loved another sport above all.
The essay prompt: «What I want to be when I grow up.» And so the boy wrote: «There are so many things I want to do when I grow up, but if I had to choose one it is to be a basketball player.» In his 126-word answer, he said he plays every day in the living room on a small hoop.
He practices with his dad, he wrote. He acknowledged he isn't the best at the other sports, but in basketball, people say that he is one of the best passers, and that his shooting is improving.