Bynumite and Me
Saturday, July 21st, 2007Prior to having children, I coached a bunch of different sports while teaching at Community Middle School in West-Windsor/Plainsboro School District. In 2001 I coached our 8th grade basketball team. One of the players on that squad frustrated the heck out of me. He was 6′4″ in 8th grade with a size 14 shoe. He had all of the ability in the world, but would rather shoot 3 pointers than dominate the paint. I remember well benching him for shooting 3’s. He ended up averaging about 8 points a game and 4 or 5 boards. His averages should have been triple what they were. We ended the season with a disappointing 8-14 record.
Fast forward 4 years. This player ended up transferring to St. Joseph’s in Metuchen, NJ. He grew to 6′11″, 295 lbs. and received a full ride to the University of Connecticut. He soon decided to forego his scholarship and enter the 2005 NBA draft. He was subsequently chosen, as a lottery pick, by the Los Angeles Lakers at #10, only months after receiving his driver’s license at age 17. His name is Andrew ‘Bynumite” Bynum and he is viewed as the Laker’s center of the future. Yep, Kobe’s teammate and coached by Phil Jackson. He remains the youngest player to ever play in the NBA at 18 years, 6 days.
I was such a bad coach that I couldn’t coach a lottery pick to a winning record.
Check him out getting dunked on and dunking over Shaq:
