In a small town called Ballerville, Florida there was a  12 year old 7th grade white boy named Kevin James who was pretty bad at basketball. But all of his friends were good at basketball and would tell him, “Come play ball with us,” or “Try out for the team.” But he never would because he knew he was not good and would not make it. His best friends were Russell Durant, Michael Bryant, and Lonzo Fox there were all great at basketball. He wanted to be able to be like them so he decided that he will become an elite basketball player. Kevin had to work on his terrible jump shot, his vertical, his  handles, and his layups. His other friends would always brag to him saying,

“How does it feel to suck at basketball.”

Also he decided if it was good weather he would work out and do drills in his driveway.

The next week (week 1) he was in the gym for about 3-4 hours a day just working on his  jump shot and making layups. Each week he would work on something else, and that week he decided he would measure his height and weight. He came out at 120 pounds and he was 5’4. He got his form down and they actually started to go in quite often.His friend Lonzo Fox who was a great shooter and a great all around scorer came to the gym and helped. Lonzo explained,

“ If you have a wide open shot…. Take it.”

  He started to swish 3s left and right and getting his lay ups to go in almost 100% of the time. He knew pretty soon that he would become an elite player.

In week two he worked on his vertical leap, he would have weights on and do box jumps and jump as high as he can. He measured his vertical and it was 16 inches which is not good at all. His friend Michael Bryant came to the gym to help him with that He would try his hardest to touch the rim but as hard as he tried he never got even close. At the end of the week he had a 18 inch vertical. “

Wow,” Michael said, “ You're improving very fast!”

In week 3 he worked on his handles and doing basic crossovers. It was a sunny week and in 80-90 degrees all week, so he did drills in his drive way He set up cones and dribbled in between them while doing crossovers to change direction. His friend Russell Durant was very good at controlling the ball and handles so he came to Kevin's house to help on Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday. Kevin started to become efficient in basic cross overs but he could not dribble in between his legs.

“ Great job,” Russell exclaimed

For about a year he repeated this process for about a year then by the time the basketball season came around he was very good. He tried out for his school team and he made the team. Right after he made the team he measured his vertical again and found out he had a 39 inch vertical. During the season he started at small forward and was voted for team M.V.P (most valuable player).

“ I never gave up and I never skipped a day,” Kevin muttered, “All my hard work paid off.”

His coach congratulated “Yes . . . yes it did.”

While the season was going on he would average 21 points, 2 blocks, 11 rebounds, and 10 assist PER GAME. He did not even know this until Lonzo Fox showed him the stats sheet.

“Great job Kevin,” Lonzo congratulated, “Way to put in the work!”

“Thanks Lonzo,” Kevin proudly said, “ It means a lot.”

“Be ready to play high school ball next year,” Lonzo warned.

“I already am,” Kevin bragged.

Kevin and Lonzo laughed, said goodbye, and walked away.