Page 56 of Kove and Xiah
Kove
“Y’all ever watch a game andsee a player get crossed up?”
Most of my group smiled big as shit and started yelling out which games and the players, making me laugh. One of the commitments Sovoya had me signed on for was a basketball camp at Loyd Avenue Recreational Center. The group I was working with were 8U, so young as hell, but they were still skilled with knowledge about the game. I was cool with this because I worked with the younger DP Ballerz back when I was running with their team. Kids were easy. They just wanted you to hype them.
“Aight, aight, so y’all feel me. I’m about to school you on how to cross somebody up. Nic, you’re up first.”
She giddily skipped from the line toward me. All the kids were in their Royals camp t-shirts, basketball shorts, and shoes given to everyone who signed up free of charge. The camp was no cost to the parents because the Royals covered all expenses. We had ten kids in each age group, from 18U down to 5U, so it got a little wild around here.
Jabari even had his little man Jamari tagging along with him. He wasn’t old enough to officially be part of one of our camp groups but he was truly his father’s son. The ball was damn nearbigger than him but he was already doing two hand dribbles and toddler bounce passes. Shit was cute as fuck. I’d never considered kids, but seeing him had me wanting a little soldier to rock a jersey with my number on it who I could pass my skills down to.
I pointed to the row of balls on the floor. “Grab one and come to me.”
I demonstrated what I needed her to do, explaining while I moved. “Dribble low, twice on the left and bounce pass to your right hand, then go around me. I’m gonna guard you.”
“You’re gonna take the ball from me.” She frowned, bouncing on her toes.
“Nah, you got this. Just keep the dribble low.” Most of them didn’t have the control but they were decent. The more they worked on it, the better they would get, but they had to learn the moves first.
I placed the ball I used to demonstrate back in line with the others and bent low, spreading my arms wide.
“Aight, you ready?”
“Yes…” she sang and bent forward.
“Let’s go.”
She did exactly what I showed her with a lot less finesse and control. I faked defense like I was trying to stop the motion but let her get past me.
“I beat you.”
“Yeah you did. High five.”
She jumped up and slapped her small hand against mine.
“Go stand over there.” I pointed to the back of the line. “Who got next?”
“Me.” Josh bolted my way and grabbed a ball.
“You need me to show you or you got it?”
“I got it.” He grinned and nodded.
“Aight, let’s get it.”
He ran through the drill, handling the ball a lot better, and darted around me.
“See, I told you.”
“Yeah, you did. I see your handles.” I held my hand up and he slapped five before the next kid was up. Dre moved through the drill and I nodded before we ran through our high five. I waved Karley over next.
She was shy as hell but pretty decent. When she got to me, she clutched the ball to her chest but didn’t move.
“You want me to do it with you?”
She nodded and lowered the ball in front of her, waiting for me to get one.
“Aight, let’s go.” I tossed my chin and she mirrored my position when I lowered and bent, prepared to dribble low. She followed my motions, moving the ball from hand to hand, then smiled big as shit when she faked left and dodged right to get around me.
