I was lucky to visit the grandkids on my trip with my son's bone marrow donation. One of the highlights was to see the oldest play a basketball game. As you may know, my son and his family moved to Texas to help plant a church in the suburbs of Dallas. Part of it was in anticipation of Toyota moving out to Plano.
One of the byproducts of a bunch of asian Americans moving to Texas, was the cultural phenomenon of asian basketball. Those of us on the southern west coast are familiar with how pervasive basketball has become part of the asian American experience. I grew up in it in Venice, my kids grew up in it in the South Bay and played for FOR. They still identify with their uniform numbers, Jeff was 12, Jordan 33, and Jared 4.
One of the transplants in Texas decided to start an Asian American basketball organization in the Dallas area. The oldest grandson is on the first team of the group. A local league has allowed the Asian sponsored team to play in their league. Of course those Texans grow kind of big, but then those of Chinese descent tend to be just as big. Jeff is the coach and he is facing the typical conflicts of forming a team.
Jeff grew up with a coach that believed in fundamentals. The basic tenants of basketball imparted by Dave Kasai has given Jeff the fundamentals that are hard to miss when he plays. The conflict remains, do you teach the fundamentals or do you coach for the game. Can you convince parents that losing is ok as they learn the basics and that in the long run their skills will benefit their perceived limitations as asians.
I did notice that snack time was the same as here in LA. Asian Basketball lives on.
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