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Baxter HomesESPN senior writerMay 28, 2023, 05:48 pmRead 2 minutes

David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images

On Jan 26, 2006, An 11-year-old boy received a writing assignment from his 6th grade teacher at Northeast Elementary School in Parker, Colorado, in Denver. He stood about 5 feet tall and was rail thin. He played baseball, tennis and soccer, but most of all he loved other sports. The essay suggests “what I want to be when I grow up.”

And the boy wrote: “There are many things I want to do when I grow up, but if I had to choose one, it would be to be a basketball player.”

In his 126-word answer, he said that he plays in the living room on a small hoop every day. He writes that he practices with his father. He said he is not the best in other sports, but in basketball people say he is one of the best players and his shooting is improving. He hopes to attend North Carolina, his favorite college, and play for his hometown Denver Nuggets. “That’s what I want to do in the future. I hope you like basketball or I’ll chase you like a mean old man with a stick.”

But less than a decade later, his senior year dreams were in jeopardy. He was 6 feet tall and weighed 150 kilograms. His parents filmed the game with camera footage, edited the footage together for highlight reels, then sent dozens of DVDs to colleges, hoping to spark interest. No one responded.

He considered a junior college in Wyoming that was scarce on facilities. He considered a scholarship offer from an NAIA school in Denver. And hope dwindled.

He began to accept, perhaps, that he went to college, graduated with a degree and left basketball well behind. That the sixth grade class would be a memoir of a life that never became childhood.

It seems impossible that his son will reach the NBA. But little did he know — no one did — that 17 years after that draft, he would have the chance to play in the Finals with the team he wanted and lead an NBA franchise to the precipice of glory. Playing all those years ago.

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