Taking the Last Shot

When I got back from a run today (I'm just telling the story, not "subtly" boasting that I ran, as seems to be the norm on Facebook), Owen was in the driveway and Caleb was serving a Napoleonic exile in a timeout chair in the garage.  

After minutes (four years in kids' years), the outcast ashamedly emerged from his prison making eye contact with only his Crocs.   

"Caleb, what happened?" I asked while I, along with a jury of his peers, perched on the driveway wall.

Caleb, speaking into his chest, mumbled, "Aiden (his seven year-old pal) won two basketball games in a row.  And I cried" ("threw a tantrum," in the words of his mother who is often a better judge of such reactions).

"Caleb, you can't cry because you lose two games in a row.  Think of the Pittsburgh Pirates."

Mom then informed me that he and Aiden were actually on the same team; they were playing against, well, no one.  (As an aside, I used to demolish those same guys too in the same way that the Globetrotters thrash the Generals.)  Aiden, however, hit the game winning shot in both games.  Caleb didn't drain the game-winner.  And not since Scottie Pippen has there been such a reaction to this situation.

"Caleb, that's okay.  Some teams have certain guys that always shoot the big shots.  Like Kobe or LeBron.  But they have teammates, like..."  Somehow I knew Cal was not going to be impressed with "Luke Walton" or "Wally Szerbiak" completing this sentence.  Dead end.  Abort.  After all, I think I did just call Aiden Kobe and my own flesh and blood...Luke Walton.

I continued..."Or Caleb, in volleyball when the setter...Owen, who's NA's setter?"

Owen, seated next to me reveling in the fact that his brother and not he--for the first time since February, 2007--was getting in trouble, answered "Michael Krepp."  

Stunned at the accuracy and quickness of the response, I paused, then moved on, "Yeah, Michael Krepp, has to set the other guys.  He doesn't get to hit (not true, and I was waiting for one of the twerps to point out the fact that Michael can turn on the second ball as well as anyone...but they did not.)  He has to set the other guys.  So Aiden made the shots but you got the assists."

We all reflected.  I felt satisfied in my analogous teaching.  Caleb likely felt confused that he now has to set the ball to his teammate on the basketball court.  And Owen, at three, felt the dual joy of not getting in trouble and knowing who was setting for the NA Tigers.