Justin Bieber and Usher: one-on-one basketball

From Ice Cube to George Clooney, celebrity basketball players are plentiful. Heck, even President Barack Obama can’t seem to go too long without finding a pick-up game with government employees.

Perhaps the celebrity who is making the most noise on the basketball court is Justin Bieber. Born in Canada, Bieber grew up playing hockey, but seems to have a natural knack for basketball. On the celebrity circuit, his game is frequently compared to fellow country man, Steve Nash.

In the last NBA All-Star Celebrity game, Bieber walked away with MVP honors in a losing effort. He had eight points, four assists and two rebounds. Bieber showed some nifty crossover moves to create his shot and assist teammates. At a charity basketball game in September, Bieber’s team beat Ludacris’ team by staging a late rally. He’s posted video of himself shooting baskets with gal pal Selena Gomez cheering him on.

Like Michael Jordan, Justin Bieber seems to have “the love of the game” down pat.

Justin Bieber vs. Usher in one-on-one

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The Twin Cities Hoopathon

For the past 13 years, B.J. Viau and his family have held the Twin Cities Hoopathon to raise funds to fight Huntington’s disease.  In recent years, over 600 people have attended with over 200 shooters.  The shooters are challenged to make as many free throws as they can in a few minutes time.  The results:  over $40,000 raised annually to fight Huntington’s disease and an increased awareness about a dreadful disease.

Deb Viau at the Twin Cities Hoopathon in 2010

The 2011 Twin Cities Hoopathon will be the first without B.J.’s mom, Debbie Viau, who lost her battle with the disease earlier this year.  The Viau’s, along with volunteers and sponsors, continue their fundraising efforts in Debbie’s memory.

This year’s Twin Cities Hoopathon will take place at the University of Minnesota Fieldhouse located at 1800 University Avenue SE, Minneapolis, on Saturday, August 20.  Crunch and the Timberwolves Hoop Troop Dunk Team are scheduled to perform from 4:15 to 4:45 p.m.

“We are in our 14th year, but in some ways it feels like our first,” said B.J. Viau, “Because of a amazing group of young people stepping up and joining the Hoopathon Committee we were able to add a lot more to this year event then ever before.  The Individual Shooting from 2 – 4 p.m. changed from five to three minutes and will be a competition between shooters in their age groups.  The Team Competition being held from 5 – 7 p.m. will have team of five go head to head trying to make as many free throws as possible in three minutes as a team.  There will be two rounds of pool play followed by a single elimination bracket.  After all the shooting concludes we will be hosting our first ever Hoopathon After Party at the famous Upper Cut Boxing Gym in NE Mnpls.  Doors will be open from 7 p.m.  – 1 a.m. with Avian Sunrise taking the stage at 9pm.  If you don’t play basketball or you want to come celebrate all your made free throws, join us for a night of fun and festivities.  Overall, all these new changes to the event this year are going to help set the table for bigger and better events to come!

Per the Hoop-A-Thon website (www.hoopathon.com), “Huntington’s Disease is a devastating, hereditary, degenerative brain disorder for which there is, at present, no effective treatment or cure. HD slowly diminishes the affected individual’s ability to walk, think, talk and reason. Eventually, the person with HD becomes totally dependent upon others for his or her care. Huntington’s Disease profoundly affects the lives of entire families — emotionally, socially and economically. HDSA was founded in 1967 by Marjorie Guthrie when her husband, Woody Guthrie, the American folk singer, lost his long and painful battle with HD.”

The Twin Cities Hoopathon has already raised over $15,000 for this year’s event with a goal of $75,000.  Help the Viau family reach their goal by attending and participating in the event.  If you can’t make it, you can still help the cause by visiting http://www.firstgiving.com/MNHDSA/TCHoopathon and making a donation.

SPECIAL to SportsFeelGoodStories.com – “Youth Basketball: Bad Call for a Good Reason”

EDITOR’S NOTE:  We’re excited to republish an article written by Fran Dicari originally published on his site:  StatsDad.com.

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Sometimes I wonder why I write this blog, but on Saturday I was reminded why by a beautiful event. A good ref made a terrible call for a good reason.

My daughter, CC, had a basketball game today. The championship game of a CYO tournament for 4th grade girls. We got to the gym early hoping to warm up, but the 5th grade girls semi-final game was in progress. I looked up at the scoreboard to see how much time was remaining. Ugh, I thought to myself. The game was only in the 2nd quarter. A bright orange team from a parish about 10 miles away was playing the 5th grade team from my daughter’s school. The orange team was winning decisively.

My daughter spotted some friends and took off. With nothing better to do, I watched the action on the court and I am glad I did.

You could tell that the orange team was well coached because the ball was moving around so effectively. Every girl knew where to go and knew almost instinctively where help was if needed. It was so fluid. It so was beautiful.

There was one girl on the court donned in orange and thick glasses who was following the beautiful flow of the game, but she was a few steps behind everyone else. She always knew where to go, but she was just a little slow to get there. Her teammates would always patiently wait for her to get into position. They would pass the ball to her on occasion even though they probably knew that there might be better options. The girl donned in orange with think glasses was behind, but not left behind.

As the game progressed, the black team from my daughter’s school chipped away at the lead and made a game of it. Still the coach of the orange team did not make any adjustments to the line-up late in the game. He trusted his talented guards to control the final few minutes and protect the lead. He trusted the girl in orange with think glasses to get into the right position.

With 7 seconds on the clock, the orange team held a 7 point lead. The speedy guard from the white team had the ball and was cutting across the court from left to right. The girl with the think glasses was cutting  across the court right to left. She was concentrating so hard on getting into position that she did not know where the ball was. The two girls collided.

It was an obvious foul on the girl in orange. She was not trying to defend, she was just desperately trying to get to her position as coached which she eventually did and stood there as if nothing had happened.

The ref reached for his whistle. He hesitated. He looked up at the clock. 3 seconds left. He looked at the foul situation. Few fouls had been called so neither team was in the bonus. He then blew the whistle.

He turned toward the scoring table and yelled, “Foul on white #10″ It was a bad call for a good reason. Although it was not a shooting foul, he put the girl in orange on the line to shoot free throws.

No one complained. Six girls jogged to the basket and lined up white, orange, white on either side of the lane. Two girls in orange and one in white took their positions at the top of the key. The girl with the thick glasses wearing bright orange stood dutifully in her defensive position on the wing. The position she was so desperately trying to get to when the play started.

The tall skinny ref with grey hair walked over to her and bent down. He said something to her. He handed her the ball and walked her to the line. The girl knew what to do and did not hesitate at all. The ball flew through the air on a beautiful arc with the school’s Prayer for Athletes blue banner hanging in the background.

You could feel all nine girls on the court, the six or so girls on the both benches, the coaches from both teams, the two supposedly impartial refs and the one hundred plus fans praying for the ball to go in.

The ball bounced off the back of the rim.

A teammate rebounded the ball and gave it to the ref. The ref bounced it to the girl on the line. Again, without even a moment of hesitation, she launched the ball up toward the hoop. Again the ball had a beautiful arc, but again the ball bounced off the back of the rim. She was a little too close or a little too strong. A loud AHH came from the fans, the players, the coaches and the refs.

After the game, I wanted to shake the hand of this great ref. I approached him hand extended and told him that he made a great call. He smiled proudly. He told me how he hesitated in making the call. He told me that he was concerned that someone would get mad. Then he told me that his daughter has Down syndrome too.

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Fran Dicari is  the over-scheduled father of over-scheduled athletic kids and author of the youth sports blog StatsDad.com.  He’s a coach, a scorekeeper and an amateur sports photographer. He’s also an executive and partner at Barefoot Proximity, the digital marketing agency that created ManoftheHouse.com and Coachhub.com.

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Among Giants: Minnesota Athlete Overcomes 70-Plus Surgeries To Join State’s Greats

It’s been a year since Thomas Bowlin was nominated for the St. Paul (Minn.) Athlete of the Year. He remembers being onstage at the St. Paul Downtown Lions Club with multi-sport stars like Mark Alt, a state champion quarterback who got a hockey scholarship from the University of Minnesota. Past winners include Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor, Chris Weinke and Joe Mauer.

Bowlin was 5-foot-4 and 135 pounds. He looked around at the other finalists and thought, “What the heck am I doing here?”

The answer to that starts in an Arizona hospital bed, where Bowlin lay three years ago, receiving the Catholic Anointing of the Sick sacrament delivered to those near death. Bowlin was only a teenager, but he had been through 70 surgeries already. This one, his parents feared, would be the last.

“This one was different,” remembers Tom, Bowlin’s dad. “Other doctors thought it was far too dangerous of a procedure to even attempt — the smallest of mistakes could end his life.”

Thomas Bowlin was born with a form of spina bifida, a disorder in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close before birth. He had a shunt surgically placed to drain fluid from his brain. Eventually, as a small child, Bowlin was fitted with leg braces below his knees and with the help of crutches, was able to move around.

Somehow, a love of sports developed and thrived.

Propping himself up with one crutch, Bowlin learned to play basketball and baseball from his dad. “He had a great arm, and with the bat in one arm and the crutch in the other, he could hit,” says Tom. “We even looked into him playing football as the field goal kicker’s holder, but thought better of it.”

Thomas wanted to be a part of a team – any team. “I wanted to be like everyone else,” he says.

As he grew older, more medical problems developed. A surgical error when he was 12 years old resulted in Thomas needing to use a wheelchair full-time. When the shunt didn’t work as it was designed, Bowlin endured intense headaches, nausea and fatigue. As the result of scar tissue build-up from his surgeries, Bowlin’s symptoms became more constant when he turned 13.

And still it didn’t stop Thomas from pursuing his love of sports. He joined a local wheelchair basketball team and adapted his shot to a sitting position. “With all of his suffering, Thomas never complained,” says Tom. “He’d play a basketball tournament, come home, and within a couple of days, we’d have to take him to the doctor or emergency room; but his teammates never knew. He didn’t let on.”

Living in Minnesota, a leader in providing adapted athletic opportunities, Thomas had opportunities to play adapted floor hockey, adapted softball, adapted soccer and wheelchair basketball. He played them all, despite his pain. “He would never give up,” says Tom, “and there were lots of opportunities when he could have.”

His parents sought the best care for Thomas from top medical institutions, but nothing worked. The headaches became constant. In his first two years of high school, Thomas could only summon to attend 90 days of classes.

Then, finally, in 2008, the last-ditch surgery in Arizona worked.

After a three-week recovery period, Thomas’ symptoms were gone. “I’d still get an occasional headache,” he says, “but they’re like the ones that everyone has.”

Thomas went right back to the field of play. And his achievements piled up: 14 times he lettered for a varsity sports team; nine times he was selected as captain of his teams; eight times he won all-conference awards; six times he was selected as defensive player of the year.

And his wheelchair basketball team won a national championship.

“I ask myself what goal or image do I have for myself in sports — do I want to just sit back and enjoy myself or try to be a leader?” says Thomas. “And then, I set about identifying the steps I need to take to improve myself and my teammates. For me, sports have been about fitting in.”

He did just that on stage a year ago. He did more than that, actually.

Thomas Bowlin became the first adaptive athlete to win St. Paul Athlete of the Year.

He graduated last June and now, at age 18, he’s planning to attend Southwest Minnesota State and play wheelchair basketball there.

“Being in a wheelchair,” he says, “you don’t think about being on a sports team — having that opportunity. I never thought I’d be able to do some of the things I did playing on a team. I felt very honored to be on a list that included Joe Mauer and Dave Winfield.”

No doubt Mauer and Winfield are just as honored to be on a list that includes Thomas Bowlin.

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This article is also featured at Yahoo Sports’ online magazine The Post Game:  Among Giants: Minnesota Athlete Overcomes 70-Plus Surgeries To Join State’s Greats

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A Third Grader’s Buzzer Beater

Buzzer beaters happen in the pros and college with some frequency. Heck, youtube is even full of high school hoopsters hitting game winners as time runs out videos. But, a buzzer beater from half-court by a third grader? It doesn’t happen every day.

A Holy Trinity third-grader’s shot against St. Matthew Parish in Beaverton, Oregon, sent the third-grade game into overtime where Holy Trinity pulled out a 4 point win.

What a shot! What a memory for that team and player!

Roseville’s Buzzer Beater Burns Totino-Grace

Up by 2 points with 3 seconds on the clock, Totino-Grace needed to inbounds the ball and hang on to secure a win over Roseville.  However, the inbounds pass was deflected, and after a scramble for the ball, it ended up in the hands of Roseville’s Jacqlyn Poss near half-court.

Poss launched a shot from half-court and the ball swished through the nets giving Roseville a 58 – 57 victory in dramatic style.  Poss, a sophomore, has started the last 2 seasons for Roseville.  A buzzer-beater victory in the opening game of the season is not a bad way to start the year!

Roseville beats Totino-Grace on half-court shot

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