Bucks Weekend

 When the YMCA's basketball season started, I was handed a paper to fill out.  It said it would give my child a chance to be chosen to participate in a basketball clinic with the Milwaukee Bucks.  I thought that would be cool even if they were bench sitters.  I filled it out not expecting to hear anything else about it.  A couple of weeks later, Smalz's coach handed me a paper that said he had been chosen to participate.  Super excited!  So on a Friday night in February we headed over to the Bucks' training center.  Smalz was given a t-shirt and headed onto the court.  The kids were split into 6 groups.  Each group had a Bucks team member in charge of it and they were each working on different skills.  At the end of each group, the player autographed the kids' shirts.

 In his first group, Smalz got to do a little dribbling against Bucks' center 6'11" John Henson.

His second group was shooting with Montay Ellis and then #3 was dribbling with Ekpe Udoh (from Edmond, Oklahoma).
#4 was more shooting with Beno Udrih who is from Slovenia.

 #5 was shooting with Tobias Harris, the youngest player on the Bucks' team.  #6 was layups with one of the assistant coaches.

Assistant Coach Bill Peterson ran the camp.  At the end Tobias Harris and John Henson did a little Q&A with the participants.

As they were exiting the floor, each participant received a Bucks nylon bag and water bottle.  This boy was pretty happy, happy, happy.
The next day a gal in our ward had some extra free tickets to the Bucks V. Pistons game that night.  Smalz and I got to go watch the game as a very special treat!  All of the players  he had worked with the night before (except Tobias Harris who was on the injured list) played in the game.

Pre-game.  We were pretty excited!  This was a first for both of us.

Tip-off!

So, it was a pretty close game and came down to the final 20 seconds.  In the end the Pistons pulled off the win 105-100.  Smalz was so upset he cried, but said he had a great time anyway.  I loved sharing this experience with him.  I hope we get to do it again someday.
**Since this game, Tobias Harris and Beno Udrih have been traded from the Bucks