Sports: Basketball

One of Mike's real loves as a kid was basketball.

Part of this of course was fueled by the fact that when he was growing up this man

 & his 6 NBA championships

Ruled the Roost.

Now unfortunately in basketball our little superstar wasn't MJ.  For one thing he didn't have the height.

or the speed so he was always left to dry way....out....here.

River Forest itself hasn't produced too many basketball stars {Trisha Liston is the one exception to this rule that I know}.  The photo below is Mike's team playing an AAU team in a tournament.  Our boys were a bit outmatched.  The other team's kids in 6th grade averaged about 5.6 in height.  That AAU team played most of their first string the first quarter.  I say most because their best two kids were playing up in another tournament and another was on the bench with a broken leg.  They were beating Mike's team 25-6 at the end of  Q-1. {He did have 4 of those 6 points though}.  50-12 at half with their 2nd string in the game.  We played them even with their 3rd string in the 2nd half.  Of course their 3rd string looked more like our kids.

Mike did find a measure of redemption when he won his first championship in River Forest with basketball late in his career.  He was the coach of 5-6 grad kids in a Park District league.

PS.  Don't tell him that I printed this but he still can't beat me on our own court!!!!