My Favorite Baskeball Player of All Time!
I was born in 1970 and can remember watching basketball with my dad starting in 1974. Dad loved Jerry West because he was from West Virginia, just like we were, and Jerry was my first favorite basketball player.
When we moved to Atlanta, I became a big Dan Roundfield fan. I thought his knee braces and wristbands were so cool.
As I got older and started to play basketball, I learned I had to be scrappy and play with a lot of attitude to win the respect of my teammates. So, I soon grew to love Danny Ainge because he did not take crap from anybody!
Then, like most kids my age, Michael Jordan was, and still is to me, the best of all time!
Len Bias was also my favorite college player during this time, and his death affected me greatly.
My all-time favorite Georgia Basketball player was the great Willie Anderson.
My most recent favorite player was Nicolas Claxton.
Last August, I noticed my son, a senior at Gainesville High School, started playing basketball with his friends. This was odd because he had never wanted to play basketball as a kid. Finally, one day I popped off to my wife that he should have gone out for the high school team. My wife said, “WELLLLLL.’ He is going to try out this year. I could not believe it. I asked her why he would not ask me for any help. She said, “Why would he do that?” I admit it made me mad. I later asked why she said that to me. She said he knows you would have up at 6 am doing drills and make basketball no fun as you have done for every sport anybody in the family has played. All I could say was touché’. So, he tried out, and he made the team! He got to play in several games and looked good when he was on the floor. The season sadly ended last week, and my wife and I enjoyed watching him play. I have had time to reflect on the season, and I have come to a big conclusion. My son John Namon Lilly IV (Gunner) is and will always be my all-time favorite basketball player ever in my life!
