SprInG BrEaK X-Tra Credit!

Hi students. I hope you all enjoy your break. And if you're so inclined, here is an extra credit assignment that you can do to earn a few extra points...i mean, some of you really do need it :)


Read the following article about Allonzo Trier, a 13 year old basketball player who is considered the next best thing. Respond to the question: Should colleges and the NBA be allowed to interact with athletes that are not in high school? What are the possible benefits and problems with being a young athlete with the potential to go pro? Write your response in the comments section. Make sure your name is there as well.

love,
Ms. Mack

Allonzo Trier Is in the Game

By MICHAEL SOKOLOVE

Published: March 19, 2009

After school on a recent afternoon, Allonzo Trier, a sixth grader in Federal Way, outside Seattle, came home and quickly changed into his workout gear — Nike high-tops, baggy basketball shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt that hung loosely on his 5-foot-5, 110-pound frame. Inside a small gymnasium near the entrance of his apartment complex, he got right to his practice routine, one he has maintained for the last four years, seven days a week. He began by dribbling a basketball around the perimeter of the court, weaving it around his back and through his legs. After a few minutes, he took a second basketball out of a mesh bag and dribbled both balls, crisscrossing them through his legs. It looked like showboating, Harlem Globetrotters kind of stuff, but the drills, which Trier discovered on the Internet, were based on the childhood workouts of Pete Maravich and have helped nurture his exquisite control of the ball in game settings — and, by extension, his burgeoning national reputation

One of the Web sites that tracks young basketball prospects reports that Trier plays with “style and punch” and “handles the pill” — the ball — “like a yo-yo.” He is a darling of the so-called grass-roots basketball scene and a star on the A.A.U. circuit — which stands for Amateur Athletic Union but whose practices mock traditional definitions of amateurism.All youth sports now operate on fast-forward. Just about any kid with some ability takes road trips with his or her team by the age of 12, flying on planes and staying in hotels. That used to happen, if at all, only after an athlete was skilled enough to play in college. Now it occurs in just about any sport organized enough to form into a league. But basketball operates at a level beyond other sports, and in recent years, the attention, benefits and temptations that fall on top high-school players have settled on an ever-younger group.Trier has his own line of clothing emblazoned with his signature and personal motto: “When the lights come on, it’s time to perform.” His basketball socks, which also come gratis, are marked with either his nickname, Zo, or his area code, 206. He’s expecting a shipment of Under Armour gear soon, thanks to Brandon Jennings, last year’s top high-school point guard and now a highly paid pro in Italy. He is flown around the country by A.A.U. teams that want him to play for them in tournaments — and by basketball promoters who use him to add luster to their events. A lawyer in Seattle arranged for Trier’s private-school tuition and academic tutoring to be paid for by the charitable foundation of an N.B.A. player, and the lawyer also procured free dental care for Trier.

The more important benefits flowing to Trier concern his academics. Over the summer, tests revealed why he had been reading at well below grade level: he is dyslexic. In A.A.U. ball, he competes as a seventh grader, but academically, he’s in sixth grade because he was held back a year. (Francis includes him in the class of 2014, the age group in which he plays, but he’s really the class of 2015, the year he should graduate from high school.)

Trier’s tutor wants to work with him three days a week, but so far Trier has been able to fit in only two sessions a week because of his busy basketball schedule and his limited enthusiasm for them. When his mother asked what would motivate him to be more excited about the tutoring, he answered: more basketball instruction. Private coaches were hired to teach him to play “lockdown defense” and to further refine his shooting. He made 95 of 100 foul shots for his new shooting coach, who identified flaws in his form and said that if they were fixed, Trier could consistently make 98 out of 100.

When I asked Trier about school, he said, “It’s hard for me because I’m not the smartest kid.” But that was not my impression of him at all.