So with baby powder covered hands I would practice fadeaway after fadeaway.   I was Mike Jordan on my backyard court.   Playing against my younger brother, who was born six years after me, certainly helped that belief.   I was much bigger than him and outweighed him by quite a bit.   The difference between a 15 year old and a 9 year old is pretty substantial.   As my brother grew older, and stronger, he would more than get his revenge, but at the time, I was the man…like MJ!

So I was sitting on the long pine bench of the Junior Varsity team.   I don’t remember the team we were playing, but I remember the moment the coach called my name. “Ken,” he would grumble out in his raspy, northern accent, “Go in for so and so.”

In those days the Clermont High School Varsity team was really good.  Many believed they had a good shot that year for state playoffs.   So that meant as the JV games got into the later part of the third quarter and into the fourth, the place would be packed!   Standing room only most nights.

“Ken, go in for so and so,” the coach yelled out.  The game was basically over.   Just a few minutes in the fourth remained.   The truth is, I couldn’t mess anything up and neither could the rest of the subs.  So I checked in to my first ever high school basketball game.

The jerseys were about as close to skin tight as possible.  White with gold numbers outlined in dark green.   We were the Highlanders.

The shorts were pre-Jordan short shorts.   It was embarrassing actually.  We all would try to tug at them during the game to keep them down as far as possible and still they wouldn’t go lower than half way down our thighs.  I mean we weren’t talking the 1950s, this was the 90s!  Long shorts were in, but the school was old and so were the uniforms.

Regardless, I knelt by the scorekeeper and waited for the horn.  I went in, heart thumping, so nervous.   Seconds ran off the clock faster than Usain Bolt.   All I remember is running back and forth on the court, lungs burning, fatigued even though I was in great shape.   The boost in adrenaline had drained my frail frame.

With just over a minute to go in the game an errant offensive rebound came off to the right baseline.   It somehow came right to me, as I was surely out of place had there been a need to get back on defense.  Then time slowed down.

I thought in my head about all those fadeaways I had taken with the assistance of Johnson and Johnson.   It was time to unleash some Jordan on this team, with everyone watching!

So I faked one way and turned around the other and let the ball go.   I couldn’t compose myself to go into full Jordan mode.   The lean back, the head fake the shoulder shrug.   I did the best I could do, thinking MJ the whole way.

What is crazy is that the basket actually went in.   I galloped down court, now full of energy.   My first two points were scored in what I thought was Jordan fashion.  Of course the game had been decided long ago, but that didn’t matter to me.   I was beyond happy!

In my mind’s heart, I really believed this was going to be a regular occurrence.   Me checking in, draining baskets and making a difference. The rest of the season went quite different, but I enjoyed the journey.

I guess you always remember your first shot.

My Dad never played hoops, so I basically taught myself.   I would watch every Chicago Bulls game that WGN broadcast here in Central Florida and study everything.   Everything my young basketball mind could comprehend anyway.

On All-Star weekend I would tape and study the way the 3 pt champions shot the ball.   The Bulls had their share of great shooters over the years.  Craig Hodges, John Paxon, BJ Armstrong, Steve Kerr all shot the ball extremely well.  They were great teachers for me as a youth.

I would go out to our house hoop, a fairly large slab of concrete with a basketball hoop, and shoot for hours.   I did this just about daily, usually with my younger brother.   We would have 3 pt contests and when I was shooting alone, I would have shooting contests against myself.

I was moving between 8^th and 9^th grade at the time.  Basketball was all I did.

Michael Jordan was of course the biggest influence in my basketball life.   No surprise there, as MJ was the biggest influence in most player’s lives that were born in the late 70s and thereafter.  I would try and emulate everything the man did.   From the soaring to the basket, to practicing fadeaway jumpers.   I would do the head fakes, the footwork, everything.   I studied the guy like a stalker.   Seriously.

Jordan at times during games, would hold the ball in one hand and kind of wave it in front of defenders.   I couldn’t do this, as my hands were too small, but I always thought that was the coolest thing.  I would dream about being able to do that and then slash baseline to the basket and hammer in a dunk over the outstretched arms of the help defender.  Those were the days!

One thing Michael did before every game was shake some talcum powder in his hands and then clap in face of the great, late Johnny Red Kerr before he went out on the court and played.  A couple of fist bumps later, the ball was up in the air, and Jordan was dominating.

I incorporated the talcum powder in my backyard games.  I had to.

I remember finding a large canister of Johnson and Johnson’s baby powder in the house and taking it out to the utility shed that was right next to the court.   At the time my brother and I would play with our neighbor Steve, a grown man who enjoyed basketball, and our neighbor Brian.  None of us were great players.  We were all just having fun playing the game.

Before every game I would shake some baby powder in my small hands and give them a clap.  A tiny cloud of powder in the air, I was now ready!

I never even wondered at the time why MJ would add the talcum powder to his hands.   I just saw the guy do it, and found the closest thing I had and began emulating.

I also never thought that his talcum powder was unscented and mine smelled like a room of babies.  So funny, thinking back:-)

Honestly that baby powder made the ball so slippery to me.  You have to remember I had pretty small hands at the time.  I was around 13 years old and just beginning to hit my first growth spurt.  I might have been all of 5′ 4” at the time.

So at times the ball would slip out of my hand as I was going up for a shot, but that didn’t deter me.  I kept using the baby powder and continued playing.   Continued working on posting up my younger brother and working on the fadeaway, which really wasn’t anything close to a Jordan fadeaway.  In my head though, it was identical.  In my head everything I did on the court was very Jordan like.

I was delusional and it was ok:-)

My baby powder days lasted for a year or so.   I stopped once I made the JV basketball team as a sophomore because it wasn’t an option for me:-)

There is no telling how many bottles of that baby powder I went though back in the day.   All for the goal of one day being able to play like Michael Jordan.

Delusional for sure, but those were the days!