Joe Kinsey
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AAU dad Ryan Day had one of those AAU weekends where his son, RJ, was cold-cocked during a game and had his nose bloodied. He then soldiered on for his team — there’s no ‘I’ in team when you’re playing AAU ball — and then dropped in 17 as RJ’s team went on to win the tourney championship, according to a dispatch from the Ohio State Buckeyes football coach.
Ahh, but this is travel ball. Tourney time. Weekends on the courts. This is war. It’s also 2021, and Day was quickly challenged by the mother of the boy who threw the sucker punch.
“I am the mother of the other CHILD. Do I condone what he did absolutely not! But I also don’t condone your child throwing cheap shots and elbowing my son multiple times. Both kids was supposed to sit. That was only the right thing to do. Even the ref stated that,” Sharaill G. fired off on Twitter.
She wasn’t done.
“Some reason your child was able to continue to play. While my child sat. I also say for a grown man. To run on the court and point his finger in a 12 year old face is also unacceptable (he made it clear that your son was his grandson). Great sign!” Sharaill fired back.
When Ryan Day supporters piled on Sharaill, she wanted Day to hold his son accountable as well.
“You definitely correct he lost his kool. I hold him accountable for all his actions good and bad no excuses! I’m glad his kid is okay but all this extra of what he would of did and that great sign! Typical in today’s world. I’m done with this post. Lesson learned moving on.”
And there you have it. Another weekend on the competitive youth basketball travel scene where kids win worthless medals, parents feel better about themselves, and everyone goes back to work Monday morning and life goes on.
Normally I wouldn’t dare include anything from ESPN’s Undefeated site, but there was something written about the travel basketball/AAU circuit back in 2018 that fits perfectly into this post.
“Are you ready to spend a thousand bucks to play a weekend out of town, and then your kid’s team loses its first game and no college coaches see her play?” Jesse Washington wrote. “You ready to see your son’s team bring in a new player at his position, and then your son has to come off the bench? Are you ready to skip vacation for basketball? Because that’s what this journey is about. You in or out? There are 9,406 Division I basketball scholarships for men and women. Less than 2,000 spots are up for grabs each year. Hundreds of thousands of kids play AAU. Your kids and mine aren’t one-and-done prodigies, or even big-time recruits — they’re in that gray area of players who have to really grind to get a scholarship.”
Good luck to all the parents out there chasing that glory.
Had to post as a proud dad. In hoop tournament RJ was sucker punched in game, walked away without responding (better man than me) with bloody nose came back, scored 17 and then went on to win the Championship. #lifelessons #toughlove pic.twitter.com/QLp5huPr23
— Ryan Day (@ryandaytime) March 28, 2021
This is confusing. So her son punched Days son? Because he was elbowing and pushing? She wanted both to sit? If her son legitimately punch the day kid her son should have been kicked out. Elbows and pushing are part of basketball if I understand this correctly? I never want to defend anything Buckley but In the words of the great Joe Biden, C’Mon Man”
When my son was younger and played AAU, I dreaded going to those games, because the parents were so annoying. From the opening tip-off to the last second of the game, you had parents screaming and yelling at the referees and trying to coach their kids from the stands.
Those single mothers were the worse and most of them didn’t have a man sitting next to them and I could definitely understand why.
Absolutely. My daughter played in the AAU National Championship game in 2009 and I couldn’t wait for that shit show to be over with. We quit travel ball after that year because of the parents. It was unbearable. They would get pissed because my wife and I said nothing the whole game. It was a colossal collection of fat redneck parent’s trying to live out their dreams through their kids.
Raise your hand if you think the AAU system benefits anyone other than the coaches, most of whom look out for #1, themselves!