Monday, November 15, 2010

My son was here this past weekend (no I didn't cut his hair, but we did trim it down a bit as a compromise) and one of his wishes was to play me one-on-one in basketball. He has vowed to play me each and every time he sees me, until he beats me, and I have no problem beating his ass each and every time we play. If I can keep beating him until I turn 50, then I will have done my job.

While we were playing one-on-one, I noticed four other individuals (ranging from ages 20-25) had started shooting the basketball on the court right next to us. I told my son that sometime in the next 15-20 minutes, they would come over to us and ask us if we wanted to play 3-on-3, and he needed to start mentally preparing himself for that. He said ok but he didn't think they'd come over to us...and sure enough, 15 minutes later they came over and asked us to play, and my son looked at me and smiled. I beat him 13-8 by the way.

Now typically when you have six people on the court, you have three people shoot from the foul or 3-point line to determine who the teams will be, so I fully expected this to happen. Yes my son was at least 8-12 years younger than these other guys (and 23 years younger than me), but he was going to have to hold his own, with or without me on his team. Then out of the blue, one of the other guys said the following:
You guys should be on the same team, we can't break up a father/son team, just pick who you want to run with


Honestly, when I heard this guy say that, I was totally overcome with emotion, and I would have teared up a bit if I weren't on a basketball court full of testosterone. You see my son and I have never played on the same team before, and just to hear someone say that we should did it for me (what can I say, I'm getting older, I get emotional). I pulled my son aside and told him that he needed to play intelligently, aggressively, but not scared and he said ok.

Our team lost 15-9, but it wasn't because of my son per se, we just lost to a team that was more talented than we were. And of course the other team pissed me off by saying that they had to leave afterwards (which denied us a rematch..as a rule, you don't play just one game of ANYTHING. If you win, you run it back as a courtesy. If you win again, you are THE MAN. If you lose, you play a third game to truly crown the king). Still, I was so god damned proud of my son. He made several shots, he played physical defense, and when he got frustrated, he played through it without complaining. As we were headed back home he said to me, "Daddy I thought I was good, but I still need to improve," and I smiled once again.

I told my father about this later that night, and he reminded me that more fulfilling father moments like this are on the way, and I can't wait.

In this Quincy Jones article from yesterday's Washington Post, he claims that the Michael Jackson song "Baby Be Mine" (which he produced) has elements of John Coltrane in it. Aside from the chord changes out of the blue towards the end of the song, I really don't hear any similarities. If you do (especially you jazzbrew), please help me out.

Baby Be Mine - Michael Jackson

7 comments:

Sab D said...

Man, that's the good stuff. Help start my day off with a smile. Did you teach him that if he pulls his socks all the way up that he inherits Exree Hipp like powers?

rashad said...

Sab,
I should have..except I'd have used Jason Terry as an example. I can't date myself TOO much with the Exree Hipp reference..

Tiffany said...

I always crack up laughing at your stories about you and your son playing basketball.

Peace, Love and Chocolate
Tiffany

MyVoiceMyJourney said...

"Daddy I thought I was good, but I still need to improve,"

I enjoyed this blog. The above quote even made me "feel." This was a proud moment for you I'm sure. I'm looking forward to the day I have kids. Thanks for sharing this blog and your raw emotion.

Me said...

love this post, rashad :) this has hallmark sap all over it, lol.

Jazzbrew said...

Man... I listened to that MJ song over and over again but I'm not hearing Coltrane. There are a few chord progressions that remind me of Giant Steps but nothing obvious. Q is on another planet musically though. If he says it's there.. it's there...

Spencer said...

ok not the only one who wants to know that answer. I read the same thing in rolling stone a few years back and im still trying to figure it out. I asked a friend of mine who is a jazz musician that plays sax, who is a huge coltrane fan.. He said that it was the chord changes.. But i really wanted to play "baby me mine" and Coltrane to hear the similarites... Im still trying to figure it out..