Basket-brawl

Jake is playing basketball this year.  I love my son and his friends very much, but to say they're good at basketball might be stretching it a bit.  In their defense, this is the first year playing for most of them and they don't get a lot of practice time in.  They have also improved like ten-thousand percent since the beginning of the year.

Jake isn't the most aggressive kid on the planet.  He really is a sweet boy and I love that about him, but we've been trying to encourage a little scrappiness on the basketball court. 

He has been getting steals and rebounds, but would never shoot.  So, we decided (actually, Scott decided) a little incentive was in order.  $5 for every attempted basket and a lobster dinner for a shot that went in.  Since he had never once shot the ball, we thought we were pretty safe.

Well, after his tournament today, we owe him $30 and a lobster dinner.  :)  He was SO excited when he scored.  Almost as much as I was.

One of the games they played, I swear they were playing high school freshman.  The picture below is not good, but gives you an idea of the size of the kids on that team.  There were at least five, this size or bigger.  Jake is by no means the smallest on his team and he was dwarfed.

They hung in there and didn't win, but probably played the best basketball they've played all season.  Totally worth 30 bucks and a lobster dinner.

By the way, the coach got wind of the deal and a couple of times when Jake shot the ball, the coach would look my direction and hold up five fingers.  :)