Can you believe Kejuan was dunking in 4th grade?
Kejuan Johnson (7th grade) is from Atlanta, Georgia and he's only 13 years old. I decided to begin with Johnson because I last spoke with his dad, Tommy last night. Tommy's birthday is June 14, a day after mine. Tommy's a very influential parent in youth basketball and he's the coach for J-Smoove All Stars AAU team in Georgia. Kejuan's a lot like his father, he exudes enormous confidence. Kejuan wants to be the biggest, the strongest and the baddest. He's constantly looking for the next challenge from his peers and even his father. They're both competitors. When I first saw Kejuan I said to myself this kid's a beast. Tommy describes Kejuans body as "gorgeous". "Kejuan has the height and size of Carmello Anthony", says Tommy. "But with JR Smith skills", he added. Last year, Kejaun was 6'3" and 205 lbs. Now, he's 6'6" and 225 lbs. Tommy's goal is for Kejuan's talent level to catch up with his physical attributes.
Despite Kejuan being one of the top players in the country, Tommy has a way of keeping him humble. Is Kejuan the best? Tommy replies with, "he isn't better than me, so how could he be the best." In other words, Kejuan you have a long way to go.
Johnson practices several days a week, for hours during his workout sessions. In their father like son relationship, Kejuan is full of determination similar to Tommy. Whenever Kejuan had downtime, between games at camp, he'd put up a couple of jumpers. If his shot failed to connect, he didn't seem affected by his misses. He continued to perfect his craft, knowing one day he'd be a tough and smart player as Tommy. While people observed Kejuan, I could read his mind. Johnson was thinking, as long as people "watch me" shoot around, they'd never have a chance to catch up. Hit or miss, Kejuan's on top of his game and definitely a natural born winner.
