8-year-old stars at Durant’s hoops camp
Basketball superstar Kevin Durant jump-started his career at the University of Texas, and one young prodigy may have found his beginnings in a city 30 miles away from Austin.
Braeden Randall, an 8-year-old from Hutto, is basketball-obsessed. His mother, Michelle Randall, said he lives and breathes by the Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. He’s been shooting hoops since he was 5 and he imitates any sort of ball handling that Curry shows off on court.
So when Michelle read about the Kevin Durant Youth Fantasy ProCamp in the Austin American-Statesman, she knew exactly what to do.
“I watched for registration to open for this year’s camp (at UT) and registered him for it back in January,” Michelle said.
The two-day event last month at Gregory Gymnasium taught girls and boys from first through eighth grades the ins and outs of basketball. Ballers got to shoot hoops, hone their skills and compete in competitions with Durant. Coaches also helped kids by offering tips and hands-on instruction so athletes of all levels, abilities and ages got maximum instruction.
Throughout the day of camp games and activities, kids were observed for skills in several categories such as ball handling and shooting. Michelle Randall said from the beginning, Braeden caught the attention of the coaches.
“Braeden was first picked as a finalist for the ball-handling contest by an employee at the camp out of approximately 100 kids in his age group,” she said. “He doesn’t realize how much he stands out or how advanced his skills are.”
From the group of 100, eight finalists were selected to compete with Durant in a dribbling drill challenge. The test included several ball-handling tasks and a protecting/dribbling game called Dribble Tag.
After a final battle between Braeden and one more boy, Braeden left the camp a winner.
“It was so cool that I got to win best ball handler in front of Kevin Durant right after he won MVP and the NBA championship,” Braeden said. “Actually, it’s amazing!”
Though the camp only ran two days, Braeden’s basketball days are nowhere near over. He plays as point guard on a 10-and-younger team and 12-and-under team in hopes of earning a scholarship at a Division I school. The longterm goal is to make the big leagues and be drafted by the NBA.
So, what until then? Braeden is crossing his fingers to attend another camp by one of his other idols — the Spurs’ Tony Parker. And it’s presumably so the wunderkind can keep his winning streak as ball-handling champion.