Video of 11 year old prodigy, TRUE?

Saw this video a couple of days ago. Wish they said what his actual VO2 max was. Was wondering the same thing and if anybody knew if he was able to actually set the mile record for his age group.

Cool little dude.....what coordination! The only thing that is REALLY disturbing about this is that he spends FOUR hours daily at the gym.....why is he not doing homework? I predict that this kid will burn out really soon, never make it to the NBA, much less college unless they start focusing on his academics. Dad IS pushing him.....he is using the mantra of all pushy dads "He wants to do it" of COURSE he does...he wants to please you. That being said....at least the kid HAS a father in his life.

4:50 is the fastest ever for an 11 year old? I was under the impression that most of the posters on Letsrun were breaking 5 in middle school during gym class.

Either way, this kid is pretty amazing. Especially his hand-eye coordination. The next Iverson? Of course it's hard to say whether his extraordinary skill will carry him to the NBA one day. But he certainly has the talent.

I think his daily workout routine is a bit strenuous for an 11 year old. He might be developing too quickly, too young. But what do I know? Not much.

Wow. Pretty racist.

That was racist.

Maybe if the kid burns out from basketball he will be a runner. It looks like he enjoys it though. The practice/training didn't look too strenuous.

What was racist? Are you two referring to the above comment "at least this kid HAS a father"? It's true. Alot of young black men don't have fathers. More so, proportionatly, than young white men. It's good to see young black boys/girls with active fathers.

OJ Mayo was a pretty fair eleven year old himself. At twelve he played and started for his varsity team. I watched him in Huntington as a ten year old and his skill set at the time was unmatched by most college players. At ten he could play pickup games with the likes of Randy Moss AND hold his own. Talk to me in ten years about this latest can't miss phenom. Later.

he's really short. i realize he's only 11, but when they show him standing next to his teammates, he's the shortest one. i know, mugsy was tiny too, but if he doesn't grow a whole lot, and his dad wasn't too tall so it doesn't look like he'll be huge, he is going to have a tough time getting onto a college team, let alone the nba.

What was racist?

With those ball handling skills he'll be a point guard for sure. Lots of great points have been one of the shortest on their team. Look at Iverson and Nash. And another good one off the top of my head is Raymond Felton for the Bobcats. I mean, those guys aren't midgets, but they aren't very tall either.

Nash is listed at 6.3/6.4 - is that short?

Ghost in Korea

a trainer wrote:

Cool little dude.....what coordination! The only thing that is REALLY disturbing about this is that he spends FOUR hours daily at the gym.....why is he not doing homework? I predict that this kid will burn out really soon, never make it to the NBA, much less college unless they start focusing on his academics. Dad IS pushing him.....he is using the mantra of all pushy dads "He wants to do it" of COURSE he does...he wants to please you. That being said....at least the kid HAS a father in his life.

This is a tough thing. Most kids want to please their fathers yes, but at the same time, often a kid really does love what they are doing. Pretty common for the fathers and sons to have the same likes -- some of that is genetic. My son for example takes gymnastics lessons and begs me to take him to "open gyms" which I have to pay extra for. I was a gymnast as a youth, but I never talked about it. He just started doing flips on the furniture and off the diving board at the pool and then when he heard about gymnastics lessons from someone at school, he asked if he could do it. I could take him every night and he'd LOVE it, and he wouldn't be doing any of it to please me. He's going to break our couch as it is, and he's surely not doing that to please me.

Definitely there are some parents who push their kids to satisfy their own wants, but it's for sure not a blanket truth.

Felton is 6'2"

This guy's dad might be 5'8"

1)Nash is listed at 6-3 but is 6-1 barefeet, they measure height in shoes + rounding up.Having said that, he is gonna have a very hard time making it considering he seems tiny.He has great ball handling skills but so have many of these streetball-show guys who would get killed in a 5 on 5 pro game.Even Rafer Alston who is a streetball legend because of his ballhandling skills, had/has a very tough time making it in the NBA cause he can't score efficiently.

2)"Doctors have said...", no number just abstracts like "freak of nature", who knows how high his vo2max really is.4:50 isnt THAT great for a 11 year and certainly no world record.

Well, Felton and Nash are a little over 6'. I was thinking they were more like 6' even. Isn't Iverson about that tall? Oh well, my point is...you can make in the NBA without being 6'8"+

Although, something I hadn't considered is the fact that this kid apparently hits the gym more than your average college athlete. That might cause him to lose a couple inches in the long run. I suppose you could point to guys like Spud Webb and Mugsy Bogues, but those guys are rare indeed. And Spud Webb had a verticle leap off the charts.

A big part of the reason alot of those streetball guys can't hack it in the NBA has to do with the fact that they aren't used to highly structured team play. Alot of those street legends could hold their own in a one-on-one match up with your average NBA starter. But playing with an NBA team is a tough transition for many streetballers. Even though they have the "skillz" and athleticism, they don't understand the more structured game you'll find on virtually all college and NBA teams. And coaches usually won't waste their time trying to help them figure it out, because they have plenty of potential recruits who already understand it and play fundamentally sound bball.