115: fan mail

When I was cleaning up I found this letter Zoran wrote to Steven Nash. (displayed here by his sister with blue nails)

Zoran absolutely hates writing and whines every time I suggest maybe we work on it at home since it is always the only thing not in the advanced/ excellent/whatever column means really good for elementary kids who don't get letter grades on his report cards. The fact that he wrote something without being required to says a lot to begin with. And that he thinks Nash is his favorite NBA player is pretty significant too. He's not like a normal first grader who might know a few players (or some first graders I know who don't know any at all or even what the NBA is); he knows quite a few on nearly every team. He knows their positions, numbers, where they played in college or which other NBA teams he played for, and various other strengths, weakness and stats. I actually don't even know what he knows because he knows so much more than I do he gets bored with me whenever he tries to talk with me about basketball.

Saturday while he was using my phone to check scores and get live updates of a game online (while switching back and forth to monitor the Yankee baseball game at the same time) he started quizzing me about who was the best defensive player for the Suns (and then leaders for points and assists and rebounds). I only got questions right when the answer was Nash. After a few questions Zoran asked me, "Do you even know any players but Nash?"

Ah, no. I think the last time I watched a Suns game Barkley may have still been playing on the team.

"Which team do you know about, Mom?"

Not really any right now. I don't have time to watch basket ball these days.

"Well do you at least watch college basketball? College basketball is pretty good, too. I've even been to a few college basketball games."

And sadly, I know nothing about college basketball either.  Sometimes I'm so boring.

Meanwhile, Zoran is busy saving money for a plane ticket to Phoenix. He really, really wants to see a game in person. He's been saving for almost a year now.

He only has $57. It's sort of hard to earn much money when you're only seven.