Kid hits buzzer beater from mid-court, both teams celebrate

Professional teams often allow youth teams to scrimmage against one another at halftime during regular season games. Such was the case earlier this month when the Toronto Raptors hosted the Washington Wizards at the Air Canada Centre. A consistent theme of this blog is that the essence of youth sports is fun. I'll repeat it. Kids play sports to have fun.

If you don't believe me, have a look at the end of the youth scrimmage below (email subscribers click here).



Both teams are celebrating with the kid who made the shot. These are 11 and 12-year-old kids and their natural impulse was to celebrate with the opponent. I wish I could say these kids have some advanced understanding of respect and civility. That may or may not be true. What is true is the fact that a kid just like them made a half-court buzzer beater on an NBA court.

You can't beat that type of sports experience with a stick! All of the kids will remember this moment forever. They'll be telling their kids and grand kids about it. Some may even insert themselves into the role of the shooter. Nevertheless, this is what youth sports is all about. This is the kind of experience we should strive to create for our kids everyday. While we may not have an NBA arena for them to play in, we can certainly treat them like all-stars.