Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010

Young hoopster wows the crowds

Lance Anthony's parents knew there was something special about their son at the age of 2, when he watched ESPN Sports Center on TV instead of cartoons.

"He would also watch entire basketball and football games on TV without getting bored," said his mother, Tracy.

Lance, 9, is a third-grader at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Raleigh. His obsession with sports, especially basketball, is going strong.

In fact, Lance has taken basketball to a new level for a kid his age. He is a phenomenal ball handler, capable of doing tricks that would impress the Harlem Globetrotters.

At a Feb. 6 basketball clinic at Raleigh's St. David's School, Lance put on a show that left kids and adults with their mouths hanging open in amazement.

Donzell Hill, a standout forward for the Millbrook High School Wildcats, volunteered as a coach at the clinic and was in the audience when Lance performed his ball-handling routine.

"That kid is amazing. I mean, we go through those same drills at our high school, and I can't even do them as good as he can," Hill said. "He definitely can expect a Division I college to be interested in him. They start recruiting pretty early now, and I'm pretty sure they would want to take him."

Lance's favorite move is a difficult dribbling maneuver called a spider. He stands with his legs spread wide and dribbles the ball close to the ground in front of him, alternating between using his left and right hands. Then reaching behind his back, he dribbles with each hand, then reaches back in front and keeps the dribbling going until he moves on to the next skill. Lance can even do the spider using two basketballs. He rarely misses a dribble.

Last summer, he taught himself how to dribble three balls at the same time.

"I start with two and then drop the other one in the middle and just keep them all going at the same time," he said.

He also does a mean figure-8 dribble routine and makes it look easy.

Lance is 4 feet, 5 inches tall, and uses women's regulation basketballs.

'He took off'

More surprising still, Lance didn't start walking until he was 18 months old, said his father, Lance Anthony Sr.

"We thought there was something wrong with him, because he was so slow developing," he said. "But once he started, he took off."

After wowing the crowd at a school talent show, Lance put his routine to music, and now songs such as "Basketball Jones" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" help get his audiences excited.

Lance and his dad have taken the show on the road, traveling across the Triangle, performing frequent demonstrations and giving speeches about how hard work pays off in sports, school and life.

"Dad normally talks, and then I do my tricks," Lance said.

Lance is a straight-A student whose favorite subject is math. He says he is happy to tackle the homework quickly so he can practice basketball.

He plays year-round in summer camps and on two basketball teams, the Wake County League and the Garner Road Bulldogs AAU travel team - the same team that once featured John Wall, a star at Word of God Christian Academy and now the University of Kentucky. He hopes to play point guard when he grows up.

Lance is an N.C. State University Wolfpack fan. Wall and Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo are his idols.

"He practices his routines until he gets them down, and he never gives up," his dad said. "His entire life, he has always had a ball in his hand, and he carries balls with him wherever he goes."

Lance Sr. played soccer for Guilford College. His son enjoys soccer, too.

Father and son also like to surf. During the recent snowfall, Lance took the wheels off of a skateboard, turned it into a tiny snowboard, and practiced his downhill skills.

"He didn't have his feet strapped in or anything," his dad said. "He just stood on that board and went down the hill."

He's becoming one of the best-known kids on the local sports scene and always draws an attentive crowd.

"Cheerleaders love him," his dad said and laughed. "But it doesn't matter. Lance doesn't like girls yet."

Girls won't stand a chance with Lance as long as he has a basketball within reach.