FIBA U17W - U17 players can call upon high-level family experience

AMSTERDAM (2012 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women) – Family guidance for young athletes is one thing. But it’s another matter altogether when family members have Olympic and other top-level experience to call upon. And that’s the case for more than a dozen players at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women.

One player is USA shooting guard Kaela Davis, whose father is former NBA veteran and former Team USA player Antonio Davis.

Kaela smiles as she recalls the 2001 NBA All-Star Game – her father’s only one – and her affection for Vince Carter.

“I remember that Vince Carter was always my guy, the main guy who whenever he came out of the locker room I was excited to see. He was a person it was really fun to hang around with,” said Davis, who was about 12 years old when her dad retired from the game after 13 years in the NBA.

Davis said her relationship with her father has changed since she became more serious about basketball.

“As it's gotten more serious, it’s become a lot more about the mental part of the game. He helps you with the smaller things of it. Not dribbling or defense but he really helps with small things and details. It’s changed in a good, positive way,” said Davis, whose teammate Taya Reimer’s father, Ben Davis, had a brief NBA career as well.

Their USA teammate Diamond DeShields got to see her father play professionally for a number of years – albeit not basketball but in Major League Baseball (MLB). Delino DeShields was a 12-year veteran of the MLB playing with five teams. In fact, her brother Delino DeShields Jr is a baseball player in the Houston Astros minor league system.

“It’s really all about pride. They both tell me all the time how proud of me they are. And that’s a big help, knowing that they are behind me,” said Diamond, who grew up and has stayed in contact with the children of baseball legends such as Cal Ripken Jr, Moises Alou and Sammy Sosa.

While Diamond, who played softball until last summer, is good enough to beat her brother and dad for basketball bragging rights, Canada guard Kia Nurse regularly debates with her family about whose career thus far is the most successful.

Nurse’s mother played basketball collegiately in Canada and her father played in the Canadian Football League (CFL), her uncle is none other than NFL veteran quarterback Donovan McNabb while her sister Tamika played for Canada at the 2005 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women and her brother Darnell on Saturday won gold at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, a U18 Junior World Cup non-sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation.

In April, 17-year-old Darnell also led Canada to bronze at the 2012 IIHF U18 World Championship and last December he collected another bronze at the World U17 Hockey Challenge playing for Team Ontario.

The relationship between Kia and Darnell is close since they are just barely a year apart in age.

“For me, just having him there is important. He’s been through all these experiences, been through the training camps and onto the higher tournaments. It’s great having him just a phone call away to ask how do you deal with this or that,” said Nurse, who dreams one day of playing at the Summer Olympics in women’s basketball and watch Darnell play for Team Canada at the Winter Games.

There are a number of other players at the FIBA U17 World Championship in Amsterdam with family members who've played in the Olympics.

Spain center Claudia Guri’s mother Margarita Moreno was a high jumper for Andorra at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The Spaniards also can ask Carolina Esparcia about tennis as her brother Marcos Esparcia plays on the ATP tennis circuit.

Australia’s Alanna Smith saw her uncle Jason Smith play basketball for Australia at two Olympics – 2000 and 2004 – while Korea captain Yang In Young’s mother Moon Kyung Ja won silver in women’s basketball at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Yang’s teammate Lee Min Ji comes from a basketball family as her brother Lee Dong Yeop played at the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship and her father Lee Ho Kun was the head coach of the Korean team that played at the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women.

And then there is Dutch head coach Meindert van Veen, who has coached the Dutch women’s senior national team since 1987 save for three years and has been involved in the youth women’s ranks on and off since 1989. Van Veen coached current U17 player Fleur Kuijt's mother in the national team and Fenne van der Wielen’s father Rene was van Meen’s assistant coach with the national team.

Turkey’s Basak Altunbey also has an older brother playing in the youth ranks. Talat Alp Altunbey has played at the U18 European Championship for the past two summers. And Turkish coach Erkan Metin’s wife Aynur Metin used to play with the Turkish women’s national team.

The Japanese have two players whose fathers played for the senior men's national basketball team in Yuki Kato (whose father is Toyokazu Kato) and Sakura Akaho (whose father is Makoto Akaho).

That’s quite a bit of winning family guidance.

FIBA