This story appears in SLAM 248. Get your copy here.
It’s crazy to think there was almost a moment when five-star recruit Aaliyah Chavez didn’t play basketball. Growing up in Texas, Chavez admits that when she was younger, she’d mostly sit at home and watch television on the couch, or she would see other kids playing basketball in the park. That’s when she got an idea. “I was like, Oh, that looks fun to play.”
The way her dad and trainer, Sonny, remembers it, the Monterey High School star wasn’t exactly the athletic type when she was little. “She couldn’t ride a bike, couldn’t ride a skateboard, you know, all the things that I grew up [doing] as a kid,” he says over the phone. Despite initially telling her no, young Aaliyah didn’t give up. “She just was pretty adamant about playing,” he adds.
Sonny, who played football, decided he’d see just how badly Aaliyah, who was in third grade at the time,…
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