Even if you're not a basketball fan, you gotta love the stories about individual players.
Somebody e-mailed us about a good one: a young man who has overcome adversity and is a mentor to a 9 year old fan.
The heartwarming story (emphasis on heart) centers on Grant Golden and Athan Martin.
Their bond stems from the travel team, VA Elite team. Grant used to play for them and Athan does now.
The nearly-10-year-old has a mentor in the Richmond Spiders forward.
"He's just a really nice player. He's like a big brother to me. I look up to him and want to be like him when I'm older."
The two have only known each other a few months, but Grant revels in their texting every day.
"He's always making sure I'm having a good day at school, whatever it is, we talk about everything."
Besides his VA Elite team, the Winchester native played high school ball at St James.
At 6'9" he was on a lot of college radars.
But he missed his junior year of high school with a broken ankle. His coach, Thomas Gadson said "One of the things I always told him is good things always happen. There's always a silver lining."
He went on to say: "Adversity builds character and Grant is a perfect example of that."
Grant remembers that recovery time. "The ankle was tough. Junior year is a huge year in terms of recruiting...obviously very disappointed I wasn't able to play that year in high school."
Coming back from that to play college ball in Richmond is one thing, but there was something more difficult in his future.
Grant collapsed during a nationally televised game and had to be rushed to the hospital.
Doctors found an irregular heartbeat and a week later he had a procedure to regulate it.
Another setback for Grant. "It's scary at the time, lots of things questionable at that point. 18, 19 years old going to have heart surgery. You don't know what's going to happen."
Then it was an 8 month journey back to the court.
And he is back.
On Monday, the A-10 named Grant player of the week.
On Tuesday, he was named to the all Rookie team.
On Wednesday, some bro time with Athan prior to Thursday's A-10 conference game against Duquesne.
Athan couldn't be prouder.
And Grant couldn't be more respectful of his position. "One of the things my parents always told me was if I was lucky enough to play college basketball, I was going to be in a position where kids looked up to me."
Athan simply knows, "I like him he's my friend and we'll always be friends."
