It has taken almost a year, but the story of 9-year old Jaden Newman is finally becoming national news. A student at the Downey Christian School in Orlando, Jaden’s story has been told on local news several times, whenever someone needs an easy story that will make all of our grandparents say, “Awwwwww.” But what sets Jaden apart from a young basketball “prodigy” like Trick Shot Titus, for example, is that she’s a fourth grader who is playing on her school’s varsity team with girls that are years older than her, and she’s leading her team in steals.
Jaden is following in her older brother Julian’s footsteps, as he also played on the varsity team at 11-years old, and he is already an Internet star thanks to a 1-on-1 victory over Conan O’Brien, but now it’s time for the kid sister to shine.
Obviously, you can pass this off as a story of a kid being favored by her father, the coach, but not only is she scoring 14 points per game (with a single-game high of 63 points), but she’s been showing up grown men on national TV shows as well. For example, check out her dribbling skills as she made former NFL defensive end Trevor Pryce look like a chump on Fox Sports 1’s Crowd Goes Wild.
Big deal, I can spin a ball on one finger for at least three seconds.
