Let me set the scene for you.
It’s Friday night at Camden’s Mastery Charter School Cramer Hill in New Jersey and Sixers ENT is getting 20 middle school girls amped up for their basketball clinic. When I say amped up, picture girls dancing in their basketball shorts, laughing and singing while music is blaring and the Dunk Squad is doing flips throughout the gym.
It’s impossible not to smile, especially if you’re Mike Muscala, who’s waiting to get introduced before he hosts a youth basketball clinic as part of “Her Time to Play,” a new NBA initiative helping inspire young girls to learn and play basketball in a positive and healthy way.
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After Muscala stops dancing himself, he picks up the mic.
“What you just showed is something that is contagious, and that is being fun and being positive," Muscala said. "That’s what basketball should be all about and that’s what I want today to be about.”
For Muscala, having strong women around was something that influenced him when he was growing up. His aunt played college basketball and her presence and support was definitely something that stood out to him.
“As a younger kid, she would come support me at my games," Muscala said, "and my cousin was a really good college player, too, so I think being around her at a young age was really cool and inspiring for me, because she was the best athlete in our family, so to be able to see that as a woman was pretty cool.”
NBA
The girls are a mix of mostly seventh and eighth graders from the basketball teams at Cramer Hill and H.B. Wilson Family School in Camden.
As the principal of Cramer Hill, Jessie Gismondi, proudly tells me, all of the girls participating have to be doing well and trouble-free in school.
“This is the coolest. I am so proud,” Gismondi said. “The Sixers are the coolest partner ever. The kids have been looking forward to this all week.”
For Muscala, there’s a special girl in the audience. Her name is Gianni, and she has been chosen as his mentee as part of the Sixers Youth Foundation’s "Walk In My Shoes" program.
Muscala first met Gianni on Sep. 28 at the Sixers' preseason game against Melbourne United.
“She’s super bright,” Muscala says of Gianni. “When I read about her they were saying what a team player she is and she’s just an attentive person. She has so many interests for her age.”
Gianni (who also plays multiple instruments) has been playing basketball since she was 4 years old. She’s a speedy small forward and she plans to play in high school and in college and "make it to the leagues someday soon."
As far as what she wants to do for a career when she grows up, although she’s still deciding, it’s easy to tell she’s already wise beyond her years.
“I’m not entirely sure,” Gianni said. “But I don’t want to work a job where I have to do one thing constantly over and over again. I want to be able to do something where I can do multiple things every day, and I just want it to be fun.”
The plan is for Gianni and Muscala to check in with each other frequently throughout the season, and Muscala is looking forward to the day where Gianni feels comfortable asking him any question.
“I’m looking forward to it because it’s my first time getting to continually work with someone throughout the year," Muscala said, "as opposed to a one day thing where they might be nervous. But I hope we get to a point where she can ask me questions.”
Gianni hasn’t felt comfortable enough yet to ask Muscala a ton of questions, but when she does, she’s got one ready.
“How tall is he? Because, he is very tall.”
I thought I’d tell her he’s listed at 6-foot-11, but I didn’t want to ruin her first question.
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