@MaLiKK_5 I want the one on one
— Johnathan Kelly (@jfk11_) May 7, 2015
According to 247Sports.com, Malik is a 5-star shooting guard. The 6'4" Georgia product chose to come to Tallahassee for his college career over 30+ other major programs. Beasley is one of the best athletes and scorers in the 2015 class and now that he is on campus, I want to see what he's made of on the court.Yesterday, I called Mr. Beasley out again. This time I told him he could have help from McDonald's All-American Dwayne Bacon in a 2 on 2 matchup against Sean and I. The only response we received was a favorite of our tweet. That's nice and all, but it's not what we were looking for. Bacon is yet to acknowledge our challenge:
— Johnathan Kelly (@jfk11_) July 21, 2015
This brings me to the question, why won't Malik Beasley and Dwayne Bacon play us? Maybe they don't respect us? Maybe coach Ham won't let them? Maybe they are too busy posterizing people? Maybe they just don't like the match-up and are scared? Let's take a look at a few reasons as to why, I think, they refuse to play us:
1) Sean is a physically-intimidating force.
At 5'10" and 185-lbs, Sean is an impressive physical specimen. As if his natural size wasn't enough, he adds strength, quickness, and athleticism. He can bench roughly 145-lbs, which may be somewhat impressive considering he hasn't worked out since high school. He couples his physical stature with an above-average basketball IQ - Steve Nash-esque - along with streaky shooting. In his senior year he hit two straight threes coming off of the bench in a packed house against our cross-town rival Chiles. We called him the microwave because, well, the dude heats up fast from downtown. Above all of his attributes, Sean has a D1-level competitiveness and intensity when he plays, which once made a dude cry. It's understandable that the two Florida State recruits would be hesitant of the match up since Sean is now involved.
2) They saw our video on Instagram.
Amidst some small talk at a bar about a year ago, Sean and I were both challenged to a pickup game. Our response to the four of our overly-confident friends? This video:
(Yes that backwards toss shot went in - we do this)
3) I once made a kid fake an ankle injury.
True story. These four kids were playing at a local community center on a Saturday afternoon. They had won roughly three straight games before I was able to get on the court, running their mouths to everyone they beat like it was their job. One guy in particular would not stop talking, a dread-headed guy, about my size, with D1 quickness along with some streaky shooting and an impressive ability to finish around the rim. I proceeded to drop 9 straight points (by ones and twos) in his face. After my hot streak, I blocked one of his shots at the rim and he pretended to twist his ankle out of embarrassment. How do I know he was faking it, you ask? Well, when my team finally lost a game later on, he decided his ankle was miraculously healed and played again. Now I realize this isn't some amazing Chris Paul drops 61 and purposely misses the free throw for his grandpa-caliber story, but when you never had much of a high school career like I did, you cling to instances such as these.
4) We were close to a D1 IM championship in the spring.
Last semester, me, Sean, and some of our friends decided to squad up for a run at an IM championship. After embarrassing every D2 team but one by 20+ points, we were moved up to the top division for the playoffs - Division 1. We won the first game of the post-season by about 15. The second game came around and we were physically outmatched - even with Sean on our team. Our post defense was unprecedented to counteract their grown man size, but in the end the referees decided to call it tighter and free throws were the difference. We fell short of our dreams, but the fact remains that we are a force to be reckoned with.
5) We don't have any stars on ESPN.com
ESPN recruiting analysts have slept on us since day one. Yeah sure we didn't really play much on a team that didn't even win districts our senior year (despite being one of the most talented in the Panhandle), and okay, sure I only had three points my entire senior year. It's not like if you don't have a recruiting page online then you aren't legitimate, right? Okay well maybe it is, but we aren't afraid. There is a very solid chance that Beasley and Bacon have no idea who we are due to our games' lack of publicity and that may have something to do with the fact that they will not play us.
6) They don't want to take the chance of losing.
I imagine that Beasley and Bacon are very extreme competitors. In order to be top 30 players in the country on multiple recruiting sites, you would have to have a certain amount of competitive drive in you. With competitiveness comes the hatred of a loss, and losing to a couple kids on the street is something that could crush their confidence and possibly derail their very promising careers. This is likely the main reason that they refuse to play us.
So there you have it. Maybe it's because they don't respect us, or maybe it's because they are scared; we may never know, but what we do know, is we are ready when they are. Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley, in the words of Selena Gomez, "When you're ready come and get it. Na-na-na-na. Na-na-na-na."
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