KANSAS CITY, Mo. You might know that a basketball hoop hangs in the Chiefs practice locker room, above the entrance to the bathroom.
Someone has even taped what presumably is supposed to be a 3-point line though its straight, not arched to the floor. A few basketballs are always available, and there is rarely a shortage of professional football players trying to convince someone anyone of their hoops skills.
Just the other day, receiver Mecole Hardman was trying trick shots. We made a bet. He now owes me a 10-minute interview because he missed. Defensive lineman Khalen Saunders calls himself Fat Kyrie, and to be honest, its the perfect nickname for his game. But this is not a story about Chiefs playing pretend basketball in the locker room.
This is a story about a Chiefs player who once played all the basketball, enough that he was yes, this exists the No. 1-ranked seventh grader in the country.
Man, I could do everything, Reggie Ragland said. I could shoot, pass, dribble, everything.
Ragland even remembers making SLAM magazine once I was their Big Baller of the month, he said but it should not surprise you that Raglands hoop dreams quite literally stopped growing.
Its one thing to be a junior high version of Charles Barkley. But its quite another to have the game of a power forward and the height of a point guard. Ragland dunked for the first time in sixth grade but says he was the same height at 12 that he is now.
That ranking actually lists him at 6-foot-3. Thirteen years later, he is officially listed at 6-2.
The existence of a seventh-grade rankings list is actually pretty sad, depending on how much you think about it. There are successes, like Ragland and Kyle Anderson and Perry Ellis, but for the most part, if youre put at the top in junior high, there is nowhere to go but down. Google some names and you find a lot of flameouts, and a few tragedies.
Nobody can know whether a junior high kid has a future in professional sports, but this seemed possible for Ragland. He had an uncle who played overseas and a brother who grew into Alabamas Mr. Basketball and, well, here is where we duck out of the way and let Raglands father make a point.
You wont believe this, Reggie Sr. said. But as soon as I found out his mama was having a boy, I was telling my friends, I dont care, no matter what, this kid is going to make it in something. Ive seen too many athletes come through in my family and just fall off because they didnt have the guidance. I knew I was going to guide him.
The stories of Raglands childhood are almost comical: a sixth-grader with a linebackers frame who could already dunk and hit a baseball 400 feet.
Yep. Four-hundred feet. I know. Im skeptical, too, but heres Reggie Sr. again.
Thats no lie, he said.
Baseball is actually a touchy subject around the Raglands.
