Many years ago, LaSalle University came to the Big Island to play in a UH-Hilo-sponsored tournament. The visiting school from Philadelphia had an assistant coach named Joe "Jellybean" Bryant.
Jellybean was a former NBA player, a 6-9 power forward who hung around the league with various teams over the years, and later played awhile in Italy.
At LaSalle, he worked with the big men and provided the school with a soft-spoken high-profile assistant who often talked to the media for the head coach, after a win or a loss.
LaSalle went to the title game that year and I got a call from the Philadelphia Inquirer to cover the game and send a story back. It was a good game, but LaSalle fell in the end and I went to talk to Bryant, who was designated as the team spokesman.
We talked for a little while, and Jellybean is a pleasant guy. Before we were finished, his teen-age son came up to him and said something, and I asked: "Does your son play basketball."
"Yes, he does," Bryant said, "but I have a younger son that's going to be a pretty good player someday."
The coach didn't bring his younger son along on the trip. But the youngster did turn into a pretty good player later on -- his name, Kobe Bryant!
Kobe, of course, turned down offers from hundreds of colleges, including Duke, to jump to the NBA early and the rest is history.
But Jellybean certainly knew what he was talking about.