Milk Crate Basketball

We like this.

Shoot Hoops. Not People.

We live in a world where our KIDS are all too familiar with active-shooter drills, school lockdowns and mass-shootings in the news.

Will a t-shirt fix this problem? Of course it won't. But the message, as simple and uneasy as it is, is worth spreading.

AND...100% of net profit goes directly toward our efforts of "Giving KIDS an Assist".

https://www.milkcratebasketball.org/locker-room

MILK CRATE BASKETBALL IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL (I learned to type in all caps like that from my mom's text messages!)

We've just been very quiet since COVID hit and impacted youth sports in a major way. And, to be quite candid, we've been laying low like many others and navigating this pandemic world we all have been living in.

However, with the arrival of spring and warmer temps, I'm hopeful we can dish out some assists for summer break.

In fact, just last week we provided a new portable hoop, shoes, balls and some Milk Crate Basketball swag to a very deserving young man who has been dealt a tough hand.

A recent email from his mom said, "I cant thank you enough this truly has been an amazing blessing!"

As I said in my reply, "That's what we are here for."

Because, it is.

For 13 years, from Kindergarten thru 12th grade, I experienced -- 8 different home addresses, resulting in 4 different elementary schools, 2 different middle schools and 3 different high schools.

School was miserable. Being the perpetual ‘new kid’ was miserable. I have mostly fuzzy, sh*tty, miserable memories when it comes to school. I can only remember one teachers name. One!

However, there are a handful of very clear, positive, fun memories that I re-visit often. One of my favorites also happens to be one of my oldest. It was very early in my elementary years. We lived just north of Flint (Michigan). I remember this wonderful mix of white and black little kids all learning and playing together. Of course, we didn’t look at each other as ‘black and white’. We were just kids. It was pure. It was innocent. It was perfect.

Life became much ‘whiter’ as I grew up. Now that I live in Traverse City (northern Michigan)…it’s about as white as all the snow we get each winter.

I’m thankful that at a young age I was part of a school district that had a mix of white and black kids. That experience absolutely shaped my view on race. I’m pretty damn sure I’m not racist…but that sure is easy to say when you live in a predominantly white area.

Considering what’s happening in the world, I know I’ve been taking a serious internal look at my true feelings and thoughts. I’m happy with what I’m discovering, but I’m also realizing I still have a lot to learn and I have a ginormous responsibility to educate my young white daughters…beyond simple parenting statements. I don’t know exactly how to do it…but I will be actively tackling it, I know that much.

When I started Milk Crate Basketball, it was with a desire to give KIDS an assist. And let’s be honest…I’m really trying to ‘assist’ the younger version of myself, at least that’s how I’ve self-psychoanalyzed it. And if I think back to growing up with basketball as such an important part of my life (the only ‘consistent’ thing that I had), I can also see all those times when it was just a collection of white and black kids together on an outdoor court playing basketball. It was pure. It was innocent. It was perfect.

After 45 trips around the sun, I would have thought I’d have ‘it’ figured out by now. Turns out…I’m not even close.

Thank you for all the continued support.

Rod