Dear Nephew

First off let me write that has been great so far being your Uncle. You are an incredible kid who has brought your parents, grandparents and others (like M and I) many, many hours of joy. As you approach your 2nd birthday it is clear that you have learned a lot, and while it might be hard to understand right know you will learn even more as you get older. Below is one of your first lessons from your Uncle.

Right now you are probably 13 years away from getting a job, 15 years away from applying to college and 16 years away from ever setting foot on campus as a student. You will probably be relatively tall and based on your Father’s and Uncle’s obsession with the sport you might become interested in basketball. That is completely fine and I can’t think of any reason why an interest in basketball shouldn’t be encouraged. It is a great game that is cheap, easy to play and teaches you how to share (1 ball on the court for 10 players). You see I have and always will enjoy playing and watching basketball. While I wasn’t that much of a player as a kid I did practice and watch games to try improve. One of those teams that I used to watch was Duke. They were good, always on *TV, and their fans were always jumping up and down and having a good time. As an 8 year old I picked Duke as my favorite team and for the past 17 years I haven’t looked back.

*Which as a child in my day was very important. We didn’t have the Internet or espn full court package, so you were pretty much at the mercy of ABC, CBS, NBC and/or ESPN.

So far this letter has been pretty positive, but unfortunately H I have some bad news for you. You can’t be a fan of any college basketball team for at least another 13 years and probably not until another 16 years. You see until then you won’t have ever worked at a University or attended classes at a University. Your father (and remember to listen to your parents) has made it explicitly clear that the 8 year old Kevin was wrong for picking Duke. I don’t want you to make the same mistake as me, so the advice I give to you is not to follow college basketball and specifically don’t make the mistake of picking a team. In fact at your Dad’s pace you won’t become a fan of a college basketball team for 20+ years.

In closing I will have more advice (be polite to restaurant servers, respect your elders, drink liquor before beer but not the other way around, etc) to give you in the future, but I wanted to get this one in before tonight’s big Duke-UNC game. Keep having fun playing outside, pointing at things and watching garbage trucks.

Go Duke