It may be impossible to beat six-year-old Jay MacDonalds’ latest show and tell. The Inverell Public School student brought along his second cousin, Olympian Brock Motum on Friday.
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A member of the Boomers, the Australian basketball team who were just one point away from a bronze medal in Rio earlier in the week, Brock was only too happy to spend his morning with the students.
Teacher Stephen Gadd answered his burning question on how many kindergartners it took to make a Boomer (about two and a half), and Brock tried and failed to do the splits with Toby Teece-Tapscott’s class. He was patient and encouraging as the children shot hoops, and held Jay above his head for a team slam dunk.
Brock was happy to answer the students’ questions, and said he was 6’10, the most famous people he’d ever met were NBA players Klay Thompson and Kobe Bryant, and he had about 20 trophies – one around the same size as Jay.
“I think definitely the way I carry myself has to be at a level that these guys can look up to me, and if I do the right thing, hopefully guys like this can come through and be athletes or successful people just like I am,” he said.
On Jay, he said “I think he’s the cool kid in the school, so I hang with him.”
Jay was shy, but delighted to show off Brock. He said it was exciting when Brock visited and he liked playing basketball with him.
“He’s his idol, he looks up to him,” Jay’s grandfather and Brock’s uncle Garry Motum said.
“Jay asked his mum if it was possible for Brock to come along to show and tell at his school, and at first it was a bit of a joke, and then we asked Brock, and he was happy to come and help out.”
“We’ve watched him for many many years go through the process of getting into each team that he’s been selected into, and then to go overseas and then to get into the final Boomers squad was amazing.”