"Dad, could you show me how to make a jump shot?" So my younger son once requested as we stood beneath a hoop in his junior-high playground.

I cradled the ball in my hand, lectured on proper wrist snap and follow-through, then sprang up and launched a high-arching shot. A shot which ricocheted wildly off the top of the backboard and bounded to the far end of the yard.

"Do what I say! Not what I do!" I called as the kid chased down the ball.