[MSU_Mojo]

Izzo has been aware of him since 7th grade and was out to see him as an 8th grader at Oxford Middle School.

PONTIAC -- When Juwan Moody and his Madison Middle School teammates won the Pontiac city seventh-grade title, he declared it was the most exciting thing that ever happened to him.

This from a kid who last summer, at age 11, scored 32 points in a game refereed by Michael Jordan and was named the most valuable player at Jordan's elite Flight School camp.

This from a kid who was honored when a representative of LeBron James' agent dropped by the family's home in Auburn Hills for a baked chicken dinner.

Juwan is a prodigy, a fact that represents a unique set of rewards, and potential problems, to him and his tight-knit family. His burgeoning talent is such that:

• A local sporting goods designer created a prototype of his patented wearable towel bearing Juwan's nickname, "The Surgeon" -- a fan pinned that on him last summer, and it stuck -- and is trying to sell it to Nike and Reebok.

• Reebok basketball scout Sonny Vaccaro picked him and his dad up at an airport and took them to lunch.

• Colleges from Oakland to Duke have sent him information two years before he enters high school.

"I'm just hoping it can stay real," said Greg Kampe, Oakland's coach and a family acquaintance. "There are all kinds of pitfalls, people that are going to want to get their hands on him.

"With the lucrative world that's out there today, the amount of money that can be made on a -- quote -- LeBron James, everybody in that business is looking for the next one."

Said Kampe: "In no way am I implying that Juwan is going to be the next one; he's small, and he's 12. I don't know. But at 10, I'd never seen anybody who could play as well as he played. Everybody's going to want a piece of that pie."

The person least fazed by all this attention is Juwan, who turned 12 in September and stands 5-foot-nothing.

Still, he said, his biggest kick remains that championship game against Jefferson Middle School on Jan. 12, slapping hands with Mike Dunlap, Charles Holmes, Terrance Smith, Allante Thompson and the rest of his teammates.

"I thank God every day that I was born with this talent and can entertain people the way I do," he said a few days later. "I just want to play."



Hopes for the future



What does the future hold for such a prodigy? That's exactly what his parents, John and Carolyn Moody, are puzzling out right now.

John is a counselor at Oxford High and coach of the boys' varsity at Pontiac Northern High. Carolyn works in a dry cleaner's while attending Baker College, studying for a degree in early-childhood education.

Both say they are anxious to do everything the right way, not just for Juwan's basketball talent, but for his growth as a human being.

"From a moral standpoint, we keep it humble," John Moody said. "You can be easily seduced and start taking things for granted. I want Juwan to listen to his conscience and make the right decisions."

Some big names have offered the Moodys advice.

Vaccaro, who has been spotting talent for 41 years, said all the people he respects most in the game tell him Juwan is "the most interesting little sucker to come along in 20 years, because of his ... phenomenal, innate ability to play the game of basketball."

Vaccaro, who called Juwan on Martin Luther King Jr. Day just to chat, said the Moodys must "maintain a semblance of sanity here, because right now it's intoxicating. They've always got to make sure that Juwan's their son, and be with him at all times. The closer the parents are, the easier it is for the trip to begin."

George Raveling, former coach at Washington State, Iowa and Southern Cal and a television analyst who now runs global sports marketing for Nike, said the challenge for John and Carolyn is, "Do not bow to the temptation to try to move him on a fast track."

Raveling observed Juwan during his visit to Jordan's camp.

"At this juncture in his growth as a person and an athlete," Raveling said, "he certainly exhibits above-average skills.

"But what's important for the parents is that they allow him to be a child. Let him go through the normal stages of development, as a child, a teenager, a young person, and let him experience the pleasures and pains that come with each segment of growth.

"Just like any other kid, there's a social component to his growth, a spiritual component, an athletic component, an educational component, and probably a cultural one as well. Unfortunately, there's a tremendous temptation to narrow the scope to the athletic realm."



Talented 2-year-old



Juwan's skills came to light before his third birthday. His folks had gotten him a little adjustable backboard and net, but it sat ignored for months.

Then one day, he picked up the ball and took a shot -- and it went in. He did it again, and his mother started watching, and counting.

"He made like 12 in a row," she said. "I had to call my husband and tell him about it. I couldn't believe my eyes."

John Moody still didn't think much about it until he was in the barber's chair one day when Juwan was 6.

"A guy came in and said he'd just been down at the gym and saw this little kid who could really dribble, who was playing all these 10-year-olds and just killing them.

"Then the door opened, and in came Juwan to get me, and the guy yells, 'There you go! That's the kid I was talking about!' He says to me, 'Man, get ready to change your mortgage; you're gonna have a new address.'"

Soon after, Juwan began playing with a Detroit youth organization called The Family. He led the 11-under team to the Michigan AAU state championship last year.

His coach then and now, Durand Walker, said Juwan's talent was apparent, even as a 7-year-old.

"I had to put my ego aside and realize there was nothing to teach him," Walker said, "because he had it already."

When Juwan was 10, his walls covered with accolades, his dad called Glenn Wilkes, who runs the Shooting Stars camp for point guards in South Carolina.

Although Wilkes limits the camp to 11- to 13-year-olds, once he heard of 10-year-old Juwan's accomplishments, he accepted him in the summer of 2003.

"He was the best shooter of the group," Wilkes said. "He played the game with a lot of passion for a 10-year-old. He won the MVP -- I was surprised. He could shoot at 10 years old better than anybody else in that 11-, 12-, 13-year age group I had at that time -- although I didn't have some of the country's better players of that age.

"His understanding of the game, of course, was not as good as it is now. You could tell he judged his game more on how many points he scored than anything else, and that's the way young players are. If he didn't make a lot of points, it seemed like he thought he didn't play a good game. That's not necessarily true for his position, because he's got the ability to set people up, and not score a great deal."



The floor general



In a short year and a half, Juwan has learned that lesson.

His Madison team played Jefferson late in the season, and even though Juwan scored well over 20 points, his team lost.

"Juwan scored five threes on us in that first game," Jefferson coach Dennis Williams said.

In the championship, Williams said, "We put in a defense that limited his shooting -- but then he became a great passer, he got his teammates involved. He has good court awareness."

Juwan scored only a handful of points in the title game, but that was exactly what his coach, Jeffrey Vann, had asked of him.

"Juwan didn't necessarily do a whole lot of scoring today," Vann said after the game, "but he runs us. I knew Juwan would settle everybody down; he did exactly what I wanted."

Despite his age -- Juwan started school a full year early -- he is Vann's floor general, bringing the ball down almost every time, directing traffic, calling plays. A strategy of almost every game is to get a few points ahead, then let Juwan put on a dribbling exhibition until frustrated defenders are forced to foul him.



Meeting with MJ



Wilkes was so impressed with Juwan that he recommended the youngster for Jordan's Flight School, where 700 players pay $650 each to meet Jordan, attend his lectures and play under his supervision. Wilkes is director of coaching for Jordan's camp.

Vaccaro met Juwan and his dad at the Los Angeles airport, and took them to lunch. Juwan doesn't recall much of the conversation but enjoyed the burger and milkshake.

At Jordan's camp, Juwan averaged 30 points a game. Jordan spoke privately to Juwan and his dad about the importance of keeping his future on track and gave them a private phone number to contact him.

"He told us never to let anything come between us," John Moody said. "He gave the analogy of him and his own father, and their special bond."

Wilkes, who has tutored thousands of aspiring basketball players, said it's far too early to speculate on Juwan's future.

"Young kids today, 12, 13 and so forth, they get MVPs, people who know them say, 'Oh, he might be NBA.' But that's not necessarily true. It's how much more do they develop, how much stronger, how much bigger, how much quicker that they get."

Juwan's father stands 6-0, and he has uncles on both sides who range from 6-2 to 6-5.

"I would concentrate on his academics right now," Wilkes said. "So many players, when they get to be 14, around in there, they get carried away with their ability and they let their academics slack. The first thing you know, they don't have a choice as to what college to go to. If they don't make the NBA -- and very, very few make it -- they need something to fall back on

"We hope nobody's telling this young man that's where he's going because I think he's too young yet. There are a lot of guys walking the streets today who were told 10 years ago they'd be in the NBA."



He's all kid



The past two summers have been a blur of travel for Juwan and his dad. Twice they've attended the Cage Scope Blue Chip camp in Kentucky.

In addition to Wilkes' and Jordan's camps, and playing for AAU teams, there were camps and All-Star games in Ohio, Illinois and Tennessee. But spend some time with Juwan, and he comes across as all boy, a kid who, as Kampe put it, "has a smile on his face all the time, a 'yes sir, no sir, thank you' type young man."

He loves listening to Nelly and Eminem; uses his computer mostly to play "Stunt Driver," because he doesn't like to type; enjoys movies and miniature golf with his folks; and squirms out an embarrassed "no" when asked if he likes to dance.

And he thinks of others. When he won yet another MVP award at Rodney Heard's basketball camp in Detroit, he saw a little girl who looked sad because she hadn't won anything, and he gave her his plaque.

Dad John, who was born and raised in poverty in Tunica, Miss., before moving north at 19 to work his way to a master's degree in counseling, handles basketball matters. Mom Carolyn is the support team.

She keeps the family on a scrupulously healthy diet; keeps the TV off on weekdays; makes sure Juwan reads 10 pages a day, frequently from the Bible; and handles minor crises, like Juwan's problems with pre-algebra when he started middle school in September.

Carolyn assigned Juwan's sister, Jenesha, 22, a whiz at math, to tutor him -- problem solved.

All in all, the Moodys think their son is just about where he should be, at least as a person.

"We just want Juwan to come to an understanding of the purpose God provided him with -- why he's here," his father said. "If he can find that inner peace, that relationship with God, he'll find his mission in life.

"Find it and fulfill it."