Published on July 23, 2021 at slamonline.com.
Quentin Grimes has always been playing up. He started playing against older competition when he was in the third grade; later, his father, Marshall Grimes, encouraged a faster, more physical style of play for his son by way of local 24 Hour Fitness runs with collegiate and professional players.
Most days after work, Marshall would arrive home and wait for Quentin to hop in the car en route to the gym. During one of these runs, Marshall strolled over to Quentin, who was only in 8th grade, at game point.
“I explained to him I said, ‘Quentin, now, we gotta be really careful because if we lose the game, these guys are gonna be mad at me,” Grimes’ father says on the phone.
The next thing Marshall saw was Quentin pulling from 25 feet and sinking the game-winner. The gym went berserk.
“And so I went and I asked him a question. I said, ‘Quentin, what made you take that shot?’ And he said, ‘Because I was hot!’ And that told me right then that he had no fear. He didn’t have any concept of if we lose this game, everybody’s gonna be pissed off at me because everyone’s sitting on the sideline waiting to play. From that point on, I knew he was probably going to be ok,” Marshall said. (READ THE FULL STORY HERE.)