Whenever Dallas Mavericks guard Theo Pinson is lounging around his home, one of his favorite things to do is play basketball with his daughter.
For Pinson, it’s a series of father-daughter bonding moments that he absolutely cherishes and affords him the opportunity to make memories for life. Especially since his daughter, Alana, is just 15 months old.
“I got her a little nerf hoop, and she’ll dunk the ball and stick her tongue out after she dunks it,” Pinson said while laughing. “She is definitely a character.”
Has Alana ever attempted to dunk on Pinson?
“She tried to,” he said. “I block her shot every time she tries to dunk on me.
“She’s definitely changed my life. I’ve been loving it. She is amazing. She’s like my little mini-me. She’s goofy just like me, so it’s been great.”
Pinson took time out of his busy schedule to speak at the Mavs Academy Hoop Camp on Wednesday at the Sportsplex in North Dallas. This was an All-Girls GEM Hoop Camp for girls ages six-17.
And it got Pinson to thinking about a time when his daughter gets a bit older.
“It’s crazy because now that I’ve got a daughter, I might want to do an all-girls camp,” he said. “I’m doing (a camp) in two weeks – boys and girls.
“I think it’ll be cool to just have a girls’ camp where Alana can go with her friends. That’ll be cool in the long run.”
Pinson, though, may want to re-think that after what Brooke White did to him Wednesday. Shortly after Pinson completed a question-and-answer session with the assembled girls, White blew by Pinson in a drill and banked in a layup, which totally startled the Mavs’ four-year veteran.
“Where did that come from,” Pinson sheepishly asked. “I don’t know what happened. It kind of happened real fast.”
After he gathered himself, Pinson knows he has worked so many camps over the years that he realizes there are numerous examples of tell-tale signs between the difference in a girls camp and a boys camp.
“The girls pay attention a lot more,” Pinson said. “The boys want to talk junk.
“The girls? They want to actually learn and do what you ask.”
That got Pinson re-hashing what many basketball aficionados have frequently repeated. And that is that WNBA players are more fundamentally sound on a finer points of the game than NBA players.
“That’s true,” Pinson said. “You can tell by the way they play.
“They’ve got to do it a different way, and they’ve perfected their craft at a high level, so it’s really good basketball. I enjoy it.”
A certified girl dad, Pinson enjoys the WNBA so much that he attended the Dallas Wings’ 2023 regular season opener on May 20.
“They played the Atlanta Dream and the Wings ended up winning that one (85-78),” Pinson said. “They’ve got a really good team.”
Pinson also is contemplating attending Friday’s game in Arlington when the Wings host Brittney Griner and the Phoenix Mercury.
In the meantime, in addition to his stop at the Sportsplex, Pinson also attended Mavericks’ camps in Argyle and Mansfield on Wednesday. It was a full day with Pinson doing some teaching, answering some questions and playing some games of Knockout while waiting to get back home to play nerf ball with Alana.
“I got one win in Knockout,” Pinson said. “They were going hard. My goodness. It was fun, though.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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