'Not every kid gets to do this'

SANDPOINT — Did you hear the story about the kid from Sandpoint who was called out by the biggest sports icon on the planet to shoot one pressurized free throw in front of a nearly full arena?

If not, read on, because it’s a good one.

Christian Niemela, an eighth grader at Sandpoint Middle School, recently attended The Michael Jordan Flight School in Santa Barbara, Calif., the second straight year he and younger brother Noah have attended the basketball camp.

This year, Christian was one of eight players from more than 100 in his age group to earn a Camp All-Star Award, and also won the Camp Hot Shot championship, claiming the tie-breaker on a banked 3-pointer.

Suffice it to say, it was a great camp, which had 942 youth campers from all over the world in attendance, drawn by the chance to meet arguably the most popular athlete on the planet for three decades running.

“I feel honored, blessed, not every kid gets to do this,” said Niemela, who now has a couple of signed basketball’s from the NBA legend. “This year I shook his hand twice. It was crazy meeting one of the best basketball players ever.”

One of the best? You could ask 100 basketball fans who the greatest players of all time is and a high percentage would answer Air Jordan, who almost single-handedly launched the empire that is now Nike.

Current NBA stars Jimmy Butler and Michael Kidd-Gilcrest were at the camp, where Jordan had many lengthy talks with the kids, including telling them to focus on the work and not the prize. The arena was also packed with parents and adults, all eager to get a glimpse of Jordan.

“What’s crazy is all the adults, he’s still such an icon and spans all age groups,” recounted mom Lesa Niemela of the recent camp. “Adults fill the stands to see him and are still crazy about him. I was even a little star-struck.”

Hanging around His Airness, coupled with winning the two camp awards, it couldn’t possibly get any better for Christian, right?

Wrong. An incident more than a year ago in the Niemela’s first trip to Flight School trumps anything that happened this year. Heck, it trumps nearly anything that’s ever happened to any of us.

Jordan had just given a lecture on the importance of shooting free throws and handling pressure. Out of the blue, he selected Niemela out of more than 900 kids, possibly due to the North Carolina baby blue colors he was wearing, and challenged him to make one free throw in front of the entire camp and arena.

As if that wasn’t enough pressure, Jordan began needling him with some good-natured trash talk, then ratcheted up the pressure a notch by offering a pair of brand new Nike Jordan shoes to Niemela and three of his friends if he made the shot.

“He picked me out of the crowd and I went up there in shock. He said ‘are you going to be able to handle the pressure?’” recalled Niemela of the once-in-a-lifetime incident. “I took the shot, it rattled around and just rolled in. He said ‘you’ve got a lot of friends now.’”

Niemela gave one of the pair of shoes to his little brother, and the other two went to some friends he made. The brothers also now have four signed and authenticated basketballs from Jordan, cherished keepsakes to be sure.

Lesa Niemela filmed the free throw on her camera, and still can’t believe the luck of her son. She remembers watching in awe as it unfolded.

“All of the sudden the gym went quiet, and I go ‘oh my god, that’s my son on the free throw line,’” recalled Lesa, laughing as the video shows Christian calmly walk back to the throng of campers after sinking the shot. “I said ‘why didn’t you go jump on him?’ He said ‘mom, I was in shock.’”