Little guy on basketball court, big NBA dreams

CHICAGO (AP) - David Holston's family never let his small stature stand in his way.

His grandmother balled two socks together and made a basketball rim out of a clothes hanger when he was just a toddler. He quickly graduated to plastic toy hoops and then, at age 7, to a 10-foot rim in the driveway of his parents' Pontiac, Mich., home.

No matter how often the pint-sized boy asked him to lower it, his dad refused.

"You need to learn on regulation size," Charles Holston said, fully aware that his son would probably never become a regulation-sized kind of basketball player. It wasn't about pressure or punishment, they both say - just preparation for the reality that was ahead of or, rather, above him.

"I had to deal with it," the younger Holston says, shrugging. "That's usually how it was."

And how it is.

Today, though the team roster at Chicago State lists the senior guard at 5-foot-8, he'll tell you frankly that he's more like "5-6 and half, or 5-7." Short, yes - but still a powerful presence on the court, ranked among the top five scorers nationally both in total points and points per game.

Deliberately named for the biblical giant-slayer, Holston is a David among the Goliaths - unassuming and sometimes discounted because of his size, but armed with a killer shot.

"I just have to play my game," the soft-spoken 23-year-old point guard is fond of saying, "and play harder than other people."

Holston came to Chicago State, a commuter school on the city's far South Side, as a walk-on. He quickly earned a full scholarship and, this season, has helped lead his team to their first winning record in more than 20 years. The independent Cougars (18-13) wind up their season Monday against Houston Baptist.

Now he's ready for his next hurdle, persuading the scouts that he's ready to play in the pros. And that means overcoming the stigma of his height, says Lindsey Hunter, a guard with the Chicago Bulls who's been mentoring Holston since they met at church when Holston was in seventh grade and Hunter was playing for the Detroit Pistons.

He compares Holston to the New York Knicks' Nate Robinson, a shorter guy who recently won the NBA slam dunk competition during the All Star weekend. Or Earl Boykins, a 5-5 point guard who played in the NBA for about a decade before recently taking a multimillion dollar contract with a pro team in Italy.

"David has the skills," Hunter says after an afternoon practice with the Bulls, a team he recently joined to help mentor some of that team's young talent. "He has the ability. He has the smarts. He's quick. He's strong - all the attributes to play on the next level."