What Jayson Tatum wants kids to learn from 'Baby Dunks-A-Lot'

**Patrick Steele** (0:01)
WBUR Podcast, Boston.

**Violet Gray** (0:05)
Got to make sure you give him a good kiss, okay?

**Ashley Locke** (0:07)
Did you get inside?

**Phoenix Hadley** (0:08)
Oh yeah, there you go buddy.

**Ashley Locke** (0:11)
The things we do to protect the environment. It's Friday, July 10th, and this is Here and Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR Boston. I'm Ashley Locke.
Today on the show, a federal agency, a bunch of high school kids, and a baseball team come together to save an endangered fish. And pickles are all the rage right now, resulting in some odd creations.

**Karen Solomon** (0:45)
If a puffed pickle cheese ball is where it's at for you and that's your level of engagement, I say go for it.

**Ashley Locke** (0:59)
But first, Celtics star Jayson Tatum has a new children's book out called Baby Dunks-A-Lot, The Day the Basketballs Stopped Bouncing. He joins Robin Young to chat about the importance of reading and athletes as role models.

**Robin Young** (1:14)
Last time we saw our little man hero, Baby Dunks-A-Lot. By the way, is that what you call your little man Deuce?

**Jayson Tatum** (1:20)
Not so little anymore, but yeah, he's an eight-year-old Deuce.

**Robin Young** (1:24)
Yeah, well anyway, we like to think of Deuce as we read the book, because you and Deuce are in there. And rather, Baby Dunks-A-Lot can leap into the air and dunk. Now, in this story line, the commissioner of basketball has called an emergency meeting because all the basketballs in the world stopped bouncing.
The commissioner says there's only one person who can save the game of basketball, to which a big guy at the table in a purple singlet that says 23 says, thank you for your trust in me, to which the commissioner says, not you, Baby Dunks-A-Lot. Is that big guy LeBron James?

**Jayson Tatum** (1:58)
I don't know if I can necessarily say his name, but I would say in my relationships with obviously athletes in the NBA and the WNBA, being able to call some of those friends and ask, can we use their image and likeness in a children's book? They were all super cool about it.
Just giving the readers some familiar faces that they would recognize.

**Robin Young** (2:22)
Throwing a little shade at them, what you did in the first book too.
Well, okay, back to our story line. A bad guy has put a spell on basketballs. What went into shaping this book? I mean, you guys sitting around bouncing basketballs and then think, well, what if one of them stopped or what went into this story line, if you will?

**Jayson Tatum** (2:44)
It's all about being creative and for us, finding out what the kids are into and obviously it didn't come out during Halloween, but it is a Halloween theme, spooky theme book that kids hopefully will read this summer through Halloween and for Halloween to come.

**Robin Young** (3:04)
Well, it is spooky because Baby Dunks-A-Lot and his dad, a guy in a green Celtics outfit, go to the bad guy's castle with the sign that says bad guys only. How much fun is this?

**Jayson Tatum** (3:20)
It's cool. And for me now, Deuce is at the age where, you know, he's going to the third grade. So he's reading on his own and he can read the book and he can read the book to his younger brother. So the whole idea of all this started just off of an extension of our relationship with being a dad. And like many parents and grandparents around the world, like nighttime routine and bedtime stories, that's just a normal thing in households. So being able to expand off that and find this opportunity to create a children's book, it has been super fun throughout.

**Robin Young** (3:55)
Yeah. Well, can we talk about that a second? Because we have spoken to you before and you have spoken about your own childhood with a single mom who, as I think he said, you never knew if you were going to get that, was it like an orange notice or something that you were being evicted, a mom who was working so hard. And often in those homes, there are no books, there's no time to read.
Is maybe some of that twined in here too, making sure kids see themselves in books and someone like you pushing books, making sure that maybe they get into some homes which may not have had time for them.

**Jayson Tatum** (4:37)
Yeah, I think that's pretty accurate. Like nighttime and bedtime stories wasn't really a thing when I was growing up.
Then obviously, my kids are growing up in different environments in this situation than I did, and I think it's important, it's valuable, and it's like bonding time that every kid deserves. Yeah.