Most two-year-olds dribble from their mouths but one Tāmaki Makaurau pēpi instead dribbles a ball.
The 28-month-old Kiyan Tamaariki-Campbell (Ngāti Whātua, Tainui, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāpuhi) is an absolute beast on the basketball court (for his age).
Unlike others, he can throw and dribble a ball, while also scoring goals.
He has been told he is the “reincarnation of Kobe,” after the late basketball legend, Kobe Bryant, who tragically died in a helicopter crash in 2020.
His father, Jackson Tamaariki-Campbell used to believe his son’s gift was something all other tamariki could do.
“I started seeing how well he was shooting and the way he was shooting and then him actually calculating how to throw the ball, how to shoot the ball and, yeah, the rest is history.”
He doesn’t know where his son got his talents from but believes it could’ve been his muscle memory.
“When he was three or four months, I had him sitting down, we had a little baby hoop and just sat him down next to it and put a ball in his hand and kind of just helped put it in the hoop.
“Muscle memory goes a long way, so it was just trying to build some muscle memory in there without knowing what it will come to, ” he said.
To Jackson’s knowledge, being a basketball player isn’t in Kiyan’s whakapapa, telling Te Ao Māori News the closest he got to the sport growing up was wearing sneakers and streetwear.
“I never played it, so for him to pick it up was just like weird and now seeing that he actually has a talent with basketball.”
Future career
Kiyan doesn’t just play basketball, he also watches it, with the Los Angeles Lakers his favourite team.
“It’s funny. Usually you have parents who support a team and push that team on to their kids but he’s chosen his own team, he loves the Lakers, he loves the colours.
“There are days where he will go without wearing anything else but the Lakers gear. Yeah, I think he’s already decided where he wants to go, so we’ll be supporting the Lakers too.’
Jackson said he and his wife will be pushing forward the young talent’s career until he no longer enjoys it.
Before Kiyan becomes a world-renowned basketball player for the Lakers, you can find him on Instagram (@kiyantheballer) and TikTok (@kiyantc).