My grandfather is an NBA scout for the Charlotte Hornets

Kidsday reporter Tyler Nowaski of Wading River Elementary School with his grandfather Rich Wrase, a basketball scout for the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA. Credit: Betty-Jean Wrase
Being an NBA scout is hard. A scout goes from college to college, city to city, watching games and trying to find the player who will help their team to be victorious. I know how that feels because my grandfather, Rich Wrase, is a scout for the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA.
As a scout my grandfather looks for future players for the Hornets. He goes to college games, G-League games and NBA games looking for good players who will fit into the Hornets lineup. Picking a player for your team is the hardest part. A few things the player needs are physicality, height, agility and good character. A great player will usually have all of these qualities.
My grandfather goes to colleges such as Duke University, Kansas University and University of North Carolina to find the best players. These are some of the schools that the great players go to. The most talented players usually play in the big basketball conferences like the ACC, Big East and Big Ten. Some of the well-known players my grandfather scouted are James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.
When scouting players my grandfather met some big-name NBA stars such as Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Clyde Frazier, Chris Mullin and Patrick Ewing.
Some of the things my grandfather loves to do as a scout is go to all the big cities in our country like Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and New York City. He gets the best seats in each arena. I love all the stories my grandfather tells me about the great players he has scouted and he has met.
Melissa Levonick’s fifth-grade class, Wading River Elementary School