The old basket in the corner of my basement office is cracked, withered and wider around the middle than it used to be.

In other words, it's a lot like me.

Still, that old basket looks as good as an old treasure chest. A few days ago, I dug through layer after layer of old clippings and magazines until I found what I'd been looking for.

It was the story I'd written 20 years ago after participating in Eldon Miller's basketball camp at Northern Iowa.

Of course, there are a few parts of that week that should remained buried. For instance, one of the photographs that ran with my camping journal caught me a) trying to jump and b) not wearing a T-shirt. The last thing the world needs to see in the 21st century is a shot of me playing in a shirts vs. skins basketball game. It would be as dangerous as catching a ride downtown with Pacman Jones.

Nonetheless, the whole experience remains a treasure for me, one of those moments in life that's hardly vital but fun and rewarding.

Why?

I survived a week of running around with teenagers.

I didn't get hurt, except for the large welt on my 32-year-old pride.

And I actually learned something.

Knowledge - or lack of it - was what brought back memories of my time in Coach Miller's camp. During a recent appearance on ESPN Radio, former NBA star Rick Barry criticized LeBron James. There are some glaring fundamental weaknesses in James' game, said Barry, among them a flaw in his shooting form. Barry also said that more than a few NBA players lack some skills they absolutely need.

I'd heard that before. Now, I'm sure that someone like James works hard at the game. Yet there's a problem with his shot? He doesn't know how to properly use a screen? There has to be a way for a budding superstar to learn those things.

After all, I did it 20 years ago. Lord knows I wasn't a superstar then and I never pick up a basketball now. If nothing else, a week with the game, Eldon Miller style, gave me a greater sense that talent simply is not enough. Without a concerted effort, players will not develop the skills they need to compete at the best possible level. Basketball won't be as fun to play and certainly not as much fun to watch.

So, 20 years after I puffed and wheezed through camp, two decades after I became master of the air ball, I pulled out the clipping. And I remembered.

Doug Newhoff, my co-worker here for more than 20 years, thought it would be interesting for one of us sports writers to go through Miller's camp. Then, as he is now, Newhoff was a wise man. He didn't volunteer himself. He volunteered me.

So, as a 32-year-old, off I went for 3 or 4 hours a day. In my tennis shoes and shorts, I labored through drills, played in two mini-games a day with kids ranging from 8 to 18.

A few names stand the test of time. Bryant Williams of Waterloo West, who eventually became a track athlete at Louisiana State, participated in that camp. Doug Collins, now the NBA analyst for TNT, gave a speech.

And I spent my final day at the UNI-Dome utterly exhausted because we only had five players for our back-to-back games. No substitutes. I couldn't move at all. I was as immobile as the 2006 Minnesota Vikings' offense.

Maybe I couldn't catch my breath by the end of that week in 1987. I did hang on to a few things about basketball - the importance of moving the hands and the feet in the right way, how to cut, how to set up a screen, how to use a crossover dribble. And, how to laugh at yourself when the camp directors select you for the all-star game based not one bit on merit.

One of Eldon Miller's catch phrases during his time as UNI's head basketball coach was "having fun with the game of basketball." For a few hours in 1987, I did. I really did.

And I took a few pieces of knowledge into middle age.

Suddenly, that old basket in my baseman doesn't look so bad after all.

Contact Jim Sullivan at (319) 291-1434 or jim.sullivan@wcfcourier.com