Great Bend teen wins national basketball skills competition

Parker Dicks, pictured 2nd from the right, won the 13U Jr. NBA Skills Challenge in New York City on Wednesday.

GREAT BEND — A Great Bend teenager became a national champion Wednesday in New York City. Parker Dicks won his age division in the 2019 Jr. NBA Skills Challenge. The challenge is designed to have participants dribble a basketball through cones and shoot from certain spots on the court that are worth different points. Dicks won the 13U division at Basketball City on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York.

“I was hoping to go and have fun,” said Parker Dicks. “I thought I would do pretty well. I didn’t expect to win but I was glad to.”

Dicks won the skills challenge hosted by the Optimist Club of Great Bend at The Fieldhouse last January. The soon-to-be 8th grader at Great Bend Middle School then won the Regional competition in Denver in March and received an all-expenses paid trip to New York for the national contest and a chance to attend the NBA Draft on June 20.

“I’ve had the privilege to coach with some of the best people around,” said Parker’s father, Shane Dicks. “We have a really good support structure around here. Parker is one that we have never had to tell to go out and and put the work in. He does it by himself.”

Parker was one of nine finalists at the national competition and won the event with a score of 66.

“I was probably the most excited I’ve ever been about anything,” said Parker. “I love to play basketball and for it to bring me here was amazing.”