How Aaliyah Chavez and her dad bonded through basketball

Aaliyah Chavez is a unique basketball talent. The 5-11 Oklahola signee from Lubbock, Texas, has a grit and creativity at guard that complements her all-around skills — a combination that made her the country’s No. 1 prospect this spring.

None of it would be possible, she said, without the years, weeks, days and long hours the Gatorade National Player of the Year spent training at a half-court gym in a strip mall opened by her father, who has been Aaliyah’s teacher, trainer and coach despite not having prior basketball experience.

“I was blessed to be able to have something that I can do with my dad every single day and not get tired of it,” Aaliyah, 18, told ESPN. “He stepped in my life when I needed it, and we connected on that.”

In the days leading to Father’s Day, Sonny and Aaliyah Chavez reflected on their unique relationship forged through rigorous sessions in the gym — a bond that might never have existed if it weren’t for basketball. It not only turned Aaliyah into a champion, but it gave her one in Sonny.

“We talk about, ‘She needed me, and I needed her,'” said Sonny, whose work at his body shop tended to keep him away from his family. “I was in and out of her life. So, I think whenever she found something that we could do and be consistent in it, I think she latched on. And that was the difference.”

“Come on, Mama. Push, push! Stay light on your feet … push! Tired is not real, Mama. Finish strong!”

Aaliyah’s basketball journey to this point reached its peak in March, when Lubbock’s Monterey High won Texas’ Class 5A Division II girls state championship. Chavez led all players with 19 points and six assists, throwing in seven rebounds for good measure. She finished her high school career with 4,796 points,1,279 rebounds and 771 assists. Along the way, she was named a McDonald’s All American and Naismith Prep Player of the Year to go with her Gatorade honors.

While her inner fire is innate, her skills are the product of the six or seven days a week, for up to four hours a day, spent training with her father, a routine that Sonny said became a lifestyle. That lifestyle was about more than conditioning and shot selection, about more than giving up the joys of adolescent life to focus on fundamentals.

Sonny, now 42, would put in long hours at his body shop and would often return to work after dinner, depriving him of time with his family. When he started spending time with Aaliyah, he drew on his experiences playing high school football about an hour away in Muleshoe, where current USC coach Lincoln Riley was a teammate. Eventually, his capacity to motivate her and see her blossom shifted his priorities. He was the first to recognize that a scholarship might someday be in her future.

He harbors no illusions over people’s thoughts when they see a “300-pound Hispanic,” as he describes himself, and his daughter training in a gym: “‘There is no way this guy is gonna get her to the top’.”

“And she’s No. 1 in the country,” Sonny said. “People will never give us the credit. But we made other trainers feel like it’s possible. We made other kids feel like it’s possible. It’s a blessing to know that we did it from West Texas.”

The grind to the top started when 7-year-old Aaliyah sought to get off the couch and play a sport at a time when she was competing for attention with her father’s love of cars. Sonny was skeptical of her basketball interest and wanted to test her level of commitment. For inspiration, he looked to a traditional grinding tool used frequently in kitchens where Mexican culture is prevalent.

“I think a lot of it was watching my mom cook, right?” Sonny said. “She’ll get that Molcajete. She’ll grind things down.

“We just grind different, you know what I mean?”

But grinding in a Molcajete isn’t just about pulverizing something organic. It can be about bringing different essences together, as each element affects and improves the other, combining to make something spectacular and fresh.

“Our relationship is like none other,” Sonny said. “Being a father is more important to me than anything.”

The workouts were hard, but Aaliyah was determined to show her father that she wasn’t about to give up. She didn’t, so Sonny set his work responsibilities aside to focus on her — himself now driven to lift her to greatness.

“I think his true love was always cars,” Aaliyah said. “But once I found basketball, I think it changed to training kids.”

“I don’t care what you feel like, you gotta find it. Dig deep! Dig! Dig! Dig! The whole time! There you go! There you go!”

An observer at the father-daughter workouts today would witness Aaliyah hit one pull-up jumper after another, shots so perfect that most don’t even touch the rim on the way down. It’s all at big-game speed, with Sonny barking out instructions with the consistency of a drill sergeant.

If she misses one, she keeps going. Miss two in a row and it’s off the floor and out of the gym, sprinting to the far end of the strip mall and back under the late May Texas sun before starting the drill over again. Five, 10, 15 in a row. Business as usual for these two.

The next stop is Oklahoma, where Aaliyah will enter the collegiate spotlight having already received about $1 million in NIL money, according to Sonny.

“A lot of it is understanding the journey and where we’re trying to get,” Sonny said. “People lose sight of that when the money comes and scholarships come. I’m still trying to push her to be the best to ever do it.”

The journey brought father and daughter together, creating new dreams and realities: a player with an unlimited future, and a parent proud to live up to the title. It’s been a long journey to get there, one worth celebrating.

“A lot of people say that they love our relationship, just because they never see him without me,” Aaliyah said. “I feel blessed people say that about us. I would give up all my awards just to have that relationship with my dad.”