After seeing him for the first time last night, Tony Wroten, Garfield's 6-4 9th-grade point guard prodigy, just vaulted to the top of our list of the best things about living in Seattle.

You will pay $8 to see Wroten play in some musty high school gym at some point in the next four years, and he will make a pass or a juke or a slam dunk that will make you turn to the person next to you, hit them on the shoulder and say "Oh my God. Did he just do that? Holy shit!" It will be the best $8 you ever spent.

But can we talk about coaching for a moment? Thanks.

If you are the coach of a high-school basketball team, and your best player has just thrown down a spectacular alleyoop that brought the crowd out of their seats and gave you a 20-point lead, what do you do?

If you are Jason Kerr, Franklin's coach, you launch this screaming tirade, which we overheard from our seats about ten feet from the Franklin bench:

Whoop-de-do, you got a lob dunk. How about getting down to the other end of the floor and playing some defense?! I want this game over NOW!

Garfield, by contrast, was content to have Wroten try to beat his man off the dribble from halfcourt. At halftime, Wroten and slashing guard DeAndre Taylor had combined for 32 points. The rest of the Bulldogs combined for 4. Garfield was down 10 at half and lost 85-70.

Wroten is as good as advertised (and he's advertised as the best 9th-grade basketball player in the country). He whips tremendously fast, accurate passes (though he often tries to whip them through defenders and they get picked off). He's unstoppable in the open court. He's accurate from three-point range, and confident shooting from NBA-range (or, "from China" as the Franklin P.A. guy joked after a particularly long attempt.)

Mostly, we were shocked by his talent--he's the most talented Metro player we've seen since Martell Webster. My lovely companion ventured a comment: "He's like a dancer," she said, and it's true, he's got a long, lean body, tremendous leaping ability, and amazing body control. He scored 29 points.

Garfield's "give-it-to-Wroten-and-let-him-score" offense will grant them easy victories over 95% of high school teams in the state. There simply aren't many high school players who'll be able to guard him.

If they want to win a state title (which we care about, since we went to Garfield--you probably just want to see the guy play), they'll need to play more disciplined basketball. But Wroten's only a freshman, presumably that lesson will come.