Khris Middleton is a rare kind of second star

Father and son remember the stops at Fuddruckers in Columbia, S.C., more than halfway through the five-hour drive back to Charleston from Atlanta, where the son, only 12, had started practicing that summer with a high-level AAU team.

The son realized he was in over his head during warm-ups. The Atlanta players dunked. He wouldn't dunk until the end of sophomore year in high school. He would cry sometimes on drives back.

"I thought I was good," Khris Middleton says. "I realized I was s---ty." His father, James, had picked the Atlanta team to show his son how far he had to go. Fuddruckers became the place where Khris cheered up.

"I let him order whatever he wanted," James says. "'Get yourself…