I'm Going Into the Florida Hall of Fame. Here's What I Want My Players to Hear.

This spring, the Florida High School Athletic Association named its 2026 Hall of Fame class, and my name was on the list. I've been sitting with it for a few weeks. I want to tell you what it actually stirred up, because it isn't what you'd expect.

I came up at Mariner High School in the late nineties. By graduation I'd scored 3,744 points — a state record that still stands. My senior year I averaged 41.5 points a game, was named Florida's Mr. Basketball, played in the McDonald's All-American Game, won the three-point contest, and went to the University of Florida where we played in a national championship game under Coach Donovan. I'm proud of all of it.

But a Hall of Fame call doesn't make you think about the points. It makes you think about the people who got you there. The coach who stayed late. The parents who drove the long miles. The teammates who set the screens nobody remembers. The number has my name on it, but it was never just mine.

That's what I want every player I coach to hear. If you spend your youth chasing a number, you can win the number and still lose what mattered. The scoreboard is loud and temporary. What lasts is the kind of person you became — someone who works when no one is watching, who loses without quitting, who lifts the people around them.

Fun is Always #1.

That's why I built TDBA the way I did. We say it plainly to every family: this is bigger than basketball. We'll make your player a better shooter, a smarter decision-maker, a more confident athlete. But we're also developing good young people who get a little better every day. The basketball is the hook. The kid is the point.

When they read the records at the induction, I'll be grateful. But in my head I'll be thinking about a gym full of nine-year-olds in Tampa learning that effort is a choice and that they're worth investing in.

Come see TDBA. Let your player try it. Check out our individual classes, summer camps, leagues, and membership.

And my book Let Them Love It is free at teddydupaybasketballacademy.com.