RealGM

Unlike this summer’s made-for-TV “The Decision” – the hour-long drone when LeBron James sat in the Boys and Girls Club in Greenwich, Conn., eventually told Cleveland, if not the free world, “see ya” because he was bolting to South Beach – Chris Kramer’s announcement Wednesday that he signed with the Mad Ants took about 15 minutes from his own alma mater gymnasium.

“It’s about the same magnitude,” the former Huntington North and Purdue guard joked before he stood behind the makeshift lectern and talked briefly to some of the student body who got a momentary reprieve from classes. “LeBron and I are on the same level.”

Of course he knows the comparison is silly, but the common denominator between the two has been their quest to make it to the NBA. James is the league’s modern-day icon. And since Kramer figures he has to start his own journey somewhere, then why not in the D-League?

So the 22-year-old who grew up on Oak Street, only “a minute down the road” from where he now sits in a stylish black sweater, finds himself one step closer to the dream he dreamed when he was just a kid, when his parents dropped him off after school and picked him up late at night at the YMCA.

I'm guessing that U.S. 24 between Huntington and Fort Wayne is going to be a little busier this winter.

Got an up and closer visit with Chris Kramer on Wednesday when the 6 -foot-3 former Purdue and Huntington North guard announced that he'd be playing for the Mad Ants this season.

Which makes my theory on the east-west traffic understandable, because most of Huntington will be coming to watch their hometown hero take his first foray into pro ball.

Immediately, you can tell that Kramer is the kind of guy you can root for. He's media savvy, but doesn't lean on cliches and blank answers he's given a thousand times. He's got a sense of humor, but isn't smug. He recognizes that he's not NBA caliber yet, but is willing to work to get there. And he appreciates his roots, and spoke of being a small town kid with a dream.

Do you want to ensure Chris Kramer's success with the Mad Ants? Easy enough.

Tell him he'll never make it. Tell him he's not good enough, tall enough, quick enough, whatever enough. Make him remember those days when everyone thought he should play football or maybe even baseball instead of basketball at Purdue University.

Then sit back and enjoy.

“Just because you're from a small town,” Kramer said, sitting in the high school gym Wednesday in his small town, “doesn't mean the dream has to stop.”

Dream on. Kramer does. It's a dream that started when he was a tyke, playing any type of ball he could get his hands on. That “any sport, any day” mentality continued through his years at Huntington North High School until he had to choose a college path. He had to narrow his vision. Make it tunnel.