RealGM

He broke out the Nintendo Wii.

Beaming, with remote control in hand, the towering athlete fired up one of his favorite video pastimes, a 3-point shooting game patterned after the NBA 3-point contest and began sinking virtual 3s.

"That's one of his favorites," an amused Cooke said, looking on from the kitchen. "He loves that one."

"Yeah," Hibbert nodded, eyes glued to a large flat-screen TV in his living room, his mile-long right arm extended high above his head in a continual shooting motion. "I love to play my video games."

Besides 3-point shooting, his other favorites games are archery and swordfighting. But basketball is his undisputed favorite, and he's not bashful about touting his prowess in a game in which players have 60 seconds to make as many of 25 attempts as they can.

Though perfection has eluded him, he's come tantalizingly close.

"My record's 23," Hibbert said, a figure no one has matched on his home machine. Val has come close a few times, hitting 21 and consistently scoring in the upper teens, but hasn't quite gotten there.

Hibbert is delighted about that. He's proud of the record. But on this day he struggled in his first two rounds, scoring in the mid-teens both times.

Disappointed, he handed the wand to Val, who fared similarly after two rounds.

Then, my worst fear coming true, the inevitable occurred: Hibbert insisted I give it a try.

I dreaded the moment for myriad reasons. Wii requires dexterity and a modicum of agility. I have neither. To operate the wand requires a degree of 21st century technical knowledge. I have none. I do not play video games, text or Facebook. I can make and receive calls on a cell phone and do little else with one.

iPhones? iPads? BlackBerries? I'm still scratching the surface of what a PC can do.

Hence my dread. But there was no ducking out. I was a guest in Hibbert's home. He wanted me to play. I had no choice but to make a spectacle of myself, which began the instant he taught me how to operate the remote control.

There was a lot of "hold it like this," and "press A" and "hold the trigger" and "press A" and "let go of the trigger" and "twist your wrist" and "press A," and so on and so forth.

Suffice it to say, my first stab was not a pretty sight. Quite humiliating, actually. Picking a ball up off the rack was an adventure in and of itself. Heaving shots, an array of line-drives and airballs, at the basket was a sad but comical sight all to itself.

By the time the round mercifully ended, my hosts politely trying not to laugh, I might have made four shots. Maybe. I had no desire to better my total, but Hibbert, seated in a chair next to me, insisted I try again.

Reluctantly, I did.

In what can only be described as an out-of-body experience, I aced the first rack of five. Then the second.

"He's starting to get it," Val said.

"He's on a roll," said Hibbert, perking up in his reclining chair.

Indeed I was.

In the ensuing adrenaline rush, I lost track of how many I'd made in a row before I finally missed. But the hot streak continued as I approached the final rack.

"He might get 23," Val said with more than a little hint of astonishment.

"He could get 23," Hibbert said with noticeable concern as I approached his gold standard.

But as fate would have it, I choked at the end. Hibbert's record was safe. I made only 22.

But he was impressed. Relieved, but impressed, as evidenced by the huge hand, poised inches from my face, that invited a high-five. And when a 5-foot-7, 159-pound sedentary sports writer gets a full-throttle high-five from a 7-foot-2, 278-pound NBA center, the result is a nearly dislocated wrist.

"I feel like we have really good players on our team, but sometimes what we lack is the energy," Hibbert said. "My rookie year I'd start some and come off the bench, but I really try to bring that energy, because sometimes if the crowd's not into it, the players, sometimes, we're just out there playing.

"But we need a little spark, and I feel like I have to be that spark. Not to the extent KG (Boston's Kevin Garnett) does, hooping and hollering, but I like to go out there and play with some passion and just get my teammates into it."

That alone makes him an MVP for the Pacers.