SANTA ANA, Calif. — The thought was to let Horace “Bru” McCoy III play as many sports as possible and see to which one he gravitated.



“When he was little, 5 or 6 years old, and started playing basketball, he’d dribble, dribble, dribble, shoot and make it,” McCoy’s mother, Shelby, recalled, “run back down the court, dribble, dribble, dribble (and shoot). We’d be like ‘Oh my gosh, pass the ball.’ ”



Some time on the travel circuit and matchups against players much taller than him kind of ended that.



As far as baseball?



“He was actually a really good baseball player, but it was way too slow for him,” Shelby said. “It was like, ‘I can’t take this. I’m not up to bat for another inning.’ … He just felt like he couldn’t make enough impact on the game. I think baseball weeded itself out.”



Naturally, that left...