Take a look at his frankly incredible music videos for “Puppy Love,” “Ghetto Girls,” and “Thank You.” The kid straddles demographics like nobody’s business. Somehow he manages to look simultaneously cool and cute enough that he attracts fans - many of them screaming and waving giant foam-rubber doggy-paws - across race-gender-and-age lines.

It doesn’t hurt that young Bow Wow (currently in the process of dropping the Lil’ from his name, now that he’s 15 and, as he puts it to the Washington Post, “The Lil’ thing is getting played out”) is a talented performer, a hard worker, and a team player to boot. Think: Space Jam without the cartoon characters, or better, Harry Potter without the damn broomstick, but with cornrows and a wicked jump shot. It goes without saying that, during this dream-come-true stint, the kid learns important lessons about friendship, sportsmanship, and room service, in between times, sharing the court with The Answer and The Admiral. He plays an adorable orphan named Calvin (as in Calvin Broadus, the birth name of Bow’s other mentor, Snoop) who gets a chance to play for the NBA.

It’s easy to see why Bow Wow - ambitious, clever, self-confident - appealed to the folks who put this film-cd-gear- package together, namely, 20th Century Fox, the NBA, and Columbia Records. And according to the lyrics of Bow Wow’s first single off the soundtrack - powerpacked with featured artists, Bow’s mentor Jermaine Dupri, Fabolous, and Fundisha - he knows how to play the game: “When I got possession, I’m gonna have to fool wit it, / I might cross you up and fake one way, / Turn around and hit you wit the MJ fade-away.” “They’re playin’ basketball, we love that basketball…” Yes they are, and yes we do, all up in Like Mike, the much-promoted movie starring Lil’ Bow Wow and a few plucky adults.

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