The best of USC’s Drake London is still to come

The Little Tikes hoop was a way to keep Drake London occupied. From the moment he could walk, just after turning 1, London was bursting with energy. His parents Dwan and Cindi bought the hoop for their backyard in order to entertain him, and to their surprise, their son knew exactly what to do. At just 2 years old, he would walk over to the “hoot” — as his mom Cindi remembers her young son calling it — and shoot the ball, his feet perfectly together and pointed toward the basket, his left hand following through.

“When I would come home from day care, preschool, I would go straight to the Tikes and start shooting,” London said. “I know that if I couldn’t play hoops that day, I’d be crying.”

Cindi can vouch for those tears.

To say London was a born athlete would be an understatement. The innate ability to excel at any sport without much of a learning curve was a feature, and his parents treated it as such. Dwan, who coached him in football through middle school, calls it physical genius. Cindi calls it magic. Both avoided pressuring their son — Dwan said he didn’t want to come off as a LaVar Ball-type — and adopted a posture of openness. If there was a sport London wanted to play, they let him play it, and usually, he thrived.

“The more he would move, the calmer he was,” Cindi said.

Soon, London was able to take his talents outside of the family backyard to bumblebee soccer, T-ball, flag football, then tackle and even track and field.

“We always said, ‘Even if you want to play chess, we’ll be there.’ … But it always came back to basketball and football,” Cindi said.

Basketball was London’s first love, and it remains his favorite sport. It’s why, even as he developed into a superstar wide receiver and potential first-round NFL draft pick, he stayed committed to both sports at USC, finally giving up basketball before his junior season. The decision was bittersweet, but it brought about a new, exciting reality.

For the first time in…