Young Dayton Flyers fan to Obi Toppin: ‘I hope you make it to the NBA’

That's what happened. On Dec. 14, after Dayton beat Drake 78-47 at UD Arena, Toppin read the letter from Mueller, an 8-year-old second-grade student at St. Charles Elementary, as he walked up the ramp to the locker room in the Donoher Center as a UD videographer filmed him.

"Dear, Obi," Toppin read. "I like watching you play for the Dayton Flyers. Basketball is my favorite sport, and I think I am really good. I hope you make it to the NBA. I love the NBA. I want to know who’s your favorite NBA player and team, and I want to know who you think the best dancer on the team is. Hope you write back. Go Dayton Flyers.

Obi responded through Dayton basketball's official Twitter account, which shared video of him reading the letter on Thursday.

"Dear Noah," Dayton posted on Twitter. "Obi wanted to let you know, Kobe (Bryant) is the greatest of all time, and he likes to watch Kevin Durant now. He also says that the Lakers are his favorite team to watch right now, and Cam Greer is the best dancer on the team."

Now here's the story of why Mueller wrote the letter and how he delivered it to Obi. His dad Brad, a 2004 UD graduate, said his three kids — Colin, 9, Noah and Megan, 5 — were bored one day in late November and asked him what they should do. He remembered writing a letter to his favorite author, Matt Christopher, when he was in third grade and Christopher writing him back. He suggested they do something similar.

An hour later, Brad found Noah at the kitchen table writing to Toppin, Dayton's leading scorer and a player being projected as a first-round NBA Draft pick. Brad realized he had to figure out a way to get the letter to Toppin.

Brad said the whole family, which lives in Kettering, loves the Flyers. His two brothers attended Dayton as did his parents, who have season tickets. His wife Becky's parents also have season tickets. He goes to four or five games a year and tries to take each of the kids to one game a season. They watch all the other games on TV.

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Noah is obsessed with basketball, whether it's the Flyers or the NBA. He met Toppin for the first time a season ago at a Future Flyers Kids Club pizza party.

"What did it feel like when you dunked between your legs?" Noah asked him.

"It was great," Toppin said.

Brad said that sealed the deal for Toppin becoming Noah's favorite player. They planned to give the letter to Toppin at the Drake game, but prior to to taking the letter to the game, Brad and Becky talked to Noah about being more humble about his basketball skills. They him him change the text of one sentence in which he originally wrote he was the best player in his grade.

With the letter ready to go, Brad and Noah tried to get Toppin's attention before the game to hand him the letter, which had been on the fridge at home for weeks. They were sitting next to the band, and it was so loud, they couldn't get Toppin to hear them.

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The Muellers sat in the 400 section but managed to find seats in the final minute next to the tunnel where the players enter and exit the court.

"There were other kids holding stuff for Obi to sign, and then Noah was holding out his thing," Brad said, "and Obi was like, 'You mean that's for me? That's awesome man.' He gave him a high five and gave Trey (Landers) a high five. He was on top of the world."

Then the video came out Friday, and Noah had a whole new reason to get excited. Brad's not on Twitter, but his brother saw Dayton's video and sent him the link. They showed the video to Noah on Thursday night.

"He was in shock," Brad said. "He was in bed and told us, 'I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight. I just keep thinking about that video.' He was on top of the world."