Brandon Bass, a third-year player for the Boston Celtics, can score, rebound, and defend well.

He just doesn't know how to swim. In fact, his six-year-old son Brandon Jr. can swim better than him.

"If you threw me out in the ocean, I would drown," chuckled Bass, who told the Boston Globe that his son was the first in the family to learn how to move around in the water.

However, little Brandon might just have some competition on the horizon. Daddy is enrolling at the Boston Sports Club, together with ten children from the area. Bass is volunteering to help the children get over their fear of swimming, although he himself has his own fears to conquer.

"I don't know how to float ... I can't tread water," he confessed to the Globe.

Bass's upbringing did not exactly involve a lot of water. Growing up in landlocked Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he had no access to any local pools. When a childhood friend died in a drowning accident, his fear of the water grew even worse.

It was another drowning death that got the Boston Boys & Girls Club into sponsoring swimming classes for underserved youth, principally black and Hispanic children from the inner city. Conducting swimming tests among their members, the club soon found out that only 30 per cent were able to swim functionally.

Bass is not the only Celtic who finds himself confused whenever he's in a pool.

"I want to learn to swim before I have kids, and I want them to learn. Whether a family vacation, or just with friends, a lot of activities take place near water," forward Jeff Green says with conviction. As a young boy, Green almost drowned after slipping on a poolside. He is also taking swimming classes.

One more motivation for Bass: He already has a lakeside house with a pool in Florida, where he and his family spend the offseason. He also bought a Jet Ski, and he likes taking his son on rides around the lake.

"Dad, you can't swim!" is a familiar refrain whenever Bass Sr. goes on his regular Jet Ski trips. But it doesn't faze the six-foot-8 forward.

"I just feel as the man of the house, I need to learn to swim."