It is a basketball tale as old as time. A son grows more and more confident with each passing year that he will finally best his dad, while the dad continues to prove that “the old man’s still got it,” by humbling his son with yet another victory on the hardwood.

In the Leunen household, the stakes seem higher.

The dad is Maarty Leunen, who led Redmond High to its first and only big-school basketball title in 2003, starred at the University of Oregon, was drafted into the NBA, had over a decade-long international basketball career and is now the Ridgeview High coach.

The son is Gavin Leunen, Maarty’s oldest child who is averaging more than 25 points a game this season and is four points away from joining the 1,000-career points club in his junior season at Ridgeview.

And, depending on who is asked, he has beaten his dad/coach multiple times after practice.

“He teaches me what he has learned throughout the years to get me better,” Gavin said. “And I’m teaching him some new stuff when I one-v-one him and beat him.”

“That’s not true,” said Maarty, who helped lead the Ducks to the Elite Eight in 2007. “He catches me on the worst days after practice when I’m dead tired. I need to be fresh.”

Gavin, of course, refutes that claim, being so bold as to say that he would “11-0” his dad no matter how much spring is or isn’t left in his dad’s legs.

One can’t count out the possibility that neither one will ever admit defeat when they square off against each other. But one thing the two Leunens can agree on is that these years as player and coach are cherished ones.

“It is the dream,” Maarty said. “As a player, I had a good career and as a parent and coach I am able to share that knowledge and teach him the skills and leadership qualities to be successful. He’s a great kid, almost too nice sometimes, but he is always absorbing the game. He has just year by year continued to get better and I think that has shown throughout the season as well.”

After a 27-point outing in Ridgeview’s 54-44 win against Mountain View Tuesday evening, Gavin is inching closer to a career milestone while keeping the Ravens (11-8) in the hunt for the Class 5A state playoffs.

Friday night at Redmond High, the gym where his father’s No. 11 jersey is retired and hanging on the wall prominently, Gavin will need just four points to join the 1,000-career point club.

According to OSAA records, Gavin would become the third Ridgeview player to exceed 1,000 points. Brady Muilenburg passed the mark last year and George Mendazona holds the school record with 1,520 points from 2013 to 2016.

Maarty scored 1,168 career points and held the Redmond record until senior Wyatt Horner surpassed him a month ago.

“It is going to mean the world to me,” Gavin Leunen said. “I’ll be one step behind my dad. I will catch up to him and beat his record one day.”

What makes these one-on-one matchups so enticing is that Maarty is in a way playing against the high school version of himself, but perhaps a more versatile one. Both have similar tall, lanky frames. Maarty’s listed height in his playing days was 6 feet, 9 inches, while Gavin is listed at 6-7.

Maarty noticed that his son has the same instinct, court vision and refined low-post game. But with the game evolving, he admits that Gavin is more skilled than he was in the early 2000s with his ability to shoot the ball from deep, while being a primary ball-handler with moves “I never even thought about doing.”

It made sense that Gavin Leunen would gravitate to the game his dad starred in. Maarty played professionally from 2008 to 2021 in Turkey, Italy and Germany, and for many of those years, Gavin was there alongside his dad.

“He’s been to more games than even he probably knows by growing up in Italy and Europe,” Leunen said. “He spent a lot of time at the gym so it is just natural. I tried to do that with all my kids to get them in that environment where they can pick up on things.”

There were a couple of crucial things that Gavin learned while watching his dad play professionally: remain poised when the games are challenging and trust in your game and in your teammates.

“The ball will come to you if you pass the ball around,” Gavin said. “And mainly trust in your teammates and trust in yourself.”