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Growing up, Matt Scott wanted to be just like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley or Isaiah Thomas.

In other words, he was just like any other kid. I remember being absolutely convinced that I was going to make the NBA when I was growing up – before reality kicked in.

Except Scott refused to give up on those hopes when others told him to grow up.

And guess what? Matt beat the odds and is now a new professional basketball player.

He also happens to be in a wheelchair.

“Some may think that a kid growing up with a physical disability should find a new dream,” he writes in his new blog for the U.S. Paralympic team. “I was always told wheelchair basketball won’t pay the bills. But, me being as stubborn as I am, that dream never went away.”

Scott has won three collegiate national championships with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and played on two Paralympic teams, including the last one in Beijing. In October, he arrived in Turkey where he now plays in a professional league in Istanbul.

“WOW is all I can say!” he writes in his bog. “I love it here.”

Scott first came to national attention when he was featured in a Nike ad that was aired during the 2008 Cotton Bowl. It now has more than 350,000 views on YouTube.

In the ad, Scott dribbles and shoots as he sarcastically rattles off a list of 56 excuses commonly heard to get out of working out:

“It’s not in my genes . . . I’d love to, really, but I can’t . . . I just can’t.”Each excuse gets weaker: “My tummy hurts . . . I need a better coach . . . I don’t want to slow you down.”

Scott saves the final excuse for the moment the camera finally shows his lower body: “And my feet hurt,” Scott says as he throws down two basketballs.

The message is clear: Here is someone who knows the true meaning of “no excuses.”

Tracy Chynoweth first met Scott when he invited him to try out for the U.S. Junior National wheelchair basketball team in 2001. At the time Matt was a 16-year-old kid from Detroit and a good five years younger than most of the players. But at the end of the first day of practice, the newcomer had shocked the coaches.

“My first thought was, ‘Holy shit, where did this kid come from?’ “ Chynoweth says.

Not only was he holding his own with the best players, the teenager had the body of an NFL linebacker. Scott, who was born with spina bifida, grew up playing sports with able-bodied friends who refused take it easy on him. He didn’t play wheelchair basketball until he was 14. He caught on quickly.

“I’ve always called him the LeBron James of wheelchair basketball,” Chynoweth says.

Scott takes “no excuses” to heart and works hard for everything he’s earned. In college his routine consisted of working out about four hours a day, including shooting and weightlifting. He also had a key to the gym for occasional midnight sessions.

“There wasn’t one time where he tilted back in his chair and said, ‘I’ve arrived,’” says Chynoweth.

Scott says he just hopes the ad continues bringing attention to a sport with incredibly dedicated athletes, but which seldom gets any love from ESPN or sports sections.

“I think I’ve always had something good to say,” he says. “And now people want to hear it.”

Training with Tim is arguably Milwaukee’s third most underrated fitness blog. It’s updated semi-daily at trainingwithtim.com.