I think you're right. It would have been just as cool of the coach and just as brave of the kid, if the kid never scored at all. They'd already done what made them special.
The "feel good" part of this event happened when the coach put the kid into the game, perhaps including the first minutes during which the kid missed his first three shots and the coach left him in. The rest of the story is no more than a commentary on how crass our culture is, because you can bet your bippy the video wouldn't have gone viral, certainly not onto television, had the kid not made a bunch of threes. I realize my observation rains on the parade, but I've long felt that our society rewards and defines success and goodness by points scored and money made and, to me, the publicity this video has gained (I'd already seen it twice by the time it appeared on Metaphor) proves the point.
Metaphor 
I think you're right. It would have been just as cool of the coach and just as brave of the kid, if the kid never scored at all. They'd already done what made them special.
The "feel good" part of this event happened when the coach put the kid into the game, perhaps including the first minutes during which the kid missed his first three shots and the coach left him in. The rest of the story is no more than a commentary on how crass our culture is, because you can bet your bippy the video wouldn't have gone viral, certainly not onto television, had the kid not made a bunch of threes. I realize my observation rains on the parade, but I've long felt that our society rewards and defines success and goodness by points scored and money made and, to me, the publicity this video has gained (I'd already seen it twice by the time it appeared on Metaphor) proves the point.