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Toronto • It took Trey Lyles a little longer than he would have liked to get his first points in Friday night's Rising Stars game. The Jazz rookie missed his first four shots before before finally breaking through with a two-handed jam, finishing with just two points in a game that saw more than 300 combined.

"It's all good," he said afterward. "I missed some shots, but it's whatever. It's an all-star game. I'm just out there to have fun."

For Lyles, it took a lot of work to have this kind of fun.

Looking on from his seat in the Air Canada Centre, his father knew exactly the work and sacrifice his son and put into getting to Friday's showcase of the league's best young talent. Because as Trey Lyle's got his first taste of the glitz of All-Star weekend, his father was remembering the grind of those pre-dawn workouts they went through every day before school.

"The workouts were brutal. They were brutal. They were brutal," Tom Lyles said this week. "I know some parents thought, 'Oh my God, he's going to kill this little guy.'"

The elder Lyles was a professional basketball player in his own day. He was playing for the Saskatoon Storm in Canada when his son was born. And he knew what it would take for Trey to reach that level and higher some day.

Tom Lyles put a basketball in his son's 7-year-old hands when they first moved from Canada to hoops-crazed Indiana. They drove down to the park in their neighborhood, left the headlights on and worked on shooting form and the art of dribbling.

They did that for hours, for years, until Trey got older and expressed an interest to his father in getting serious about the game and his future in it. Then came the real work.

"You have to understand that it comes at a price," his father told him. "I figured I'd put him to the test and there was no way he was going to make it through this — and the little rascal kept coming back for more."

So there they were, in the gym next to the middle school every day before classes, from sixth grade through high school. There was Trey Lyles jumping a 5-pound rope and wearing a 10-pound vest. There he was, fighting through the extra weight and tired legs as he pushed the ball up the court and fired off shot after shoot.

Then, after school, father and son returned to the gym for more.

"There were a lot of long days like that and him continuing to grind with me," Trey Lyles reflected after Friday's game. "There was a lot of work I don't think a lot of people would think a young kid like that should be doing or would be doing, and I was out there doing it."

When they weren't working out, they were watching, learning from the game's greats: Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julius Erving. He pointed out the best screens and the subtleties of opening up for a pass after setting one.

"I would explain to him what was going on," the father said. "He just fell in love with the game. The more he learned, the more he wanted to learn more. The more we worked out, the more he wanted to work out."

This weekend in Canada, a chance to brush shoulders with the All-Stars of now and a chance to watch, has been an affirmation of that work.

"For sure," Trey Lyles said. "As a kid growing up all you dream about is being in the NBA and then you're actually here and you're able to be a part of this. It's a dream come true for me."

The fact that Lyles cracked the list of 20 players selected for Friday's rookie-sophomore game might have surprised some coming into this season. Lyles was the 12th pick in last year's draft and figured to be the fourth big off the Jazz's bench this season. But when injuries to Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert opened the door for more playing time, the elder Lyles knew his son would seize the opportunity.

"I think he's shown himself that with more experience that he's going to be a major contributor on this team," Tom Lyles said. "But I also know that he has so much more that he hasn't shown yet."

There's more work to do be done, but the 20-year-old forward knows what that can mean for him.

"I've had a lot of fun," Trey Lyles said of his all-star weekend experience. "Hopefully this isn't my last one. I really enjoy it. I'm looking forward to coming back for more."

Twitter: @tribjazz