C.J.: Ex-Timberwolf Corey Brewer takes some pint-size lip at his charity Christmas event

Traded Timberwolf Corey Brewer endured a bit of tiny taunting over a couple of basketball missteps during his Christmas charity event.

Before being dealt to the Houston Rockets, Brewer was scheduled to spend part of Saturday at Oak Park Center, where 200 children, who are living in homelessness or other crisis circumstances, were given gifts purchased by the NBA veteran.

"He and his fiancée [Monique Mongalo] are stepping out of the box to help my north Minneapolis community! We are in a state of awe and really appreciate their generosity," read an e-mail from Sano Daniel. Reached later by phone, Daniel added: "Nobody wants to come to north Minneapolis. I think he should be recognized. He gave me money to buy toys for over 200 children. Do you hear me? Over 200 kids!"

A foster parent, Daniel is Brewer's baby's caregiver, a licensed child-care provider and the Timberwolves' team nanny during games.

When the Rockets commanded Brewer's presence in Houston, the mother of Brewer's 10-month-old son, Sebastian, took the lead in the gift giveaway, which also included food and a visit with Santa.

During the giveaway, Mongalo left that area to conduct a FaceTime chat with Brewer. (I was not invited to the FaceTime conversation but remained in the gift staging area, where I conducted a video Q&A with the very charming Mongalo, which I will bring to you in a future Sunday column.)

After Mongalo, Daniel and Oak Park Center director Debra Chavis returned from the FaceTime exchange, I started hearing chatter and some laughter about questions kids had for the 6-foot-9 Brewer.

On Monday, when I asked Chavis to find out exactly what Larkins' question to Brewer was, she e-mailed this to me: "Why did you take four extra steps in the game?"

That's pretty funny and Mongalo thought so, too.

"He admits that he traveled," Mongalo told me with a big smile. "There's no denying that. I think it was seven [steps Brewer took]," Mongalo said, breaking up even more.

Brewer also got razzed by Chavis' grandson Casmir William Chavis during the FaceTime chat.

I spoke by phone Monday with Casmir to find out what he asked Brewer.

Casmir is 8 years old, folks.

Brewer's response? "He started to laugh," Casmir told me.

When I asked Casmir, who admitted to being a big NBA fan and a bigger Corey Brewer fan, if Brewer was his favorite NBA player, another painful reality bite bit.

"Ah, he's my second. [No. 1 is] ­LeBron," said Casmir. "Yeah, King James. I watch a lot of basketball. My favorite team is Cleveland."

When I thanked Casmir and expressed hope that everything he wanted was under the tree today, he politely replied, "OK, Merry Christmas."

"I thought he was being honest and being himself — from one basketball player to another," said Chavis.

After I complimented Casmir's ease in talking with a strange adult, she said, "They're all like that. They're real mature on the court."

Grandma Chavis never misses an opportunity to promote her future NBAers, the Minnesota Spartans, a local AAU team.

"I'm going to send you this article from Coast 2 Coast prep. They named them 'The Most Dominant Team in 2014.' " Read it for yourselves: http://www.coast2coastpreps.com/?p=534.

Former KSTP-TV meteorologist Patrick Hammer appears to have landed work at KARE-TV, Channel 11, based on Twitter conversations.

The original Ralphie was at Tuesday's performance of "A Christmas Story, the Musical," at St. Paul's Ordway.

Peter Billingsley, the actor who played the original role, is in the metro visiting friends. He wanted to see this musical production, Ordway PR manager Jessica Petrie told me, noting, "His press representative asked for no advance media. He came backstage for a quick meet and greet with the cast and took a few photos."

Now that I've seen the photo, I want to know if Petrie asked to see his driver's license.

She laughed. "No, we did not. But if you Google him, he looks exactly the same," said Petrie. "He's a Hollywood producer, he's still around quite a bit, he's very successful. He looked just like he did when he was a kid. He has the same features if you look at him up close; same blue eyes."

Maybe the difference is seeing Billingsley in person.

And nobody's eye was shot out with a BB gun.

C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.