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HeyPC
Since: Dec, 2011
Dolski
Since: Dec, 2011
Dolski
Since: Dec, 2011
HeyPC
Since: Dec, 2011

It was a children's book I skimmed through back in the mid-90s, it was in the kids' bookshelf at a local thriftshop.
It was set in a world where people have robot butlers, and the main character, a boy, his family didn't have one and he was embarrassed by that. I think there was an antagonist kid who was rich and had the latest model but I'm not sure. Anyway then the antagonist's family got one but it was an outdated model and he didn't like it and was embarrassed by it. The robot was gold/brass colored I think, maybe it was rusty, I vaguely remember the kid making fun of it for being rusty. It was kind of clumsy or otherwise generally bad, one time he had to take out its filters and wash them because it was having an allergic reaction (?) to dust or something else. Maybe the main kid had a dog or something that it didn't like because of that? The main boy was also really big on basketball, he was on his school's team but I think he was the waterboy. The book ends up with the robot learning to play basketball in order to please the kid and helps him win the game, and the kid decides the robot doesn't suck after all, I think the parent (father? it might have been just the dad and the kid) actually asks him if he wants to upgrade to a better one at the end and he turns him down.
IIRC the cover had the robot on it, maybe even playing basketball. I think it was probably one of those dime a dozen clunkers that get sold in old school book fairs and then go out of print. I don't remember the author or the title but for some reason the premise has stuck with me all these years and it's driving me nuts. I've tried googling for it before but no luck. There are surprisingly a lot of robots who play bb irl.