Day 23: Remember The Time... I Was Good At Basketball

I have always, always, always loved playing basketball. I’ve played for about as long as I’ve been playing the guitar, which is a long time for me. There were many occasions where I’ve spent hours working on one move, whether it would be my cross over, my free throw, my form or being able to shoot with both hands. I have always loved the sound of the basketball hitting nothing but net or watching people’s pre-shot free throw routine. There’s nothing flashy about my game to say the least. I have decent ball handling skills, a quick first step, decent passing skills and eyes and have a good perimeter game. But this one night, it all finally came together in an Al Bundy moment. 

Remember the time I hit the game winning 3-pointer with the clock winding down which advanced us into the semifinals of college intramurals? 4 games in and this one game was not only where I scored my most points, it was the first game I scored any points at all. I finished with 13 points, 4 assists, a few rebounds and a steal or two.

Before this game I’ve never looked to score, but our main 3-point threat decided to really suck that game. My teammate/friend Simon yelled at me to get my head out of my ass and be more aggressive. I listened. I hit a wide open jumper and thought, “Well that wasn’t so bad.”

I soon discovered that I could blow by the guy that was guarding me so I was able to crash the defense a little and find my other teammate/friend Max. We’ve played a lot together throughout college so I just got a feel for where he’d be. He was my favorite target that night.

The game was pretty close and there was a lot of back and forth. The 2^nd to last possession of the game our opponents scored, putting them ahead by 2 points. With 13 seconds left (I remember it was 13 seconds because I said to myself, “13 seconds?!?! That can’t be any kind of good luck!) I ran to the inbound passer and quickly ran the ball up court.

I guess I was quicker than I thought because it was just me, a teammate and a defender under our basket. I ran to the 3 point line and hoisted a shot. Usually I can tell when a shot is going to fall because it just feels right when it leaves the fingers. This one did. we were up 1.

There was enough time for the other team to get off on last shot, but we were able to hold on and win the game. We celebrated our victory by going to the caf and eating Taco Bell/KFC.  We would lose our next game, but that night this game was ours.

Later on in life, I started a company basketball team. Though our team absolutely sucked and we wouldn’t win a single game until the 3^rd season, I would go on to hit 2 more clutch shots with the clock running down that would give us a W. Nobody would really care here though because it didn’t really have anything to do with email marketing. Still a good feeling though. I do love this game.