The Fall and Revival of My Basketball Career

I feel like I talk about sports way too much, but at least this blog isn’t about soccer.

                I started playing basketball when I was in 5^th grade. The local YMCA league was where my brother and I joined our first team. I remember on the first day of practice when we were the first 2 there and Omeed took his first shot and it went over the backboard. We had 2 coaches, and I think they were more impressed by Omeed having enough power to get the ball that high, than his accuracy. Prior to this practice, we sucked at basketball, a large part due to the fact that we focused mainly on soccer. Outside of playing at our cousin’s house occasionally, we had no experience with the game. We turned out to be one of the worst players there, but what made it worse was that there was 2 ball hogs on the team that thought they were the stuff, when they actually weren’t that good. I remember one of the kids’ names was Dustin and there was a period in the season where he couldn’t go to practice because he was suspended from school and we had practice at his school. Anyways, we ended up having a bad season, and I really didn’t gain anything from it.

The next time I remember playing basketball was during recess in Edison Middle School. Every day there would be one or maybe two basketballs with 40 kids who wanted to play basketball. Every day would be a 10v10 on one court and it was WILD. Every time someone would get the l there would be nails flying and everyone scramming for the ball. There were always some people got the ball every time and only shot, but that was something that just came with middle school. It was fun though.

                That next summer I joined the YMCA basketball league again but this time I was placed up an age division. I was definitely very intimidated and again, my brother and I were one of the worst players. A lot of my teammates ended up playing varsity at central or centennial when they went to high school later on so we were really outclassed. Being bad at basketball really wasn’t fun for me because no one ever passed to me and I can see why they wouldn’t want to. I scored maybe 8 points the whole season, but I had a really clutch moment towards the end of the season. We were tied with 20 seconds left against one of the best teams in the league, the ball fell to me and I chucked it from way out. It really wasn’t a smart shot considering how much time we had left. Yet even with my horrific form, it bounced against the glass and went in. I remember right after that shot, when we were transitioning to defense, my teammates looked at me in disbelief, as if to say “where did that come from”. That was my proudest basketball moment and I received a lot of compliments from parents who probably thought I was actually good.

                Since then I have taken a 7 year break from basketball, which is a very very long time. I decided that since it’s my senior year in high school, I wanted to have the high school basketball experience so I tried out for the Uni team. I made varsity (because I’m a senior) and I think it’s going to be fun. I can now focus on getting better at basketball since I’m tired of being bad.