Try Hard Basketball Final - Alan
It was a Saturday, I had just bought some Hyper Aggression kicks that I thought would stop me from getting injured, in particular rolling my ankle. I needed to be healthy for futsal so I could not risk any injuries, especially for a rec basketball team. I needed to prioritize and take care of myself, even if that means spending a few extra bucks.
I walked into Tappan Gym in Brookline High School with my duffel bag filled with all my essentials for the game. Water and basketball shoes. Yeah, not too many essentials. I was a bit early so I started to pass the ball around with my other friends who came early as well. It was Ari, Colin, and I passing the ball in a triangular formation. We were squeezed into the corner, almost handing the ball off, barely letting go of it because we couldn’t disrupt the game before us. It was the fourth quarter but one team was being destroyed.
BUZZZZZZ! The fourth quarter finally ended, and my team rushed into the floor. We immediately started shooting and practicing but we stopped when everybody was here. “Okay guys, enough with the shooting let’s get into layup lanes. Do we all know how this works?” Colin’s dad, the coach asked. We all nodded. “Let’s get to it then” He replied.
Waiting. Layup. Waiting. Rebound, pass. Waiting. Layup…and so on. We were all concentrating, and I assume all of us were both excited and nervous for our first competitive game of the year.
When the game finally started, I played shooting guard. Sometimes I brought it up the court to have more variety and confuse the defense a little. Ari mostly was the one who brought it up. One of
Try Hard Basketball Final - Alan
the first field goals we scored was from me. I caught the pass and instantly sprinted towards the hoop. I faked a pass to Colin, took it to the other side, and in two steps, I launched a floater from the free throw line. It seemed like slow motion, the ball hit the middle of the square and the backboard and dropped into the hoop. I high-fived a few of my teammates and went straight into playing hard defense.
The game was a tough one. There was a tall guy who was pretty fast, faster than our center, so he blew by him like Usain Bolt in the Olympics. He scored the majority of the points and we ended up losing our first game.
We were sad because losing the first game stumped our morale, but we understood the fact that we hadn’t practiced together yet.
School tryouts were later in the week so we had a chance to play together. We had two tryouts and we scrimmaged. This let us pass the ball around and learn some plays for the next game on Saturday.
***
It was Saturday afternoon the next week and I walked into Tappan gym. I was early once again. I was watching some younger kids when Colin arrived.
“We have to win this one, dude” I told Colin. “Yeah, I know. If we do, we will have momentum on our side next week” He replied.
Try Hard Basketball Final - Alan
Similar to last week, we went into layup lines. A few minutes after we were called into a huddle. I looked at the other team. They were pretty tall. I was worried because they looked strong and aggressive. The next forty-five minutes was full of me being in awe of my teammate.
For most of the first half, we were down by a couple of points. Guarding my man was annoying because he was taller than me, but he didn’t move around much, letting me double Ari’s man. My man didn’t score a point the whole game, but aside from a good amount of rebounds, steals and assists, I did not score this game. I’ll tell you why.
It started in the second half of the game. We were still down by about 5 points average. We would score then they would score then they would score twice in a row, then we would score twice in a row. Nothing was changing. I did not know how Ari did it, or what was going through his mind, but it was amazing. He had probably 4 points going into the half, shooting around 30 percent. His stat sheet was nothing special. Ari put the team on his back the second half. He made jump shot after jump shot after jump shot, shooting around 60 percent this half. He carried the team to victory.
This was crucial because not only did we make our record better, but we beat one of the best looking teams in the league. We didn’t even have Eli, who was one of the taller, faster kids in our team, who was amazing at defense. With Eli healthy, we could be the team to beat.
After the game, we were happy with ourselves for earning the W, and I gave Ari a pat on the back. I told Ari and Jonathan that we could celebrate and have pizza and play video games at my house. My parents were okay with it because they had to go out, and they didn’t want me to be bored.
Try Hard Basketball Final - Alan
I went from being worried and nervous, to happy and thankful. I was thankful for having such a clutch player in our team. Hopefully we win our games in the future, because I think we are a championship contender, and in our good days, we could be unstoppable. You know what? This is a life lesson for me. I can’t go in to a situation expecting to be successful the first time. I have to take time and effort, and the win will come to me.