Basketball on Life...
August 2nd 2006 14:14
Just came back from my weekly game of basketball... Trying to get in shape again... Also trying to relive the success I had in basketball when I was younger...
Basketball's always been an outlet for me... When I was younger - in highschool, my parents bought me a ring for the front yard. Played basketball everyday... practicing and practicing... wanting to be like Michael Jordan~ hahaha... The dream of every basketball player that grew up in the 90s... Nowadays, everyone wants to be like Kobe or Wade... But I'm forever a Jordan fan....
Now I play cause I want to get as good as I used to be... I want to make the most of my "youth" I guess... so that I don't have any regrets when I get old and I can tell my kids, "Hey when you're old man was your age I was dunking that 10ft ring"~ heh heh...
Funny thing is... I think all sports can be related to "life" in some way... And the way that can be done is with the work-hard / success attitude. When I go play on Wednesdays... if I just rock up without having shot a ball for weeks, I play like shit... and feel terrible... However, if I've gone to play on the weekend, shot around in the afternoon before I play, even though I don't play as well as I'd like to, I feel better... I feel lighter off my feet... co-ordination's better, etc...
It's just like in life... Jordan said that if you put in the hours of practice in the gym, you reap the benefits on the court... something like that... And it's so true... In life, the hard work and effort and diligence you put into your goals, your focuses, the things you strive for... Once you put forth the effort, the rewards come... Now that might seem a little too optimistic for some... but the rewards I'm talking about aren't hypothetical ones such as, if you work hard you'll get rich or have a good life. I mean even if you fail, even if things don't go all exactly as you wanted, by putting in the effort you get that sense of satisfaction in the end.
I don't know about you, but I'm the type of person that doesn't feel good if they get a HD on their report without putting forth the effort. If I get a 93% on an assignment, I feel like, damn if I'd tried my best, I could've goteen 98... The sad thing is, this attitude isn't always reflected in practice... which is what I've had a hard time dealing with... Well not really a hard time, but you know, I can't do it on a consistent basis... I'm working on it though...
Back to the basketball... I'll relate to you, probably my most significant accomplishment I had in a regulation game... It was a comp I was playing in not long ago... I'd always had that dream of wanting to win a game by making my teammates better... you know, what all the legendary NBA players talk about... Anywho... this comp was horrible, we'd played something like 15 games and hadn't won once... It was the first comp I'd played in in afew years... but our teamwork and confidence was just non-existent...
Anywho, as usual, we were down by 17 points after half time and only one guy had scored on our team... I walked on the court at the start of the second half and I kept rambling to myself, "Come on Heej, you can do it... You can do it Heej".... What I was referring to was winning the game of course, coming back for a victory... And somehow, almost miraculously (heh that's a bit of an exaggeration, but...) it happened... Like something clicked and I went on a 10 point scoring spree... The team fed off that momentum...
For those unfamiliar with the game, basketball is a sport based heavily on momentum... If one guy can keep getting the shots in, or the team plays really good defence, everyone else feeds off that "momentum" and they psychologically get a boost and hence start playing "better"...
Anyways that what our team experienced that day... Well of course my teammates may not have seen it that way... but that was the way I saw it~!
So we spark a 10-0 run and the team starts playing awesome defence... I start shouting this and that (I get quite agressive when I'm on the court) telling guys to go here and there and they listen and everything's working out fine... I think the other team scored 2 points that half... We ended up winning by 2 and I scored the last points... It was one of those moments you dream about, shooting around in your backyard or at the local park... I was on a breakaway and one of the other team had gotten back on defence. We were down by 1 and I just took it to the ring and layed it in and got fould... Once of those magic moments you never forget... It was so cool... heh... So these days whenever I feel down or feel like I have a challenge, I try to look back to that day... Another Jordan quote, he said that he doesn't fear the challenge because he's succeeded before. If he has a game winning shot or an opportunity to win the game, he thinks back to his past success and knows that he can do it... I try to apply that mentality to every day... I must admit I'm not very successful with it, but I still try... A lot of the times I get into that "I can't be bothered" mood... but I know I have to be vigilant in order to be successful in all that I do...
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