It’s just you, your team and your pride….

These should be the fundamental reasons why you partake in competitive sports period.

When your not getting paid to play the game you love, it’s a lot easier to put things in to perspective. Your not comparing how many zero’s are in your pay cheque or worried about your playing time and how it will effect your stats or worse off your ego. But if you are worried about those frivolous things then you need to get check yourself because it’s just plain stupid.

Yes statistics are sexy and were attracted to the next big stat line but if you drop 50 and lose where’s the fun in that? Go ask Kobe every time he drops 50 plus how it feels when they leave with a loss? I bet every time he’ll say he’s disappointed in how the game went for his team.

What is often not publicized are the contributions are the guys who do the little things who help make the team win. For instance, at the Y when I play pickup ball, I’m more selective on who I run with as a team. I do this because there’s absolutely no point selecting two random guys you’ve never played with and expect to win consistently. Maybe you get lucky but most often times it’s a quick run and then your off again waiting for your next turn. Last Thursday was the exact opposite. My team and I were on an absolute run for two hours straight easily and you can chalk it up to team chemistry.

Playing against all kinds of teams big, small, young, old, quick and strong it didn’t matter that day because all of them had nothing on us. I really think this bothered a few of the teams who were sitting that we were winning so much. I know for sure they were getting frustrated and this is what made it so worthwhile. I could hear them on the bench yelling at there guys “GO AFTER HIM HE’S A LIABILITY”. So they did try to post me up at will on each possession, scoring with relative ease in some cases. But you can only go to the well so many times and when I eventually stop you it’s our chance to turn the game around.

The funniest thing I heard during our game was my check talking to the bench “HE’S A SHOOTER?!?!?! WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME” right after I pump faked him up in the air and took my one dribble jumper *swish*. I guess if they had all the time on the bench to disect my game to figure I was such a liability on defense they forgot to know that I have a pretty decent jump shot. Or that time when this kid trying to guard me who was trying to get in my head all game, I drove him baseline and 1 for the win. He got pretty quiet after that real quick if you ask me.

Winning gives you an ultimate feeling of confidence. Winning gives you the swagger you never thought you once had. But lastly winning gives you the respect that nobody else would give you.

DB

Advertisement