PICK UP BASKETBALL GAME

I have previously written about my love for basketball a couple of times. As a child it was one of the activities I truly excelled at, and as my weight increased, my skills diminished. My ability to be as effective as I once was also went by the way side. I had forgotten what basketball meant to me. I just couldn’t accept the fact that I wasn’t in good enough shape to feel worthy of playing.

Luckily, I rediscovered my love for basketball last Sunday.

One of my friends is a coach in the area, and was telling me he had to run the open gym at his high school. Another friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go up there and play some basketball with the high school kids. I really wasn’t sure about it, because although I knew I was in the best shape I had been in years, was I ready to see what I was made of on the basketball court?

As I walked into the gym a lot of old memories came back to me that hadn’t really resurfaced in a long time. Memories of my childhood: spending hours in gyms going to basketball tournaments, participating in summer camps and practicing long hours with my dad.

There is a certain smell that basketball courts have that no other place on this earth has.  Our sense of smell is our strongest sense in terms of memory recall, and for me, walking into the gym, with that musky, enameled-wood smell brought me back to my youth in a way that is hard to explain. The smell reassures you that life can be stopped and that for a short period, you can go back to better times. 

I grabbed a basketball and started shooting around.

Let me tell you this-- it did not come back to me, at first.  I was missing all over the place, and I could barely dribble the ball. I once felt invincible on the basketball court, yet now I had feelings of doubt and discouragement. That really only lasted for about the first 15-20 minutes, because I started hitting shots, dribbling between my legs and I could move around with more ease than I can ever remember. So when the opportunity arose to get in a 5 on 5 game, I was feeling prepared to get after it.

The last time I played a pick-up game was at Texas State, probably about two years ago. I was on my first attempt to lose weight, and I had gone from about 400 to 360. I felt I was ready to get down on some basketball, and some guys let me jump in. Oh, boy was I wrong.

 I was winded within five minutes, and I barely did anything for my team. This is what I feared as we were starting the game, the fear that even after another 70 pounds lost I still would not be ready to play a significant role in a basketball game.

As the game started I didn’t really know what to do or where to stand. It had just been so long since I last played. Thankfully, I had an old buddy on my team that I used to play with all the time and he was guiding me. The first couple of times I had my hands on the ball I was feeling nervous and cautious, not really knowing what to do. But it all slowly came back to me, and I just felt like things started clicking as soon as I scored my first bucket.

 I got tired as the game progressed, but I never felt completely winded. I also felt faster with the ball than I have ever really felt on the court. I kept having all these thoughts about myself playing basketball in my late teens. When I was in middle school I was a king, and even early in high school I could hang with a lot of the players, but around junior year I just couldn’t play to the level I expected from myself.

And for me, it all came back. And I was better than ever. I was in better shape than anytime in high school- or ever, for that matter- and it showed. 

The game lasted for about an hour, but the memory of the game will last a long time.

During this journey of getting in shape, losing weight, creating confidence for myself and living life I sometimes over look the small things that once brought me so much joy.  I forgot that I used to love basketball so much that it was my literally my life. Now that I got a glimpse of what I have been missing for all these years I have no plans of losing it now, and the possibilities of my improvement make each day that much more exciting.