BALLIN’ TOO HARD

It was 2009 when I was in 6th grade at Middle School and sucked HARD at basketball. I had played before in small leagues because my Father, Uncles and Grandfather were decent at basketball. Especially my Grandfather who claims he was “The Most Unguardable player in New York City” when he was 14 years old(Which was true by the way).

Despite me being bad at basketball, I had gotten a third best player award when I was 8 years old so my ego took over and I decided to try-out for my Middle School Basketball team so I can have something to do After-School during the third week of school. Fast-forward to that week, and it was the worst 3 days I ever experienced. I could barely run, shoot, defend, rebound or even have enough game experience to understand what was going on.

If I were to compare my stats like a Video game, I was on level one and everyone was at level 30 and above. I remember going to my room and crying my eyes out. This was the first time I failed at something with no safety net. I just had to deal with “Not just sign-up and play” but having to show my skills in front of strangers to gain a spot on the team.

After I realized this, I made a promise to myself to train whenever I can and as much as I can. What made it worse however, was the daily torment of “My soon-to-be-teammates” in how bad of a basketball player I was in front of everybody at the yard during recess.

That year was when I started to “BALL TOO HARD” if there is such a thing or term.

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Fast-forward, Summer of 2011 was a hot summer. I made the team in 7th grade but we ended up losing the Championship. I took responsibility for the loss because not only wasn’t I unproductive but I still lacked the experience to understand the nuances of the game that could’ve led to success.  

When I started to study the game, that’s when my game took off. Years later, I’ve won championships, played different positions because of my versatility and have had so much fun playing!

Now I am at a crossroads of going back to “Ballin’ Hard”, because I haven’t been training consistently since I’ve gone to college. I still believe I have the capability to play at a professional level and win a Championship on that level. I also learned to play with love instead of trying to prove something.

One problem I had when I got motivated to play was I was listening to all the noise people were saying about me. I would use what they say as fuel to keep going but when I didn’t hear any noise, I would lose motivation to train.

What changed though, was what I found that I love about the game that I can have unlimited energy about and what that is basically is the Love to compete and win basketball games. That’s what I get true enjoyment from and why I still have the urge to play professionally despite having a detour in College and getting into my career field and other things.

So I say this, I may get back into basketball seriously or I may just enjoy NBA basketball and just watch.