After my junior year in college my cousin Carlos (the person that first got me interested in basketball) asked me if I’d like to come to Washington dc to play in a charity basketball game. I was home for the summer and thought it would be cool to play on the same team with the first person who inspired me to play the game I love so much. When me and Carlos first talked about the game he said the team we were playing were a mix of guys that played in college and some talented street ball players from the area. Right before I got off the phone with him, he dropped the bomb on me. The reason he wanted me to play in this particular game was because a friend of his was coming down to watch me play. This friend happened to be a player on the Washington Wizards at the time. On top of all this Carlos got his friends agent to come down and watch the game as well.
As i put the phone down a ton of emotions ran through me at once. I was in disbelief that i would get an opportunity to play in front of not only an NBA player but his agent. I ran upstairs and told my mom the good news. She was just as excited as I was and told me that she would drive me down there. I had exactly two weeks before the charity game started so I made sure to work out even harder than I had been to prepare. I did everything in my power in those two weeks leading up to the game to be physically ready. The problem was as the days came and went my anxiety about the game kept getting worse. What if I don’t play well? What if this is my only shot? Even though I was physically ready to go, mentally I was far away from being prepared.Two days before we were suppose to leave, Carlos called the house to give us directions to his place and to talk to me about the game. Carlos is a very animated guy so to say he was hyped up about the game was an understatement. One of the guys from the team we were playing against worked with Carlos. They were really good friends and were talking trash to each other every day about who was going to win the charity game. Carlos would tell him about his cousin from jersey who was going to destroy his whole team and how our team was going to blow them out. His friend would talk about how they were going to make sure I don’t score etc. Usually hearing this challenge would of gotten me even more excited, but because I was questioning myself already this news just made my mental state even worse.
“Hidden talents are not visible until we allow ourselves to see the potential we have inside of us”
The game was on a Saturday so me, my mom, and one of my brothers drove down Friday afternoon. I felt relaxed the whole ride down and was excited about playing the next day. When we arrived Carlos came out to greet us and the first thing he asked me was if I was ready for the game. Of course I said yes and later on that night we went to some basketball courts and shot around. The last time Carlos saw me play was my junior year in high school. Back then I had the coordination of a baby deer and I had no idea how to play. I was a million times better now so while we shot around Carlos was amazed at how far my game has come along. I felt great shooting around with him and very confident. After an hour or so we went back to his place and I showered and went to bed, the next day was game time.
My mom has seen me play basketball probably a total of ten times. She was always working so for her to get to a game was almost impossible. The fact that she was at this game added on to my anxiety. I wanted to play good for her, I wanted to play good for Carlos, and I definitely wanted to play good in front of the nba player and his agent. When we got to the gym a younger kid’s charity game was going on. As I sat in the stands Carlos introduced me to a few people including his friend who was on the other team. Right before I went to get dressed for our game I saw the nba player and his agent walk in and sit in the stands. During warm ups I was so pumped up I was doing every dunk I could do in our layup lines. I was trying to get the nerves out. My legs felt heavy and my mouth was dry even though I could dunk the ball fine, every jump shot I took was hard and off target.
Shooting the basketball is very technical. One slight mistake here or there can be the difference between making and missing the shot. As my shot continued to misfire in warm ups my mind started to drift off. I started to think about the agent in the stands, instead of focusing on what I was doing wrong so I could fix it. When the game started me and my cousin Carlos were in the starting lineup. For the first three minutes every time Carlos got the ball he’d pass it to me to try and get me to score. The problem was I couldn’t put the ball in the basket. Whenever I had the ball all five guys on the other team were focused on stopping me from scoring. Mission accomplished!!! As the first half came to an end I had a total of two points. On top of that my cousin yelled at me to get my head out of my butt at half time. I couldn’t believe that out of all the times to play bad I chose this game to do so. My cousin was frustrated with me and I couldn’t blame him. The night before he saw me hit shots from all over the court and now just ten hours later I couldn’t throw a rock in the ocean. Even my teammates weren’t passing me the ball anymore.
As the second half started something happened. I guess in my mind I already figured there was no chance of the agent being interested in me, my cousin was already pissed off, and my team was down by twenty points. So I said screw it. I was going to go out and just play. I didn’t care what anyone thought anymore and I decided to play for me. All of a sudden my shot started going in. I could now get to the basket, I was able to see openings in the defense, and I could actually feel my legs again. I ended up scoring twenty points in the second half. The problem was the agent and the nba player left at halftime. Neither I nor my cousin had any idea they left. I was positive that if I would of stepped up in the first half like I did the second they would of had a reason to stay. After the game my cousin was furious they left at halftime but I wasn’t.
It was my time to shine and the window of opportunity happened to only be twenty minutes long that day. It was no one else’s fault but my own. I did all the work I had to do physically but none of it mentally. When your moment comes you have to be ready for it. That’s not saying there won’t be other moments but don’t let any pass you by. That night my cousin came into my room and apologized for putting so much pressure on me before the game, and while I thought it was nice of him to say not once did I feel he was the reason I didn’t perform well.
Many people have excuses why things didn’t go their way. If it wasn’t for my coach, if I worked harder, if my boss didn’t hate me I’d get that promotion etc etc. Understand this, when it’s your time to shine only you can affect the outcome and no excuse in the world can change that.
