Reminiscing on basketball glory... depressing.

So i'm at work now (live in Australia) and it's been over 8 months since i've last played in a competition styled game - working full time has caused this.

So lately all i've been thinking about were the glory days of my basketball 'career'.. They were in year 11 and 12 and high school; a couple of years ago now seeing i'm 20.

This isn't a post to 'brag' about what i accomplished individually - because i couldn't really care about how many points i'd score in a single game - all i wanted was to win.

I'm 5'10 on a good day - and i've always played PG.

To start off with there was a guy i went through high school with every year we were in the same basketball team and every year we'd be the best players on the team by a long shot. This other guy was roughly the same height, same body build. He was always on one of my wings. He was your stereotypical 'i'm a good player now give me the ball' type guys.
I had no problems with this - he didn't have a massive ego - and since i didn't care about scoring i let it go.
I HATED him as a person though - i was never his friend.

So before we went to the State Championships when we were in year 11 our coach and sat us down and tried to smooth things over between us so nothing would effect our on court play.
He said to the other guy you're a better player throughout every game - which is true i'd take a back seat when we were blowing teams out and just set up players.
To me however he said, "you're a better player when it's an important game and it's on the line - you have the ability to lift your game when there's more pressure".... Without tooting my horn - i would say that's an adequate description - my best games were brought about by the bigger situations.

...

First game of State Championships we're playing Marcellin College (who won it last year) and were undefeated in the previous 2 tournaments they'd played in the year... The game finishes 51-50 we won.. Was a tremendous game down to the wire. I scored 2 free throws and that was it.
I didn't impose my will on the game offensively however i did cause three straight turnovers in the final minute of the game and than the free throws after i was fouled off one of the posessions.
My 'friend' scored 19 points top scored for our team - i did congratulate him - i never liked him.. But on the court i appreciate what he did.

Great start to the tournie. Next game we're up against Edmund Rice College... This team is UNBEATABLE. Their starting 5 were all New South Wales representatives, and 3 of them were in the starting side for that team.
We lost to them by 8 - and to be honest i think we were all proud of the deficit.

During that time Marcellin had just beaten St Francis Xavier so we were equal with them. Only the top 2 teams from each pool advanced - so realistically there was only one spot because Edmund Rice had the first one on lock.

Edmund Rice VS Marcellin tipped off half an hour before our game with St Francis Xavier and Edmund Rice were down by 18 at the half

*****... we were all thinking... We need to get a good win against St Francis to even be close to making it through..
Cutting a long story short. We're down by 8 with just over 3 minutes left to play. I've missed the last half since the 11 minute mark because i'd pulled my calf muscle.
I'm frantically stretching it out to get back in the game and finally i do. First thing that happens is the main player from the other team knocks down a 3 right over my outstreched arms as i closed out on him - 11 point deficit and he's loving it screaming in my face all the way up the court.
We turn the ball over but by this stage i was so pumped up from that guy i wasn't letting this game get out of hand - so we get the rebound and set our offense.
I let fly from the left corner and nail the 3 so it's back to 8. Steal. Next possession i'm in the same corner and shoot it. Bang it's a 5 point game. They miss we get the ball next possesssion in the exact same spot release it and boom it's a 2 point game - 3 triples back to back to back all from the same spot. Just over a minute left in this game they score again to make it a 4 point game and next possession yep i'm in the corner and pull the trigger - it's off - but i've followed it and tipped it back in. Back to 2. Time Out is called with 27 seconds left and they inbound the ball but i've knocked it so they regather in their backcourt so they need to reset their offense and as they go for the screen i've picked him and started chasing after the ball - passing it to our Centre (who was 6'9) for the throw down and tied the game.

We're in OT - and Edmund Rice had come back massively in the second half and beating Marcellin by 7. That was the lift we needed and we went on to win by 2.
11 points in row; the crucial steal and assist. And 6 free throws in OT as they kept on fouling..

We got slaughtered by Edmund Rice so we'll leave that.

Fast forward a year and we're in year 12 and it's our regional grand final against our main rival in our area.
We'd won the past 4 grand finals - 3 against them - and was hoping to make it another.

It had been a tough game for me personally as the guy i was marking was on absolute fire - he had 28 points.
With 6 minutes left in the game they started to push away and it was now a 6 point game (the lead was going back and forth up until this point)
Their crowd was going crazy smelling a victory over us for once. I had a jumper blocked from behind which only made their crowd even worse.

It was nearly defeaning - yet one of them wanted to yell out and scream at me to get the ***** off the court because i wasn't good enough to play with their team.
"ok champ"
fast forward to 2 minutes and 13 seconds left in the game. I knock down a 2 a step in from the 3 line on the right hand side of the court (their crowd was on the left) and cut the game to 7.
Next possession our C made 2 free throws so it's a 5 point game and we grab their rebound race it up court and the ball finds me on the right hand side again and i fake it and take a couple of steps and bank another jumper.
They knock down a 3 so it's a 6 point deficit.
Infront of their bench and crowd i launch a 3 and it bounces in - 3 point game with 50 seconds left. Another time out.
They're fouled and hit 1 free throw. Next possession with 38 seconds left i sprint the ball up the court pull up 3 right infront of their bench - bang. it's good and it's only a 1 point game.
They're walking the ball up the court to run the clock down and they've isolated myself and the closest guy near me so it was 2 on our side and the remaining 3 on the other side. They've gone to post up the other guy and as he's turned to spin i've stripped the ball and taken off and a couple of steps in from the 3 line pull up for a jumper and - it's good. We win. Well we're up by 1 with 3 seconds left still.. They ended up missing.. I ran back up the court with my fist in my mouth teasing their fans - as i hit it right infront of them again.

That's 2 big games and 2 times i've stepped up offensively when my team needed me.

I only ever played reps in U12's and left it until U18's. There was no point in playing reps because the main PG in the area i'm from is the starting PG for the state team - he's a hell of a player.

At the end of year 12 we went to Nationals - the first time our school had ever been invited. We were in Div 2 and we were expecting to go rather alright we were full of confidence.
It did cost over $800 to get there too.
2 minutes into the first game i've gone up for a block - the guy faked it and cut out my legs as i've gone over the top of him - smacked head first into the concrete wall and went straight to hospital. Turns out i'd burst all the blood vessels in my hand somehow..
And our team lost every single game at Nationals - the closest one was a 16 point loss.

The team we also beat in the grand final we lost to by 38. Now that was ridiculous. I couldn't believe that.
I had a few games where i took over offensively - but for the rest i knew myself that i made the team run. What i didn't know was just how good i made the other guy i hate look. He played atrociously. And how badly he was bragging before the tournament began - was embarrassing.

What's worse was that he said to another team mate now we'll just see how good he is without me. Well - we did see but it wasn't the result he wanted.

The local rep team has asked me the past 2 seasons to join them (after the season has started - even though i didn't try out).. but i've turned them down.

I don't know what the point of this was.. Just wanted to get it off my chest because it's been bugging me - knowing i was not too bad of a player and thinking i could've maybe done something with basketball here, but just didn't get around to doing it.

 

sorry guys it is a bit long - i completely forgot to say that at the start.
That's why i didn't add a couple of more stories in there.

sorry guys.

 

Didn't really want people to feel 'sorry' for me so i didn't bother typing everything - i'm quite sure most people wouldn't care to hear it anyway.

But it isn't just work... That's given me a smokescreen to believe that's the reason why i don't play.

The fact of the matter is i am still marginally better than your average player - but get run out of the gym by guys i used to ball with...
I have arthritis in my right wrist.

I am on the verge of having arthritis in both knees.
I get around fine it's barely there most of the time. Except when i'm on that court - all the pain just comes to fruition.


... So that's why it's depressing.

 

I was in New South Wales throughout school.

I have since moved to Queensland.


I had been doing hydrotherapy among other things for my wrist and knees and it did benefit my wrist greatly. However my knees didn't respond as hoped. I can shoot around which is fine and jog. But long gone are the days i'd compete in competitions and finals.

Now i can't even back up the trash talk i used to come up with which is the worst ha.