This Friday night consisted of everything which would be perfect for a basketball game. The weather was cold, and the hot gym provided warmth. People from all over Louisiana came to watch the biggest rivalry between Jefferson Parish playgrounds, Johnny Bright Playground versus Girard Playground. I played on Johnny Bright’s team as a starting power forward and center. We initially played well up until the fourth quarter, lost our momentum in the 4th quarter, and made crucial mistakes at the end of the game that resulted in one of the most disappointing games of my life. My team went undefeated the whole season, which included a win over Girard in the regular season. We were the heavy favorites to win the game by 10 points. We initially were in control of the game. Everyone saw how good we looked compared to them, and we initially proved it.We outscored Girard by 10 points in the first quarter, and we played collectively as a team. We played extremely well defense and shot the ball 50% from all areas of the court. We lost some momentum in the second quarter, and we were only leading by 3 points at halftime. We allowed Girard to make three 3 pointers in the second quarter, and it minimized our lead over them. However, we still had a greater score than them. At halftime, our coach gave us a motivation speech that this was our last game ever as 10 year olds and play our best ever. It motivated us to perform better, and do whatever we can to win. Motivated by our coach’s
I walked onto the court for warmups and the routine shots and drills performed seemed pointless. Our opponents did not have a single player that was closer than 3 inches to my height so I expected to have a successful game. We all believed that we would win the game, and most probably expected to dominate. We were hit by a rude awakening as our opponents torched the nets shooting the ball, and we uncharacteristically made mistake after mistake. By then end of the quarter, the scoreboard read 23 to 9 and we were not the happy leaders. Our coaches told us, “Stay positive, and play hard. We will be ok in this game if we play
I walked into school to be greeted by a janitor vacuuming the floors. It was time to start thinking about the game and getting my focus level up. My pregame ritual wasn’t always the same beside for one thing, be the first to the locker room to have time to think to myself. Walking into the light blue and worn-down locker room it was almost like I could feel the emotion from all the players who had been there before myself. I was greeted by a wave of smell, the smell of victory, defeat, and pure hard work. It was quite musty but I was used to it and had grown accustomed to it. I sat myself down and began to think about how I would perform tonight and what I had to do in order to be victorious. I pictured myself going out onto the court and seeing all the fans packed into our old wooden bleachers. All I wanted to do was make them proud of the team they came to watch. I looked out the window to see the vehicles of my fellow teammates driving into our dirt parking lot. Soon, the locker room would no longer be quite and it would be filled with the shrieks, laughs, and giggles of my
Coach Steve Rocker is one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in Kentucky’s history. Coach Rocker was very successful in previous years. Strangely, this year was very different for him. For the first time in his professional life, he is falling short of his expectations, the community expectations, and the team’s expectations. His team lost a lot of games, but most importantly the boys had no motivation or desire to bring the team out of the rut they found themselves. His players have lost their will to win, their love for their teammates, and their passion to play. Coach Rocker’s motivational methods that have always worked before and resulted in success are now failing, and he doesn’t know why. He argues that his players have become selfish and bored with winning because they have been so successful in previous years. “And there’s no question that my guys have lost their drive to win because they’ve won so much in the past. Now all they want is individual ‘wins’…which just doesn’t cut it on a team” (Gongwer, 2010, p. 17).
My name shawn and I live in NewYork. I play basketball for my school. I get straight a's and B' I do good in school I pass all my test and I do all my work. But my mom said we will move out from NewYork
Basketball was my favorite sport growing up. I’ve played since I was little and I still play the game today. I played basketball at my elementary school, St. Cecilia, from Kindergarten till 8th Grade and also played AAU basketball for about 2 years before entering High School. Going into my freshmen year of High School, the first sport I played was basketball. Tryouts began in about the start of November and ended about 2 weeks after. I had made the Freshmen A team. I was excited and as the season progressed, we didn’t win many games but I still had fun playing. Nearing the end of the season, golf was another sport coming up that I also wanted to try and play. I say “try and play” because at the time, I was also going to play AAU basketball. I had set in my mind that I was going to play basketball for all of my four years of high school, but my parents pushed me to tryout for golf. When the basketball season ended, golf tryouts started. Tryouts lasted for about 2 weeks, and I made the JV team. When I found out I made the team, I was very surprised. I hadn’t put in the hard work as others before tryouts came around, but the coach saw potential in me and that I can become a great player. The coach saw so much potential in me, that every week, I kept progressing in skill and fine tuning my mechanics. Halfway through the season, about 4 or 5 weeks after I made the team, my coach gave me the chance to play with the Varsity Golf team for a couple days. I was excited and eager to
My team was playing in Denver at the Mountain Madness tournament, our last tournament of the year. It was the second day of the tournament and after suffering a loss earlier that morning, we really needed to play well if we wanted any chance at playing in the championship game the next day. I played for a
Basketball season has finally begun in my little town, which is a big deal for us. We started the season out hot with a winning streak of 11-0 for the junior high girls. We’ve dominated almost every team by 20 points or more, but the next game coming up was a big one. We played Norfork, a school that had also not lost a game. Norfork was smaller than us,
The game of basketball was invented by a gym teacher Dr. James Naismith in December 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Walking out onto the opponent’s brightly lit turf field setting up for the kickoff of the second half just gave me the feeling that everybody knows, my hair starts to stand up, butterflies began to flutter in my stomach, and everything seems to slow down. Looking into the stands and seeing that our hometown fans had traveled four hours in order to outdo the home crowd gave me a sense of comfort. Looking into East Jefferson’s stands and seeing that our fans, despite having to travel all the way down south, outnumbered their fans by at least 70 people. I found myself thinking that this meant just as much to our town as it did to our school and team. This feeling would be just the motivation we needed in order to finish this game
It is the first round of the Basketball State playoffs, and with eight seconds left, the talented Northwest team is down by three. The star point guard speed dribbles up the court, the tension on and off the court is immense, the pressure is even greater. Everyone during and prior to this game, had witnessed a season full of promise, and the consensus conclusion for most recognized this team as the best team to have ever come out Northwest High School. This was our best and likely only chance for success. So as the point guard puts the ball up, time nearly stops, it has a chance, but in like in life, the game of basketball is unforgiving, he misses. As most made their pre-conceived predictions of the future, or lack thereof, a young sophomore and his Junior Varsity teammates, we were inspired by our elders walking off the court, and the doubters going home. Bonded together, and we believed we were destine for something historical, and mythological outside our small circle. Thus two years later the 2016 Northwest Varsity Basketball team, the discourse community, where I developed relationships with the people I still call my brothers. A community which has shaped my work ethic, and has given me the knowledge of the amount of effort and work it takes to be successful. All of which was in efforts for a goal not even pronounced among our teammates, to us the future was still a mystery, only realized to us a one
Our 8th grade basketball team were putting on a show! Opponents would enter bobcat territory where our team would play a hard fight to take another win. Every game spectators are left in astonishment after witnessing determination, willingness, and our spirit until the clock expires down to its last second.
FIBA or FIBA World, from its French name Fédération Internationale de Basket-ball, is an association of national organizations which governs international competition in basketball. Originally known as the Fédération Internationale de Basket-ball Amateur (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word Amateur from its official name but retained the initialism; the "BA" now represents the first two letters of basketball.
We had gone 3-20 the season before and had not beaten our rival Troy Christian in basketball in seven years before this game. Earlier that season we had lost to Troy Christian by eight points after leading by eight at halftime. Our team was disappointed, but also hungry for revenge. It seemed like eternity waiting for our rematch. The week before the game we began practicing a defensive scheme to stop Troy Christian's six-foot-eight center, James Anderson. He had led the conference in scoring and rebounding all season. He scored eighteen points and grabbed eighteen rebounds in our first meeting and we were determined not to allow that to happen again. Finally, the day came. The day that would change our program. We were ready to put an end
I find the story you have written to be very informative. The way you have addressed the problem about why basketball takes too much time is very informative and has helped me understand a little bit more about a sport I do not know a lot about. I also enjoy how you went into detail about the sport in order to show people the many perks of joining an organized sport. This detail about the perks of basketball along with the negative aspects really show what it is like to play the sport along with the downsides that come with it like less studying time, loss of education, and things like injuries. I was also moved about how even though you had to go through hardships you still found joy in playing the sport you love. Your writing is superb and
Central Idea: The game of basketball has greatly changed since it was invented, but one thing remains constant: You need to know how to shoot a basketball.