Street Ball Legend

Last two quarters adrenaline filled. Down by five points, everyone is at the top of their games. I scan the court, make eye contact with a teammate. He launches the ball at me, I suddenly catch it in my shaking hands and I knew destiny was in my hands. I swiftly stepped back to the three point line, and eyed the taunting hoop. I bring the sweaty ball down to my stomach and hear a faint noise. As I hold the lifeline of the game in my hands, I grip it tight and lunge it with all my might and skill towards the net. The ball seems to spin endlessly in the air as my heart wants to beat out of my chest. Swish! The ball smoothly glides into the hoop. Joy and relief flood over me as I have put my team in better position to defeat the lakers. The referee sees the confused look I have on my face when I noticed the score did not change. He coldly responds,”I called three seconds.” Which

The clock is ticking, precious seconds wisp away never to be seen again, and the fate of men is to be decided by a 19 year old point guard. It’s Duke and North Carolina, the most important game both teams play every year. The stadium is packed, and everyone is on the edge of their seats, waiting for the longest five seconds of their lives to be over. The clock ticks down to one second, and in that moment it appears to be all over, it happens. Austin Rivers lets the ball fly, shooting over 7- footer Tyler Zeller. Silence falls over the stadium as every pair of eyes follows the ball on its path toward the basket. Suddenly, reality reclaims this part of the globe. Duke is victorious, shocking everyone in attendance but one. This one, who believed

The sun had started going down and the blazing heat that accompanied July with it as the stars and crickets started slowly making appearances. The day was coming to an end and I was sleepier than ever due to the intense heat that seemed to drain every

My family was born to play basketball, both of my brothers had the size and athleticism to play professionally, and my dad towered over others standing at 6’6”. At a young age I was expected to follow in their footsteps. However, I did not have the size that the rest of my family did, and struggled to compete due to my small stature. In the seventh grade I tried out for my middle school basketball team and was promptly told I wasn’t good enough to play. I came home crying feeling that I disappointed my family. The next year, during the eighth grade try-outs, the coach said the same thing and broke my heart for the second year in a row. Dissatisfied with these results, I promised that I would make a change before entering high school.

Then the third quarter began. Rosehill’s center, a very tall center with a head of fiery locks. About three minutes into the quarter, he went to go block a shot. While in the air, his teammate flew by and fouled the opposing player. When the ginger landed, he heard a subtle “pop”, coming from the floor.

A bunch of people showed up to watch the game. The game started on of their friends was the ref. Quan got the ball first and he made a three.Heffay got the ball and dunked the ball the score was 3 to 2.Quan as in the lead.He hit a nice two it was 5 to 2 then heffay hit a three.The score kep bouncing back and forth.

The game was on the line, down 96 to 98. Kevin shot 3 feet behind the 3-point line, with 3.9 seconds left. Not even acknowledging the fact that Gage was open for the cut to the basket and dunk the state title to victory. But as the ball left fingers the crowd all moaned “AWE” even they knew that the ball was nowhere near the hoop. But Kevin didn’t care, because he knew that he had been fouled. Right when the spinning ball reached its peak, the referees blew their whistles signaling a shooting foul. Tommy and Gage both looked towards the bench from the court at the junior varsity players and among them was Henry, at this time he was a measly 5’10” - 160 lbs. Henry sat back down as the players lined up for Kevin’s three free throw shots.

David Epstein claims that “tall people are much more likely to make it to NBA” (Levenson 1). People’s genes that their parents give them and the characteristics after they grow up have already decided whether they can be success in some area. These are the things that cannot be change by practicing. Ericsson also argue that people’s characteristics have limitation on their way to success, “height and body size can constrain expert performance in areas like athletics” (Szalavitz

Question-You are playing in the finals of a local basketball tournament. The score is tied, 50-50, with one minute left in the game. You drive for a basket. SMACK! An opposing player fouls you hard. The referee misses the call. What should you do?(Cosgrove)

This story starts out in a small town in Missouri, where these little kids; Landyn Ward, Angel Kaipat, T.J. Barker, Nathan Barker, and Ben Watkins. Everyday these boys would always go to there church and shoot some hoops in the gym. Landyn was this 7’0 skinny kid and was an outstanding stealer, Angel was this 6’5 kid and his 3 point range is ridiculous and can shoot those 2’s from anywhere. T.J. is this 6’8 and a total tank, his dunking ability is insane! Ben Watkins is 6’4 and his ability to hit those corner shots are incredible! Nathan is 6’1 and he was basically the leader of all these boys, but he can shoot those 3’s and is hot from anywhere from the court.

One day I was playing with the basketball and I spun it on my finger. It didn’t spin for long, but I

This day, it was a day I thought would be of little significance, just another day, 24hrs, a single rotation amongst thousands that have passed awaiting thousands to come, but that was not the case, not this day. The date is August 25th 2016, I’m driving around the small Lake of El Reno. The sky is burning orange. The clouds are huge and getting bigger. I look at my clock it’s 8:36 P.M. The sun is setting the sky afire. At the same time summer rain lightly falls. It’s a rain that you can smell, a familiar smell that brings a smile. Some people like to watch rainfall, but most enjoy a good sunset. “BAHH BAHH mine me ma” I turn around and see little to no hair, light brown eyes, as she sips on her sippy. I’m looking at her as she smiles, so clueless,

Today I was finally granted a day off from work. The first place I knew I would head, after sleeping in, would be to the coffee house down on 1st Avenue. The leaves were just starting to fall outside. Soon winter would be here.

“This is my moment, I’m going to kill this ball.” I said to myself while staring onward as the other team tipped the ball to our side of the court. There was one more point for us to win the set and I wanted nothing more for our team to win against our opponent. The audience was on edge, many of them were on their feet. This was the biggest audience we ever had in a volleyball game, particularly because it was the first. “Four, Four!” I yelled to my setter on the outside left and she quickly nodded her head as she was about to set the ball to me. As I started my approach, I raised my left arm and my right arm was bent at an angle besides my ear. I waited for the ball to be at a perfect height and with my right palm spread wide, I hit the ball as hard as I could muster. The ball went straight down to the other team’s side but it went out of bounds, meaning it was outside the playing area. As I came down, my right leg twisted inwards causing my body to shift its weight towards my left leg. I landed only on my left leg causing me to lose my balance and I felt myself falling, and because of the tremendous force, I heard a loud popping sound coming from my left knee. The pain was immediate and I clutched my left leg and while during so, I heard gasps amongst the audience and it quickly fell silent.

August 10th 2011, a sunny Saturday. The sun rises just as we wrote in our compositions at the crack of dawn and I'm so excited about the day. Its the one day I'm always excited about,my birthday and you know me there's always a celebration on my birthday. However this one is a different kind of celebration; mom had told