The Basketball Team: A Short Story

It all began on November 3, 2015 during my first middle school basketball tournament. The grey brick walls of the gymnasium looking more like a prison than a school. The school’s “Lincoln Park Elementary School” sign had graffiti and missed a couple letters from the name. The court was terribly small, but we began by playing the superb team of Jam on It. We were blown out and I headed back up to my mom and dad in the parent filled stands. The game wasn’t even fun to play and we looked like third graders playing them. I looked up to my parents as sad as could be.

He became the perfect basketball weapon, a force who can't be guarded and can be stopped only if he stops himself.We all know about his great shooting and incredible range. But what separates Curry is that he doesn't need off-the-ball movement and picks to create space for a shot. He has an amazing ability to create his own space, and he doesn't even need that much, and he can shoot from anywhere on the court, so the defense can't ease up or sit back, even from deep.The combination of not needing a lot of space and having incredible range creates a huge problem for defenses.Whoever is guarding Curry needs to respect Curry's range and

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

“Sammy, I want you bringing the ball up. Charlie, you come set a screen at the top of the key on Sammy’s defender. If the shot isn’t open, pass it to Charlie”, his coach told

Wilt Chamberlain was a 7’1 gentleman who had a big heart for other things except basketball. He never really had an interest in playing any kind of sports; he’s adopted, so the family he has been with all his life have never really told him that he could be good at anything he does. Wilt never told anyone this until he got in high school but he was always drawing something. Like a flower or a person, the one thing Wilt loved to draw was a Lion. That’s only because the lion is the king of the jungle and everyone knew about the lion but nobody knew about young Wilt Chamberlain.

When he entered Inglewood High School, he was, by all appearances, an average basketball player. His skills were evident, but he lacked

In ninth grade, he was a measly 4-9, and by time he transferred to Lake Forest, he was an underrecruited-for-his-age junior, though he grew to be a stockier 6-2. He decided to attend Rice University, where he set a school freshman record in assists and was named to the Conference USA all-freshman team.

student at one time, and as a student, the reader can feel sympathy for those who almost

"He's obviously the MVP of his conference, the OVC. So he's a really good player."

His field goal percentage is steadily increasing over the past three years that he spent in the league, yet he is not shooting a lot from outside, only having attempted around 1 three pointer each game, and 87% of his field goals attempted are two-pointers, and among those field goals he attempted, 50.2% of them are 0-3 feet away from the basket. It can be seen from his highlights and stats, that he finishes most of his possessions inside the paint or from mid-range. But if he wants to avoid injuries, in order to spend a preferably longer time in the league, and to have a more all-around game, a consistent long-range shooting ability is what he needs the most. In addition to working on his shooting skills, it would also help him join the all-star club much faster if he could learn to create his own shots. Throughout the past three seasons, 50 % of the field goals and 76% of the three pointers that he attempted were assisted by other teammates, so that means he was always on the receiving end of a pass while cutting, running down the court or running to an open spot. What he needs is to able to create shots for himself during an iso play, like Joe Johnson or James Harden. This skill would prove useful in a lot of occasions during crunch times or when his teammates are kept off

“You see him and he just has ‘it,’" Brown said via Jessica Camerato of CSN Philly. "Years ago, you saw it with [Tim] Duncan. I see it with him in regards to a real target offensively and a real sort of centerpiece defensively.”

“Perham’s defense is al-ways outstanding and we did not shoot the ball well, be-cause of their defense,” Flint said. “We needed one, he knocked it down. It was a senior stepping up and hitting a big shot. He does that for us. We call him big shot Sam for a reason.”

Within Hollywood’s movies depiction of drug addiction, many have failed to represent all true aspects that come along with such lifestyles. The movie, The Basketball Diaries, is based off a novel Jim Carroll wrote from his own diary entries. As a teenager growing up in the sixties, Carroll reveals his progression of drug abuse which eventually leads him addicted to heroin.Heroin is a white powder derived from morphine found in opium. It is commonly prescribed as a painkiller, but is also a popular street drug.The director casted Leonardo DiCaprio as Jimmy, and concentrates on creating the character as a stereotypical drug abuser. DiCaprio’s most captivating scene is when he is going through heroin

Tommy was always excited for the first day of practice. For the last three years he has dribbled his way to greatness; three state titles. Tommy was now a senior at Belleview Heights High school his coach had him down as a 6’0” - 165lbs point guard, but he knew only on a good day he was even 5’11”. . But that’s what coaches do they bump up all the players’ heights and even weights on the stats, hoping to psych out the opposing team. Tommy was given the nickname “Dimes” because he averaged his sophomore and junior year 14 assists per game with 10.9 points per game. Averaging a double double was an amazing feat for any point guard in the area But Tommy didn’t care this was his year to really show how well he can pass and cut.

One rainy night in November, I arrived to the church gym for my first basketball practice of the season. As I walked in the doors creaked and you could smell the gym floor. As I already heard the basketballs hitting the ground, bouncing up and down. My friends Brittany and Destiny walked in right behind me through the door. That was when we realized we were the only girls surrounded by all guys. As practice came to a start we began to run, it felt like we were never going to stop. Up and down the court as we ran suicides, you could hear the squeaking of shoes as we went from the next line back and then on to the next. Before we started scrimmaging, the two captains were boys. Brittany, Destiny, and I stood in amazement as we were the last three standing there. You could see by their expressions they didn’t want any of us on either team.