In second grade I met one of my best friends and my favorite person to play basketball with, no matter what Jake was always down to ball. We moved on through the years into middle school and played for our eighth grade team at Centennial Middle School. Toward the end of the school year the realization of high school was upon us as was the somewhat daunting idea of high school basketball. Until then, the game had never been too serious and we always had fun with it, always. My freshman team consisted of most of the kids I had been playing with for the past several years, as well as a few new faces. I'm not going to lie, we were awful. Our final record was 3-9, two of which we won legitimately. The third was awarded to us because one of our opponents players was ineligible when we played them so they were forced to forfeit. I can't deny that that was one of the most fun seasons of basketball I had ever played. Sophomore year we improved to .500, thanks to a better coach.
Now came JV basketball, and little more seriousness. Out went seven of my teammates and best friends. They quit for different reasons, some wanted to snowboard and some just didn't like the new head coach, so we had to pull kids up from lower teams. Jake and I were the only juniors left on the team, but at least I had him there. Oh wait, before the season started he broke his back doing a backflip on a trampoline. He miraculously returned halfway through the season but it was rough for him. We weren't having as much fun as the previous years due to the loss of many good players and friends. Jake and I spoke a lot and finally decided we would both quit about three quarters of the way through the season. It was the biggest decision either of us had made and like many other things we did it together. Instead of playing for a hardass coach we played pickup on the playgrounds and at the gym. I've never had so much fun. I think quitting basketball, as much as I hate to be a quitter, gave me a different perspective on the game. I learned to have fun with it rather than being so competitive all the time. It's still my life as you can see on my shoulder, I just enjoy it for the way it isolates me in a carefree world of jumpshots and layups, dropsteps and sidesteps.
I enjoyed reflecting on my life and basketball. Sometimes I regret quitting, but I'm reminded of the fun I have the next time I pick up a ball. Nothing in this memoir was fictionalized, I just had to adapt the story a little because I couldn't remember exact dates/ages/statistics. I didn't encounter too many problems when thinking of what to write about, basketball's easy for me. I tried not to use too much basketball lingo, but an example is when I said we go to ball, it just means playing basketball.
