I have a tendency to go on about basketball. I know this, and yet I cannot stop, even if the listener's eyes have glazed and his breathing has slowed, his pulse barely detectable. I can't stop. So if you'd rather read about soccer or hockey or cricket, no harm, no foul, off you go now. The rest of us want to re-live the glories of the weekend.
I am, sadly, a terrible coach. What I lack in technical expertise, I try to make up for with enthusiasm. This never works. But my house league team this year comprises a terrific bunch of girls. How do I know this, when I see them only once a week?
Well, we lose. A lot.
But we lose with style, with grace, with grit. We (okay, they) walk off the court with burned, skinned arms and legs, heads held high. And no matter how bad the coach was, nobody has ever slugged her. Not once.
Last weekend, we posted our second win of the season.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was something to see. We had only seven players but they played with the spirit of ten - double and triple-shifting without complaint, running as if they had the wind at their backs, never quitting. They did everything we'd talked about, everything we'd practised. All in the same game! They set screens (and they used them too) they passed, they rebounded. Oh, how they rebounded, grabbing more offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds in that one game than we have all season. (I swear.) They played tight defence and on offence, they moved the ball so well, it was... it was like watching a jazz ensemble catch fire in a jam session.
I won't tell you the final score, because you'd just get cranky at me for running it up. I guess I should have told them to slow it down, to shoot less... maybe that would have been the gracious thing. But they'd never played a game like that, not ever, and I didn't want them to lose a moment of it. I wanted them to know what it felt like to win, and win big. And I wanted them to keep playing the way they were, because it was so beautiful to see.
And then, the next day, the Raptors played the Trail Blazers, and the spectacular Brandon Roy, (#six pick in the 2006 draft) nearly ran away with a win. But Chris Bosh found crushing reserves of strength and skill in double overtime, playing such deeply intelligent basketball, that Toronto just had to win. (Of course Jose Calderon helped.) Sure, there were defensive lapses, by Calderon and, most spectacularly, by Jamario Moon. But Anthony Parker played a truly incredible game, with a season-high in points, and inspired defence.
Two days, two teams, two wins. Wouldn't it be great if you could capture this feeling, like music on a disc, to replay whenever you needed a lift?
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Games like those — and I mean both of them equally — is like poetry in motion. Sam has taken to playing three games a week plus practices and I'm falling in love with the game all over again. He's got a mentor for his project on sports broadcasting who does color for the UCSB women's basketball team, so he goes to their games every couple of weeks as well. SB has an semi-pro team that starts in April, so it will be basketball madness, here too, for a while. Sending ya lots of love.
Julie & Sam
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