Disasters and Hoops

“Get your ass out son, you’re done! You’re done!” Coach hollered with a huge frown on his face.

I sat on the bench in disbelief. “Why would Coach do this to me… to us,” I thought to myself.

“Cmon Tyce, we needed you. You just screwed us.”

I felt a cold sweat run down my back.

I thought to myself, “Why me, God, why me?”

“You just passed the ball away, and messed the play up! That’s why you’re out! You know what, you’re out for the rest of the game! Check in Lau,” Coach screamed as he spat into his dip cup.

Coach had just subbed the worst player on the team in for me. I was fuming, and was about to spit on Coach, but I held back my temptations. When the timeout was over, our lead, which was once 15 points, went down to a mere two point lead.

“Put me in Coach, yall need me,” I whispered in a docile intent.

“No we don't. You did this to yourself, son.”

I sat on the bench with my arm crossed as my team got blown to smithereens by a below average team. The other team was getting into my team's head and I saw that the guys had given up. I saw my dad in the stands shake his head, and head out of the gym. I was in such a bad mood that I didn't even cheer when my teammates scored.

As the clock went down, the other team's lead grew faster than a guy on steroids.

“BBBRRRRRZZZZZTTTTT,” the horn sounded and the game was over.

The guys walked off the court with their heads down and went to shake the other team's hands. At that moment I felt like quitting, but I decided to stay with it. When we got into the team huddle, everyone was in a bad mood, and a lot of people were blaming each other for the loss, but in my mind, I knew I was at fault.

The day after the loss, we had practice. Everyone came prepared to run, but we didn't run. Coach just had a long talk with us about how everyone was to blame for the loss, and that we were not disciplined enough to be a good team. The below average players on the team were hurt from his words, but the best players took that as motivation to do better on the next game.

Coach pulled me to the side, “We needed you kid, but I had to take you out for your own sake.”

Now looking back, I see that Coach was just trying to teach me a lesson and always wanted the best for me and for the team. I took this game as motivation, and dropped 20 the next game with a pure dub. The team played better in general and everyone went out to win.