That may not be entirely true, but there was definitely a part of me that was happy. The reason is because I see the game differently. Most people see a basketball game in the moment, I see the future.
Chuck Harris is one of my favorite kids and is a pretty good basketball player. He’s been playing at the highest level you can ask of an 8th grader and been very successful at it. This summer he was named the MVP of the PYBL, which is a league full of future D1 College players, where he was the only player in the league to average over 20 points a game.
This past Sunday I saw the Championship game for Chuck in the PYBL Winter League. He hit what we all thought was the game winning shot with 8 seconds remaining… but 8 seconds is a long time and it gave the other team time to go down and score to win. After Chuck scored, a player from the other team drove down the court and was fouled giving him 2 free throws to seal the game. It was an exciting finish and in typical fashion, the fans in the stands let the emotion of the moment take over and they were yelling everything you could imagine from blaming the refs to making excuses for the loss. I refuse to see things that way, even if the refs did make the wrong call. When Chuck scored with 8 seconds remaining on the clock I pretty much knew that sealed the loss for his team, it gave the other team too much time to go back and score. I don’t blame the refs, I BLAME CHUCK!
Chuck lost and I was happy because I saw a great opportunity to teach him something more valuable than a plastic trophy. Like I said earlier, I see things differently than a parent, coach, or fan because Evolution’s players long term success is my first priority. Chuck has many years of basketball ahead of him and using this moment to teach him how to win the game when he’s a senior in High School or College is much more important than an 8th grade league game. I see every failure as an opportunity to improve. I actually hope this loss stings for Chuck and he remembers it in the future. The more it stings the more he will remember he can’t leave that much time left on the clock. Chuck will hit another game winning shot, I can guarantee that…
Here’s the video of the (almost) game winning shot by Chuck. When everyone else jumped up to cheer, I stayed sitting and mumbled a 4 letter word under my breath knowing the probable fate of the next play.
Note… I did check with Chuck’s father prior to posting this. He thought it was great!
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