Hoops

Too cool for school. 1989 middle school basketball team. That’s me proudly standing in the uniform.

Too cool for school. 1989 middle school basketball team. That’s me proudly standing in the uniform.

There was a time when I was a pretty solid recreational basketball player. I’d be the guy that could knock down a couple threes a game, slash to the basket if there was an opening, get a few rebounds,  and be just enough of a nuisance that the other team had to use a good defender against me. 

Being a teenager in the 80s, basketball was a big deal because of Michael Jordan. Everybody knew who he was, even though he wouldn’t win an NBA Championship for another 5 years. The shoes, the commercials, the attitude. We all wanted to be him. So we all played basketball. I played in the dirt in my backyard until we put a hoop in my driveway. I played a school a bit, but mostly with the neighborhood kids. 

In college I took basketball as a GIPPE (gym) class a couple times and learned more of the nuances of the game. I’d play with friends at the park, with relatives in driveways and always enjoyed it. I’d play a few times a year, and always had a ball ready to go.

When I got to seminary in 1998, I started playing twice a week with the college coaches and occasionally a player or two. This was my real basketball education. Everyone was good, and I realized that I knew very little about the game. But there is nothing like repetition to hone a skill and after a few weeks I no longer felt out of place. My shots got smoother, my decisions crisper and it all started flowing for me on the court. I feel incredibly lucky that I got to learn from D1 coaches and players and not completely embarrass myself in front of them. 

Then I moved to Greensboro and found a basketball home at the Y. I’d play the early afternoon game and it didn’t take long before I established myself as a solid player that people actually wanted on their team. It was a fun group of older retired guys, some former college players and a smattering of rec players like me. I had a lot of fun out there for a few months, until one day something catastrophic happened.

The average shooting percentage for an NBA player in 2020-21 was 46.6%. That means the average player misses slightly more than half their shots. The best players hit just over 60% of their shots. 

As a rec player, I’m guessing my percentage was probably somewhere in the 30s depending on how good a day I was having. Some days you could hit most of your shots, but for the most part hitting three baskets out of ten tries is pretty good.

I don’t remember the first two or three shots I took in that game. Probably mid-range jumpers to get into a rhythm. I also don’t remember missing them either. The first shot I remember missing was an uncontested layup. I was pretty good at timing my drives and on this shot my defender turned his head at the wrong moment and I left him in the dust. No other defender reacted, so I had an easy basket.

Back then, even at 5’10” I could jump and touch the rim. So my layups did not have travel very far to go through the basket.  But this one missed.

A little later I had an open jumper, and bricked it. That’s when I started noticing the other players trying not to make eye contact with me. Even worse, the other team stopped guarding me and my team was forced to pass me the ball. And I missed and missed. The final straw was a turnover that led to me streaking all alone down the court for a completely uncontested layup and missing it. 

No one said anything to me. No one made eye contact. It was like I was contagious and no one wanted to catch what I had. And what I had was “the yips”. 

From wikipedia: “In sports, the yips are a sudden and unexplained loss of ability to execute certain skills in experienced athletes. Symptoms of the yips are losing fine motor skills and psychological issues that impact on the muscle memory and decision-making of athletes, leaving them unable to perform basic skills of their sport.” 

I pretty much stopped playing basketball after that. I was focusing more on ultimate anyway, but I was mostly not mentally prepared to deal with what had happened. Probably not the healthiest response to the yips, but that’s how I handled it. It may be worth examining in more detail in a future blog, I’ll have to see.

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