You may be asking yourselves which school of life am I talking about. Hang on, you will soon find out.
I like talking with my friend and mentor Andrae. We share many things in common, one being our passion for Basketball. You may be thinking: "Here we go again with another Basketball story...". Well, I am the one writing this blog, so I am in charge lol.
One day I was talking to Andrae when he made a statement that has remained with me ever since. He said that Basketball is the best sport that teaches about life (sorry hockey fans..). I couldn’t agree more. My fellow NBA fans would remember last year’s play - offs when Lebron James made a shot with less than a second left in the game, leading his team to victory (they did not win the series against Superman but that was a heck of a game).
How many times in our lives have we found a solution to our problem at the last second, when everything seemed to be inevitably leading to disaster? (I can see you nodding…). That's when we became Lebron James (maybe less athletic, but still…). How about working hard at our game preparing for the big event? Basketball is one of the most physical games (unless you are always on the bench, like someone I know who has since discovered his passion for blogging. Know who I'm talking about?). You see? There are parallels everywhere.
My journey to that discovery dates back to when I coached Basketball. The year was 1999; we were still working hard, but still no championship. Four years had passed, some of our players had left, and new ones replaced them, but still no ring on our fingers (if you know what I mean). Nevertheless, we made sure that we had fun along the way (boy did we have fun!!).
Unannounced, something happened (I can't explain), but we all felt it. We knew that the time had come. The time to be champions - and this time we were ready!. One of the players even went as far as announcing on TV that we would become the champions that year. I think she broke all the bridges behind us. We had to perform if we didn’t want to look ridiculous.
Fast forward. Last game of the season! There was a tie between the two teams at the top; us and another team. They had beaten us before and were expected to be the champions. The last game was just a formality. We were facing a weaker team, so we were just cruising hoping to win the championship the following season.
Little did we know that there was something we did not know (or maybe forgot). The team that was supposed to be the champions was playing their last game on another court downtown, and they were also facing a weaker team. They were supposed to be cruising. Guess what? They didn’t. They lost the game.
Here we were, playing for the fun of it, thinking that our season was over. To our great surprise and drawing closer to us we heard people shouting, cars honking.. All the commotion was coming from people who were at the other court downtown. They came with the good news. I couldn’t believe it. We were the new champions...just like my player declared on television before the start of the season. What a relief. That was one of the best moments of my life. We went on to win three consecutive championships.
So why did I tell you all of that? (Maybe to show you how great a coach I was lol). Think about this: We thought we lost the season, but there was a game going on at a place we could not see. And the result of that game made us champions!!!
Maybe this could be in the curriculum of the school of life thing. When we face a tough situation, we tend to think that this is all there is. Maybe (just maybe) there is a game going on at a place we can't yet see. And that game may result in us winning ...overcoming, succeeding, and maybe even achieving our long awaited dream... Just a thought!
Moral of the story? Do you want to win in life? Just play Basketball and you will live by faith not by sight.
Always a pleasure
Patrick
The Journeyman.
pbizindavyi6@gmail.com
I like talking with my friend and mentor Andrae. We share many things in common, one being our passion for Basketball. You may be thinking: "Here we go again with another Basketball story...". Well, I am the one writing this blog, so I am in charge lol.
One day I was talking to Andrae when he made a statement that has remained with me ever since. He said that Basketball is the best sport that teaches about life (sorry hockey fans..). I couldn’t agree more. My fellow NBA fans would remember last year’s play - offs when Lebron James made a shot with less than a second left in the game, leading his team to victory (they did not win the series against Superman but that was a heck of a game).
How many times in our lives have we found a solution to our problem at the last second, when everything seemed to be inevitably leading to disaster? (I can see you nodding…). That's when we became Lebron James (maybe less athletic, but still…). How about working hard at our game preparing for the big event? Basketball is one of the most physical games (unless you are always on the bench, like someone I know who has since discovered his passion for blogging. Know who I'm talking about?). You see? There are parallels everywhere.
My journey to that discovery dates back to when I coached Basketball. The year was 1999; we were still working hard, but still no championship. Four years had passed, some of our players had left, and new ones replaced them, but still no ring on our fingers (if you know what I mean). Nevertheless, we made sure that we had fun along the way (boy did we have fun!!).
Unannounced, something happened (I can't explain), but we all felt it. We knew that the time had come. The time to be champions - and this time we were ready!. One of the players even went as far as announcing on TV that we would become the champions that year. I think she broke all the bridges behind us. We had to perform if we didn’t want to look ridiculous.
Fast forward. Last game of the season! There was a tie between the two teams at the top; us and another team. They had beaten us before and were expected to be the champions. The last game was just a formality. We were facing a weaker team, so we were just cruising hoping to win the championship the following season.
Little did we know that there was something we did not know (or maybe forgot). The team that was supposed to be the champions was playing their last game on another court downtown, and they were also facing a weaker team. They were supposed to be cruising. Guess what? They didn’t. They lost the game.
Here we were, playing for the fun of it, thinking that our season was over. To our great surprise and drawing closer to us we heard people shouting, cars honking.. All the commotion was coming from people who were at the other court downtown. They came with the good news. I couldn’t believe it. We were the new champions...just like my player declared on television before the start of the season. What a relief. That was one of the best moments of my life. We went on to win three consecutive championships.
So why did I tell you all of that? (Maybe to show you how great a coach I was lol). Think about this: We thought we lost the season, but there was a game going on at a place we could not see. And the result of that game made us champions!!!
Maybe this could be in the curriculum of the school of life thing. When we face a tough situation, we tend to think that this is all there is. Maybe (just maybe) there is a game going on at a place we can't yet see. And that game may result in us winning ...overcoming, succeeding, and maybe even achieving our long awaited dream... Just a thought!
Moral of the story? Do you want to win in life? Just play Basketball and you will live by faith not by sight.
Always a pleasure
Patrick
The Journeyman.
pbizindavyi6@gmail.com
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