Tiring Week

The past week was a tiring one. But it was fun. I played a total of 3 basketball games on 3 different nights.

I and my friends joined a basketball league to play some competitive games. It's not a big league nor one where you'll see extraordinary players. Mostly the players are of varsity level skills; I'm not one of them. Actually, I'm a very marginal player. We've been playing in this league for the past 2-3 years. I don't get to play a lot, just the mandatory 5-6 minutes that every players should play. It's part of the league rules to ensure that everyone gets to play. And if ever I do play very well in those minutes, I earn maybe another 5 minutes or so in the second half. I also get to play more in times when attendance for our team would limit us to just 8 players or less. Good times. :)

This year, the same league set up another tournament. It's some kind of a "tournament of the weak". Haha! It does sound bad, doesn't it? Well, the tournament doesn't allow the best players of each team to join. In this tournament, I get to play a lot more in our games. :) At least I hope to.

This past week, 2 games were played with the regular tournament, and 1 game was played for the "tournament of the weak".

On Tuesday, we played our 1st game in the "tournament of the weak". We won that one by one point in a double overtime game. I think I played around 30 minutes. I was so tired. But I think I had a great game for us. During the last 30 seconds of regulation, we were down by 6. Our opponent turned the ball over. In transition, I got the ball on top of the key and just launched a 3 point shot. And it went it. Wow! I couldn't believe it! I was not thinking about the shot then. I just knew that we needed to make up a lot of points in just 30 seconds. We needed to make one sooner or later. The defense was not yet set up at that moment, and I felt I had space to take the shot. So I did and, luckily, it went in. After that, we were able to put up a good defense and one of our teammate was also able to make another 3 point shot to tie the game and send it to overtime.

On the first overtime, with just 17 seconds left, we were down by 2 points and I got the ball on the wing. I felt the defender sticking too close to me that time. Maybe, he thought I'd be shooting another 3 point shot. So, I tried to drive the ball to the basket as quick as I can. I got a foul. And I was able to make the 2 crucial free throws. Whew! :) I tied the game and another extra 5 minutes was needed to settle the score.

On the second overtime, I was able to make a 3 point shot and a jump shot. We defended well and luckily came out with a 1 point win. :)

2 nights after that, we played a game again in the regular tournament. I got more playing time than usual because of absences of a lot of our team mates. But I'm so not used to playing a lot. I don't think I played well. We lost that game by 12 points.

This week, I'm thinking of running the treadmill and maybe lifting some weights. I'm inspired by my game in that "tournament of the weak". Hopefully I can improve my game. And contribute more in our games in the regular tournament.

Until next time.... Hope I didn't bore you to death