Every Thursday, I go and play basketball with some of my friends. I've been going to the same place, every Thursday at 8:30 for about 13 years now. Yeah, occasionally I'll skip a Thursday, and when I was married and back in Nogales I didn't go, but basically it's the same routine. The people I play with have been consistent as well, although from the time I started to now there's only about 4 or 5 of us left. The rest of the guys haven't been going that long. Overall, there's a group of about 20 or 25 of us who play. We don't all go every Thursday, usually it's about 12 or 13 of us who are the most consistent, but all in all that seems about right. Maybe even a few more, actually.
Anywho, every year we have a tournament. We make 5 teams (different each tourney), and all play each other twice. After this, the top 4 teams advance to the semifinals and the winners of that play for the championship. At the end of that game, we celebrate with some beer, and have a nice party.
Last night each team was going to play twice because we had missed a few Thursdays (rain, refs didn't show up, etc.) Coming into last night, the standings were:
- Reds (my team): 5-1
- Blues: 5-1
- Yellows: 4-3
- Whites: 2-4
- Blacks: 0-7
As you can see, we are very creative with team names.
First game last night, we played the White team and lost badly, dropping us to 5-2, and probably out of the first place race. However, in a shock, the Yellow team beat the Blue team, dropping them to 5-2 as well, and finishing up the round robin themselves with a 5-3 record. In an even bigger shock, the hapless Black team beat the White team in the next game, finally winning one, but still finishing at the bottom of the standings and eliminated from the semifinals. After all of that then, the standings were as follows:
- Reds: 5-2
- Blues: 5-2
- Yellows: 5-3
- Whites: 3-5
- Blacks: 1-7
Last game of the evening, and of the round robin, was to be for first place. It was the Red team vs. the Blue team. Seeding was also going to be an issue, as we use a classic 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 semifinals pairing. Yellows and Whites were set, so it only mattered to us and the Blue team. In the round robin round, we had beaten the Yellow team twice, and had gone 1-1 vs. the White team, whereas both the Blue team's losses had come vs. the Yellows. So game on... we win, we play against the Whites, we lose, we play against the Yellows for a spot in the championship game.
Game starts, and the Blue team is all over us. At one point, the score is about 19-2 in their favor. It was awful. I couldn't run because I had sprained my ankle, another one of my guys was basically useless, and they were on fire. Everything they were throwing up was going in. But sure enough, they start to cool off, things start to go a little our way, and at the end of the 3rd quarter we're only down 6 points.
So now it's a game! With about 1 minute left, we're down by two points, and one of my guys gets a great steal and drives for an open layup, tying it up. The Blue team brings it up court, and their point guard fucks up, I end up with the ball, pass it to a streaking teammate (same guy who scored the last shot), and he's intentionally fouled as he's running for an open layup, which means he gets 2 free throws, and we get the ball. There's 12 seconds left.
He misses the first free throw. Still tied.
He makes the second one. We have our first lead of the game. I remind you, there's 12 seconds left.
All we have to do right now is inbound the ball, and they'll be forced to foul, we could eat some clock, make a couple of free throws, and we got it in the bag. First place, and playing the Whites in the semifinal round. So what happens? My guy fucks up the inbound pass, it gets stolen, and their guy waltzes in for an uncontested layup, giving them a 1 point lead, with 6 seconds left. We call time out, and "design" a play, which is basically, give it to our best guy and have him create a shot. Of course, they're expecting it, so they blanket him, and we give it to one of the other guys, he throws up a shot, I see it's not going to make it to the rim, I crash the boards, get the rebound, pump fake, go up for the shot, and I'm fouled across the back. Two free throws, 1 second left on the clock. If I make them both, we win. If I make one, we go to overtime.
If I make them both, we win.
If I make one, we go to overtime.
If I make 2 free throws, we win the game.
If I make 1 free throw, we tie and go to overtime.
That's the first conditional... I think.
I'm confident. Even though I haven't played a great game because of my sprained ankle (which turned out to be worse than I thought, I woke up today and it was pretty bad), I've picked it up in the second half, making some tough shots, grabbing some rebounds, and overall contributing to our comeback. I would say I'm around a 70% free throw shooter, so I'm confident I'll make at least one. People watching are catcalling, giving me shit, laughing it up (they're pretty drunk)... the other team is trying to psych me out, my teammates are encouraging me, all that good stuff.
First one goes up, rattles around, touches every single part of the rim, tickles my balls with a feather, and the fucking ball doesn't go in. When I say it touches every single part of the rim, I mean it. It's not one of those that spin around and then bounce out. I shot it softly, intending to drop it in, it bounced a bit on the front, took a right hand turn, and very, very slowly spun, hung on the lip of the rim for what seemed to be an eternity, and didn't go in.
Fuck.
I was crushed. I really was. People were laughing, my guys were clapping me on the back, and I still had one more to go. Remember, if I make this, we go into overtime, and I felt good about our chances. After all, we had come back from a huge hole all the way to this moment. But I knew I was done. I knew I would never make the second free throw. The reason I was sure I wasn't going to make it is because I saw that first free throw as like a snapshot of my life.
I take my shot, and I miss. I get close, and the ball doesn't fucking go in. Every fucking time. It really shouldn't surprise me anymore, but I get irrationally confident that it has to go in once. And that's all I need. I just need it to go in one. fucking. time. But it never does. Sometimes the failure is spectacular and I go down in flames, sometimes I get oh so fucking close before the rug is pulled out from under me.
Just like that fucking free throw.
That's it.
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