By: ERNESTO MORALES
Staff Writer
It was the first time I’d ever played a game at night, and I was more nervous than I should have been. It was the first time my team made it to the championship with my dad as coach. At the time in 8th grade basketball was my entire life, all I would wanna do is play basketball, watch it, or train to get better at it. All that hard work led up to me and my team making it to the championship. The game was seconds away from tip-off and we were all huddled up. My dad explained, “This is our last game together, let’s put everything out there boys!” All pumped up and ready to hoop, our starting five got onto the court with the other team.
The ref tosses the ball into the air and I get the tip back to my teammate, he quickly gives it back to me so I drive in for a layup. A player from the other team cuts me off and the ref calls a foul on me! I got up super confused and irritated, I shook it off and got back on defense. The other team came back up the court. They made two passes before straight driving into me when I had my hands straight up and the refs called another foul on me. I had two fouls in a matter of 30 seconds. In the league I was in I couldn’t get subbed out until the quarter was over so I had to stay in. “Get your head in the game!” Yelled my dad from the sidelines. At that point, my blood was boiling. In the next eight minutes of the quarter, I start to get comfortable and score 10 points, but in the last thirty seconds I get greedy on defense and I reach in to steal the ball and I get it, but the offensive player flops onto the floor and the refs call yet another foul on me in the first quarter. Once the quarter ended I sat on the bench with my head down trying to think of what I could do. My dad walks over and explains, “We can’t win this game if you’re gonna be in your head the whole game, snap out of it.”
Going into the third quarter I couldn’t stop thinking about how we were going to lose this game if I didn’t step my game up right now. The ball gets thrown into me, I sprint down the court and drive into the paint, euro through the defense but I kinda bump the defender and make it. I hear the ref blow the whistle and think that I got an and-one but boy was I wrong. The ref calls the foul on me. Absolutely outraged, I just turn around and get back on defense. The next three minutes I locked in and scored the next ten points and brought my team back from our eleven-point deficit. Just as we started to get rolling the refs called another foul on me for reaching in but I clearly stole the ball. This was my final straw because it felt like they were intentionally trying to foul me out of the game. I started arguing the call which never ended well, and I ended up getting a technical foul which gave me a fifth foul. I had to sit out for the rest of the championship game. My blood was boiling. I threw my jersey on the floor and ran to the bathroom. I couldn’t control my anger and I ended up punching the cement wall in there. My dad came in after the quarter was over and he explained, “You can’t be showing your emotions like this. You’re gonna come back out and cheer your team on for the rest of the game and show everyone that’s not the type of person you are.” He made me realize how much of an idiot I looked like acting out as I did.