Playing One on One

I was leading 23 to 18 against my brother in a half court game of basketball. I was breathing heavily and my head felt like it was made of marshmallows. I was dizzy because I was already exhausted and I couldn’t think properly to figure out how to score 7 more points to win the whole thing.

My brother and I play our backyard half court basketball one on ones seriously. We played years ago when he was a runt who couldn’t shoot a free throw and we’re still playing now though he’s playing for the college league over at La Salle. He made bigger adjustments and improvements in his game than I did. His weaknesses (height, slow lateral movement, inaccurate jumpshot) are now his strengths and his strengths (high jumper, faster, shot range) are now his specialties. Me? Well, I got fatter and slower.

So basically, he’s faster and he’s stronger.

I was dribbling the ball and I faked to my right and drove to my left switching hands in mid-air. He knew what I was doing and he slapped away the shot.

So he’s faster, stronger AND smarter. Damn, I thought I had the last one to my advantage.

I DID outsmart him in one play. I flipped the ball with my left hand and I know he was going to block it. I extended my right arm and counter-slapped him the other way. Instead of blocking my shot, his hand hit mine as if giving me a high five and the ball went in. Weird play.

So again I was dribbling the ball while leading 23 to 18. My knees hurt too much to do direction fakes and I couldn’t bend my back more so I was doing a high dribble which was extremely easy to steal. He reached in near my tummy but I bent over and he got his arm stuck in my belly gut! He couldn’t get it out! I drove to my right side and laid the ball in with his arm still stuck in my belly. It’s not a foul on me. It’s not a foul on him. He was laughing hard since I invented a new signature move: the “bilbil clamp”

I followed up this play with a line drive three pointer. Since I was two points away from winning the game, he shot a three pointer easily and uncontested.

Next play, I drove wildly to the basket, spun around and flipped a right handed hook shot. It hit the board and nothing else. He got the ball and shot another three pointer. It was clear he could score if he wanted to.

Last play, it was make or break. I drove hard to my right and went up for a shot. He was waiting for me midair so I flipped up the shot.

It missed so bad it hit the side of the board and dropped it front of me for a wide open follow up shot. Game over. I win.

I was breathing so heavily and I was walking around. My brother was shooting more jumpshots. I walked a little more until I threw up. My brother was practicing his lay up… and he was fresh as a daisy. He gave me the ball and I tried to take a jumpshot. I bent down and my knee just gave way and buckled.

I think I just reached my physical limit and I looked extremely out of shape. Good thing you don't get points for playing pretty.