Life from the Basketball Court

Even though I'm gaining in years, I have been able to play (effectively I might add) basketball at the 20th Street Gym in Denver. The pickup games have been great over the last six months since I started to play again. The last time I really played was about 9 years ago in Boulder at the YMCA. I played for 10 years there. Since then, I have been a runner, which is still good, but does not have the dimension of testing my abilities that I used to thrive on.

The 20th Street Gym pickup games have given me an opportunity to play again. I am playing with the whole spectrum of players, the tall, the small, the young and even some people older than myself (hard to imagine). I have to say that I am somewhat gratified to run with this wild bunch M-F and to still feel the thrill of making a jump shot from the 3 point line or a layup in the paint. I found out I still got the stuff and I will continue to play and shoot hoops as long as I can.

I have to say that when I first stepped onto the court after so long, I was not very confident that I could shoot and I felt stifled, but then the thought occurred to me that if you don't shoot, you don't score and you suffer, as well as the whole team. It's because you don't try. So the lesson of life from the basketball court...shoot. It's worth the risk of the shot and looking bad, even if you think that you won't make it.