| | I love basketball. I enjoy playing it now even if I have to lumber up and down the court. But my love for the game was almost extinguished while I was a junior in high school. And this is the telling of the tale--my worst athletic injury. I played shooting guard my junior year, and loved lining up to shoot the deep bomb (wish they would've had a three point line back then). It was a home game (in Anchorage, AK) and I was feeling good. My shots during warm-ups were going in and I was ready to lead the ACS Lions on to victory. Little did I know that shortly after the game began, I would be in such horrible pain that two teammates would have to help me off the court and into the locker room? One sad thing about this story is that I can't remember who we were playing--the injury has so heavily numbed my conscious that even to this day, I can scarcely recall my name. It was in the second quarter and we were bringing the ball down the court. I started on the right side then deftly maneuvered under the basket and out to the opposite wing. No one had noticed! Not even my teammate who had the ball! I hollered, was hit with a chest pass, and in one motion (it was smooth I must add) I loaded up my gun and fired. The second it left my hand it looked good. No aim was truer. Three seconds after it left my hand it looked short. If it hit the rim it would be a miracle. Let's see: Moses crossed the Red Sea on dry land, the U.S. Hockey team defeated the Soviets, my sister got a date and my shot hit the rim! Miracles do happen. Our basketball coach instilled in us the fundamentals of the game and he instructed us to make sure we followed our shot. I did. When I noticed my shot was short and my shorts were shot I sprung into action and followed my shot. I was looking to reenact the movie "Hoosiers." Unfortunately, one of my opponents was imitating Daniel-san from the flick "Karate Kid." I'm sure you remember the scene to which I'm referring. I took off like a shot (no pun intended) and drew a bead on my errant shot. While I was attempting a basketball move (following my shot), Daniel-san was reaching up for the rebound with both hands extended upward and one leg stretched straight out in front of him? What in the name of Mr. Miyagi was this dude doing? I would soon find out. I was running into the lane as fast as I could and was not paying attention to the Karate Kid. I met up with Daniel-san just as he was perfecting his "crane technique." I ran full speed into his shoe, which was connected to his leg, which he had just extended from his torso with a tremendous amount of power. Who rebounds like that? Only one guy that I can remember, and it is not a fond memory. His leg was stiff and his foot flat out in front of him when I decided to run into him at 90 m.p.h. His foot him me in the...in the..in the double dribbles and I dropped like a rock. I'm sure I screamed something unintelligible ("Mommy!") as I rolled around on the floor like a top. The game stopped (surprise) and the refs smirked their way over to check on me. *Snicker* "Back up boys and give him some room." Room I didn't need. Air and a few spare parts was what I was hoping for. Two teammates chuckled their way over to where I lay in a heap and in their best falsetto asked me how I was doing. I wiped away some tears and noticed quite a few in the crowd were whispering to themselves then giggling. I couldn't believe it! I took one (two actually) for the team and it was all they could do to not giggle themselves silly. The coach checked on me (fatal I was certain) and told my former teammates to grab an arm and drag me to the locker room. I guess I had held up the game long enough. When half time hit, the locker room doors opened, former teammates glanced my way then turned their heads and busted a gut laughing. I unsteadily made my way to the end of the bench and plopped down. I don't think I even made it back into the game. And that is my worst athletic injury.
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| | Posted 7/1/2009 8:09 AM - 12 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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