But i'm totally different now. Before the injury and surgery i grew up playing streetball against ahbengs. I only knew isolation. Which was frustrating for both me and any schoolteam level guys i played with because i always had no clue what to do.
Now my scoring volume reduced drastically. Afterall i'm no longer aomine. But my efficiency is up, my range is up, and most importantly my bball iq is way up.
So i agreed to play bball with yl tonight because i've been blowing off our bball sessions for the longest time due to my bball2 gang which are some of my closest bros and is just fun*bball and i can't play bball on back to back days. I was expecting to one v one with him because it was a weekday, but den 2 schoolteam dudes and 2 lao uncles joined us so we split up and went 3v3.
I just had physio yesterday and my physio really put me through the grinder. Alot of high difficulty exercises, including speed drills. My muscles were sore (especially my butt), but i felt great. Alot of confidence in my knee for the first time in 3 years. And it showed.
Even before i knew how to play bball properly (even the isolation scoring style), i could always jump high and i had great natural reflexes. With my 1.83m height, I was a natural shot blocker and had some really spectacular ones when i was much younger, including a couple of venus fly trappers.
I hadn't blocked many shots for the past 3 years. Before, i would say my blocks per game would average around 2. In the past 3 years, i don't think it was 0 blocks per game, but definitely around 0.1 or less. Today in our first game, yl and i split teams and i ended up marking him. On his first 3 shots, i blocked all 3. The 1st 2 were just taps that turned the ball into airballs which i could grab. But the last one was a flat out nasty swat than sent the ball out of bounds, and something i definitely did not do at all in the past 3 years. Then i decided to stop being a fker and focus my new D on the other players, after all he is my bball buddy.
The lao uncle on my team was annoying beyond belief. He was one of those "criticizers". Those guys have natural "wtf are you doing" expressions and actions and talk a ton of crap like they are the coach. I definitely don't mind constructive criticism, but don't tell me the same thing 10 times, especially if i already modified my play according to your instructions (although i had a ton of turnovers because my passes were poor to begin with, so he was talking some crap about that, but it was way too much crap for a pick up game which was effectively meaningless). So i told him to stfu (without the f) cos he was affecting my enjoyment of the game. But he was cool about it and apologised after the game. The schoolteam dude on my team knew him and although he had a true ahbeng face, he was super nice also and came to explain after the game saying the uncle is liddat one. I guess I was really annoyed.
But i have to thank him. I am prone to turnovers (well stephen curry IS my idol afterall) and that incident really sharpened up my play. Because after that the schoolteam duo's buddies arrived and they formed a team of 5 and set up a 5v5. It was a ridiculous team and i had a bunch of scraps on my team, so before starting, i told them to ignore the score and just enjoy the match cos we weren't winning. Well, i dunno about them but i took my own advice and it was great. I think they took my advice also because even though we got flat destroyed, we were all smiles after the game.
Now, the game. The reason why i know for sure i'm back. With reduced one on one scoring but improved bball iq, efficiency and teamplay in general. So you could even say improved, depending on what you were after. I couldn't be as yaya as in the past, because i could no longer score 10 out of 11 points for my team, but i could play with anyone now, no matter the level, because i finally knew how to actually play basketball.
The final score, 22-10. Yes, my team only scored 10 (which i thought was pretty good because tbh i was wondering if we could even score at the start, after they revealed they were actually using zone defence and it was actually good zone), but the important thing is my statline. Afterall i didnt even know my teammates so who cares.
4/1/3/66.7%
First, the points. 4 points. And it was nice. It was proper basketball, no isolation nonsense and no forced shots. My first shot was nice, clean and open around the free throw line but it bounced off the rim. The 2nd shot, after bringing the ball up (i was the PG for my team, afterall i WAS wearing a curry jersey) i quickly passed to a baseline teammate, and cracked the zone wide open. I cut by my mark and the rim protector was stuck with the baseline player so he 1-2ed back to me and i had an easy layup which i scored.
The 3rd shot was the really nice one. The opponents were attacking and i managed to get in some rim protection (no block though) and got the rebound. (my only rebound which is the 1 in 4/1/3/66.7%, as is fitting with my new playstyle). I saw my teammate running already for the fast break while i was dribbling out so i was preparing for the pass. Then i saw the opponent run towards me so i faked the pass and he flew by while spouting some vulgarities. Its like a hesitation fake pass while dribbling kinda thing. Then began the fast break. I ran down the court and saw my teammate cut baseline to the left (i was coming down the right side of the court). There were 2 defenders in front and behind but i did a pass of the game and sent an ignite pass right between the 2 defenders to my teammate. But i didn't cut my run and continued sprinting towards the basket. The last defender went to him but he passed to me immediately. The defender expected it though and he rotated to me but finally my hook shot paid off and i did a high hook/semi layup to score.
Those were all the shots i took. 2 out of 3 for 66.7%.
And the 3? All assists. I was involved in all my team's points and i only had 1 turnover which was an ignite pass that was too hot to handle for my teammate who would have had an open reverse layup.
I can do it
I can ball again.
Its a totally different style than before, but i felt pro. I was playing really well. Maybe it was the annoying lao uncle sharpening me up before the match, maybe it was the audience (There were a ton of people watching, and i saw 2 cute chicks also which sharpened me up even more rofl).
But i can ball. I definitely can play again. Nothing amazing, but i CAN ball properly for the first time in 3 years.
It was always my first love. Not before i was 22 years old, but that year when i really trained and got good was the best bball year of my life and where i discovered my true passion.
I lost all hope when i discovered i tore my acl. I was close to tears on numerous occasions and really depressed.
Now, I can see the sun again.
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