Basketball is Life

Its been a while since I last wrote a meaningful entry in my blog. Well here it is, I love basketball. In college I used to leave up an away message that said, "Basketball is life." This simple phrase sticks with me today, even as I find myself in a country obsessed with Rugby during the Rugby World Cup, my life and social circle is made up of people that love the game of basketball. Life for me is simple, and luckily I've made that choice to focus much of what I love around basketball.

When I was young I spent hours upon hours playing basketball on a portable hoop positioned at the end of a culdesac. Those days were where I learned to love the game. As I got older I found a friend group that began with a guy I legitimately disliked, probably because he infringed on my territory as the leader of basketball at Diamond Point Elementary School. He moved into my school's neighborhood during 4th grade, bringing with him a competitive spirit that tested me over and over again. Once we played in his backyard to the death, like it resulted in several hard fouls including me getting shoved into the pole of another portable basketball court where I brought down the whole court. Competition ever since has been something I've never shied away from knowing that my skill set gives me a chance in any arena.

As I progressed into highschool I integrated myself into a group of guys that far exceeded the gym. We spent every moment together and basically planned other activities just to fill in the time between games, practices, open runs, shootarounds, and most importantly front yard battles. In college I found myself living out my dream, playing college basketball. This dream I never really mentioned to others, there was no need, I think it was a dream most of my friends shared. I wasn't sure if I really was going to achieve it or not. As a sophomore going into my junior year I tore up the UCLA basketball camp leaving as the second best player there, where I was awarded the defensive player of the week to go along with my team claiming the championship, but more importantly the assistant coach added that with continued work on my part I could be a college basketball player.

Even with this encouragement my dream of playing college basketball, inspired by Nick Van Exel's same dream of playing college basketball, still wasn't a tenable dream. I mean my senior year I averaged 10 points a game, hardly stellar numbers, I got recruited by two DIII schools Redlands legitimately and Chapman because they wanted my best friend. However, I had one other thing to balance, I was an intellect, I was carrying a 4.6 gpa, I needed to go to a school that met my profile. I somehow stumbled upon Pomona College, because we lost a game to Wilson a team I had never lost to before that game and was so upset I didn't want to go to school the next day. My mother being a teacher would never accept such an excuse, so I told her I would make a visit to a college, the Claremont Colleges being the only schools close enough that I hadn't really visited or known anything about were the excuse I needed.

Well I ended up visiting and even applied, only to Pomona on the whim of thinking well I'm from Pomona, so why not? It was only after my application was mailed in that I realized I just turned my application into the most selective school in the US. My college admissions essay that used the metaphor of a gym to lay out my story got me through the admission process and began visiting the different schools, Pomona being close allowed me to come up and play with the team in there open gym runs after the season ended and eat some meals in the dining hall. I looked at some schools up North and loved them, but never felt at home during the trips as I did when at Pomona. That comfort I didn't realize consciously, but it was basketball, the other schools simply didn't give me the opportunity to run up and down their gym, the most important facility a school could offer me. My girlfriend at the time after I told her I decided to go to Pomona responded, "I already knew that." I guess Pomona being the only place where I could continue my dream was really the only place I could have really ended up.

In college basketball taught me many more lessons. My first year was filled with arrogance and growing pains, but my sophomore year was essentially a beating. I basically got hit by the game everyday as it proved to be a season where it seemed no positive ground was made. I didn't see time on the court. After that I had to take a step back and realize once again although basketball was my passion, I'd have to be more creative than just simply playing to stay around the game. Thats when I went abroad as a way of escaping the game that had the previous year left me battered and searching. Hence basketball dictated for me where I went to college, supposedly the most critical choice one makes in life (if fortunate enough to make such a choice) and that I needed to go abroad. Before my sophomore year I wanted to go abroad, but knew that if I was doing well in basketball I would sacrifice the trip to stay and play. In many ways not playing my sophomore year made the decision to go abroad for me.

In South Africa although escaping competitive basketball for the first time since I was eleven, I didn't leave the game. I still played for UCT's basketball club team, and worked as a coach for Hoops4Hope. This experience made me balance the game with the other aspects of my life. I know those other aspects exist and center around some abstract conception of the good, being grounded in the ethical understanding of what a good life is, but I'm always more challenged in really using that as a guiding principle, so basketball has always remained my guiding light.

Most recently, basketball has led me here to New Zealand as part of my Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, where I've continued my work with basketball, as well as my education. I've continued to be shown different opportunities and am already working on my next move that involves basketball, we'll see where it leads me, I'm just excited because basketball hasn't led me astray yet.