(Insert Negativity Here)

Played another basketball game last night. It, as usual, was a debacle masquerading as mild-mannered recreation.

It started off poorly with me turning the ball over and missing two easy shots over the first few trips down the floor. Not a good beginning. Eventually, I just stopped being directly aggressive on offense. My teammates were busy getting stuffed near the rim and playing matador D while I was busy collecting cheap fouls and shooting poorly. Not good times.

I decided that I would need to use a different tactic on O as I moved from "Running the offense through myself" aka playing the point to "Banging the boards and getting second chance points" aka playing undersized power forward. This was a better tactic for the game. I collected some put backs and some fouls, but our team still suffered overall. We were jacking up threes, not moving on O and continuing to play matador D. When you're down 10 points, you can either ratchet up the intensity or resign yourself to a loss.

We chose the latter.

In any case, it has been a while since I got as negative about a game as I did about this one. I had at least 1 teammate tell me how to play defense while he watched his man blow by him. I was punched in the nose on a drive to the bucket (with blood) without a foul call which led me to nearly get a Tech in true Sheeeeeed style, but I somehow weaseled out of that.

The funny thing is that even when you compare this to the losses I've suffered with Pike, this one made my blood boil more. When I took some time this morning to examine that comparison, I realized that it had a lot to do with the level of buy-in from the respective teams. With Pike, I know that my teammates are busting their asses to win. With a shitty basketball team, you don't know that because, well, it's a shitty basketball league. When I walk of the field with Pike after a tough loss (witness the game-to-go in 06) I feel deflated, defeated and weak. I'm not angry so much as I am just internally destroyed and emotionally bankrupt. I can't be angry with my teammates because I know they're giving it everything they have. It just hurts to knwo that sometimes your best isn't enough.

When I walk off the court with a shitty basketball team, I get pissed off because I know that they don't give their full effort. Not that they should be training for this shit, but that they should at least be "gamers." When you're playing a game, you're playing for keeps. That's the agreement and that's what makes competition so much fun.

Anyway, at least I understand it a little better. That, of course, won't necessarily prevent me from getting pissed off in the future. Hopefully I'll at least be able to take a step back and accept that feeling.
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Workout total
44 Minutes Basketball