The Bench...

"Someone needs to shut down number 14...(looking over the bench)...um, (passes by me twice)....aw shit, aight W* go ahead you're in."

25 minutes go by and the kid still hasn't scored, my team is up by like 12 and I'm on my way up the court with the ball when coach calls a timeout out of nowhere...

"Ok you're out, I never said bring up the ball, you need to listen sometimes"

at 5' 10'' I'm a point guard but in high school I played combo guard. I wasn't the only one either, which is why he overlooked me twice before putting me in. In practice, no one worked with me to get better, although I would kill the starters in drills and 3 on 2 on 1 defense, they had the popularity, they had the height, they had their name in the paper, and I was lighting their ass up in practice.

I never understood why I made the team anyway, I was told that I could outhustle and bring a flair to the team that they needed. OK, well how come I couldn't play in the game, or the last 4 games? Or that game where you met my whole family including my visiting cousins from California? I showed up early for practice, stayed the latest, made all my lay ups in the lay up line, couple of modified dunks. The crowd wanted me in, and you bench me because......I didn't fit the part, or you didn't have any faith in me in the first place?

What coach gives up on a player but keeps them on the team to suffer? I watched Mick when he coached Rocky, he was on his ass to the point where you would think that he would have a stroke just yelling at dude jumping rope. One thing I noticed though, was Mick believed in that tough love, he wasn't scared to tell Rocky he wasn't shit when he was down, and no matter what happened, Mick rode with him til the end. He didn't leave in the middle of a round, he didn't go for a soda while his boxer was getting up from Apollo, he believed in his man, and rode with him til the end. He stayed through ups and downs unimaginable, you hear comics still use that line "CUT ME MICK, CUT ME" and you can hear Mick yelling back at him, "Get back in there and knock his block off Rock'!!!!!

He never said that he took him this far to lose, that although he had the skills to be a Champion, he would never be. He wasn't boosted to believe that he was the best for nothing. He would take the championship because he wouldn't stop fighting to be the best. He believed what Mick told him, and unlike my Varsity coach, he never stopped believing in his fighter. My coach lost faith on sight. Which is why I said that I'm the underdog no matter where I go, it's always a shock to people when I do things sometimes because they look at me and never see me doing those things at all. He was there when I finally scored 21 in a game during my Park and Rec days, he saw a different coach send me in with a mission to shut down a point guard in Connecticut, where in the first half (not guarded by me) he had 14, in the second half he had 16 to end the game with. After the game, he walked up to me and said that he never thought I had it in me to perform like that. I said to him if the chance was given I probobly wouldn't be here, I would be in College doing this, instead I have to do it here, where you are now seeing the same shit I was doing in practice. I didn't change, I got better. The same people I was killing in Park and Rec were the same ones that started on that squad in high school.

and I was the the leader in assists, third in steals, and fourth in points that year.

I didn't ask why he never played me in those games, simply because I already knew, but at those times I felt as though this was bullshit, I busted my ass trying to be better than everyone, and it showed as well, yet even though my coach acknowledged that by putting me on the team, it stopped there. I was just another body, I was just a ghost of a player, my confidence in myself was shot until Senior year, where I made the team again, but had to go through the same thing with this coach (who happened to be my old 5th grade gym teacher) I left in the middle of the season, and shined via Park and Rec.

a quick message to coach: Never stop believing in your players. They believe in you to help coach them to championships, to lead them to the promised land of packed gyms and questions as to how in the hell did that horse get in here???? If you give up on a player, and he's still performing, what good is that to him if he can't play? How do you think he feels knowing that he did what you asked him to and it was for nothing? When you tell him that next game he's in, and with like 20 seconds to go, he's in and can't score simply because he's on defense. You knew he was and when the game is over, you badger him for what he couldn't accomplish in 20 seconds?? Maybe in 2 minutes he could've done something, but you had your starter just finish his water, he's ready to go back in. Those 2 minutes are for more important people, excellent confidence boost there.

I'll see my old coach at the Hall of Fame later in the month. He will once again see what he passed over, and still ticking louder than a bomb. I will again remind him of what he did, by doing what I do. Making non-believers, believe.

To this day I am still the underdog.