A New Love Affair: Rediscovering Basketball in a Different Culture - Essay Sample

Introduction

Popular films about sports often start and end with dramatic wins in prestigious tournaments. The audience is left with so much adrenaline that it may be strange to think that there is more to sports than winning. Luckily, there is. I arrived into the country at the age of 15 to a different culture. Thankfully, this dramatic change in my life rekindled my love affair with basketball, a sport that I had loved since childhood.

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On a warm Sunday morning, I woke up determined to find something enjoyable to do outside, possibly play basketball. Luckily I found a couple of young men playing a 5 on 5 match and sat by the hard bench for close to a quarter of an hour before anyone took notice of me. The court had lots of different lines marked on the floor, because it was a multi-purpose court. It must have served as a pitch for mini-soccer, netball, basketball; the list goes on. I remember the smell of the court, mostly dusty, indicating that the lads had had to sweep the court before the practice. Sitting on the bench, I thought how desperate I wanted to run into the pitch and just catch the ball, even for a second.

To my surprise, one of the fellows beckoned me and asked if I was interested. Of course I said yes. He told me to warm up. I was elated and also unfit after several weeks of staying indoors. I was the tallest on the court, and that perhaps made them think that I was good. To be fair, I was good when it came to making the blocks and shooting but they were playing with an aggression and tempo that I found difficult to cope with. Soon, I was running out of breath. It was not an exciting game but it would mark my continuing passion with basketball in this new country.

Unknown to me, the team was preparing for n amateur tournament that evening and I was invited. The team’s coach, Bob Newman, was a hard but fair man. On top of basketball, Bob taught us some important life skills that afternoon such as teamwork, time management, and commitment. Being in the team and under the guidance of Bob gave me some important life lessons and skills that I have come to find handy when on my own.

Realizing that I was very unfit, he ran me through the gauntlet that afternoon. He instructed me to begin with doing layups until I was soaking wet, running laps of the court, and practicing my dribbling and passing skills. In today’s world marred with shortcuts, it is easy to forget about such fundamentals that Bob instilled in me that afternoon, especially the value of hard work and dedication

The truth of the matter is that we lost most of the matches that evening. The wins were few and far between. However, something that the coach taught us from that young age is that no matter how many games we lost, we should still turn up eagerly the next week and the one after that like we still had a chance. In essence, the game and the coach taught us how to lose gracefully.

After every loss, we would go back to the dressing room, analyze the mistakes then show up for the next game. We also won a few games too, and learnt from those win too. When we would win a game, we would celebrate in the locker room and return back to the court to prepare for the next game like we had just lost the previous day. These are the fundamentals of life- you lose often and win sometimes but you never stop walking forward.

On some rare occasions, I would step on the makeshift court and despite the energy flowing from the crowd I would feel flat, unimaginative, drained, and helpless. It is during such moments that I would wobble around the court and want to scream for help.

However, it is during these off-moments that I would learn the vital role of teamwork. I remember that evening during one of those moments when I was having a match to forget on the court. Everything I did or tried to do just would not come off. I dribbled out of the court, passed the ball straight to an opponent and could not shake off the strong opponent who was man-marking me.

Rather than take me off, the coach would shout words of encouragement and the captain would look at me as if saying “mate, it is okay, carry on.” I felt grateful for every single one of them and dug deeper. Somewhere along the way, I found my rhythm and everything started to fall in place. We won that game. Looking at my teammates after the game, I needed not say anything. It is as if they already knew I was grateful and they were modest enough to say “glad I was of help.” It was a baptism of fire but it reminded me of how much I love basketball.