Hoop Dreams

Man, I awoke up to the alarm at 4:30 a.m. to play ball today. After Commencement the other night, my co-workers insinuated that I needed to show up for a run at school.

Otherwise, I was a wus. It is not like they said it. But, I knew that it was going to be the blow-back.

While I worked on my Ph.D., I layed low on potentially injurious activities. Riding the bike, playing basketball, and getting hit by a SEPTA bus in Philly. Just let the bus merge...no matter if I was right to hold my lane or not.

I did play for a team for a spell that went 1-19 during the Doctoral program...I just decided that it wasn't worth killing myself for something so vacuous. Plus, our team had no talent besides one other guy. We just didn't have the big guns. So, I showed up, but my heart was elsewhere.

Now, as Dr. B., I really had no excuse to show up today. Besides the fact that I am 47 years old who is almost 48. I am like ready for the Senior Games where I broad jump 3 foot four inches and get the Gold.

So, how did I play? Well, I held my own. I just didn't want to suck. Basketball, when I was a teenager, was in Idol that bounced. My self-worth depended on the box score and my coaches and teammates opinion of me. After I blew my knee out, I walked away from it all. I couldn't be the man and I knew it. It was too much for me to live up to. And too little.

Sometimes God takes away to give us something better. Although I thought not being a basketball star was the end of the world, it eventually caused me to ask what kind of world that was.

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