Basketball

   

Throughout my life, I've played many sports. Some I've liked, others, not so much. However, I know for a fact that my favorite sport is basketball. Basketball quickly became my favorite sport because it required teamwork, as well as countless hours of practice, which was fine with me if I knew that it would make me a better player. Another reason why I like basketball is because it forces you to stay in shape. For the entire game, you have to be running full court, which, over time, will help your stamina and insurance. You also need to be a good teammate by passing the ball, playing good defense, and by hustling on every play.

 I started playing when I was just eight years old for a recreational team. The organization that I played for every Saturday morning was called the Church of God Organization, which consists of kids, aged between 8 and 14, that helped kids develop skills such as dribbling, shooting, defense, and teamwork. Once I began, I never looked back. When I finished playing in the Church of God Organization, I began to play for my school’s team. I started this when I was in fifth grade, and the differences were much greater than the similarities. First of all, the opposing teams were much better as terms of a talent standpoint. The kids were faster, could shoot better, and were extremely competitive. It was then that I realized that in order to compete at the level I wanted to, I had to become more dedicated toward how I approached the game.

I became serious about basketball when I entered sixth grade. I had learned from the past year just how much time and effort I had to put in if I wanted to be even close to the level of talent that these other kids were at. I started playing a lot more with my dad and my brothers in our driveway almost every single night. I also tried extremely hard at practice on my dribbling ability, as well as shooting the ball every chance I had. Along with all of this, I learned one very important accolade that I believe every good player must have, which is a certain level of heart and the will to get succeed. With all of this in mind, I started to play with those kids again. I immediately noticed a difference, as I became more and more accustomed to how everyone else on the team, as well as the league, was.

After that, I continued to play basketball for my school’s junior high team. When that ended, my basketball career, as far as a competitive league, was over. Even though I didn’t play in high school, I continue to play in as many pickup games as I can, because basketball is my favorite sport, and probably will be for quite some time.