“The Hidden Gems of Basketball: Insights That Will Change Your Life”
Captain’s Log: Day #20 of my 30-Day Challenge to write a 500-word article every day for the next 30 days.
Another thing that I inherited from my father was a love for the sport of basketball. I remember back when I was a kid, every Sunday afternoon to evening we would have the TV tuned in to watch the local basketball league, PBA. I didn’t liked it back then because I wouldn’t be able to watch any cartoons, but once I understood the game, it grew on me.
Now, I don’t watch a lot of PBA anymore, my favorite players have already retired and I lost interest in following the local sports league, but I am still a big fan of the NBA.
In fact, I can recite off the top of my head every team that won the championship since 1980, the year Magic Johnson joined the league. I remember back then when I would buy pan de sal and newspaper in the morning, one of the first things that I would look at in the newspaper was the sports pages. And although the NBA was not as popular back then as it is today, there would always be some news about the Lakers.
As I grew older, I went into collecting NBA cards. I didn’t understand the details of how the collectors made money from it, but I just liked collecting the cards of my favorite players, particularly point guards since I was a small kid. I still have a couple of them left to this day.
The Finals would always be scheduled during June, and that was about the time that school opened. Since it was just the first few weeks of class, we didn’t have much to do, and one of my classmates would bring a portable television, about the size of a soda can. The boys in the room would lump together watching the game and cheering for our respective teams.
During those years, Michael Jordan was invincible. He would remain unbeaten in the Finals until he retired. After Jordan, there were a couple more players that I liked, Kobe, Duncan, Nowitzki, Derrick Rose, but my current favorite player is Stephen Curry. The guy is a wizard when he has the ball in his hands. He can dribble and slither through traffic, and he is THE Greatest shooter I have ever seen.
I have not played physical basketball for a while although I do play NBA 2k games every now and then. But reflecting on my experiences with basketball, I have learned some valuable life lessons from the sport that I would like to share…
Leadership. You need to be able to develop your leadership skills if you’re leading a team, some times you can use your talent but just because you’re talented, it doesn’t mean that people will follow you. There are also different types of leadership and you need to match it based on your personnel. Jordan was the tough love leader, while Duncan and Curry were humble superstars who would grind it out and lead by example.
Teamwork. In basketball, just as in life, talent does not always guarantee success. Your individual talent can only take you so far, but if you want to reach the top, you’ll have to learn to work with a team.
Perseverance. Sometimes life gives you a bad hand or you make a couple of mistakes that put you behind. But when you get behind by a ton of points, you will need to have that grit and grind attitude to persevere and erase the deficit. And you can only do that one play at a time. Small steps add up in the whole sum of the game. So be mindful of the choices and actions you take.
Well, that’s just a couple of lessons that I learned from basketball. I hope you have a favorite sport that you enjoy watching and can pick up life lessons too. Enjoy your Sunday!
