Gameplans...
From the guards at my gate to the random foreigners I meet who think they know me because some AYAD has mentioned my name, I keep getting asked why I work so much...
The first time one of my teams made the grand finals, it was because of my shooting guard and I… we had gone the entire 22 game season trying to outdo each other… trying to score more points, get more steals, get more assists than the other… it may sound destructive, but somehow it worked so well… teams could barely inbound the ball after a basket, since we were so hungry for steals that full court press seemed a natural progression… in fact, we would even go out of our way to pass to each other so that we could keep accumulating assists… by the time we reached the finals, we had an unbeaten record, and were the combo of the tournament thus far… our opponents were a bad-ass team; we were the Showtime Lakers, they were the Detroit Bad Boys… by half time, whether through nerves or tension or being man-handled by the opposition, we were down… by a lot…
I still have one of the pictures that were taken at the half… my boy is sitting on the court, staring at nothing, completely out of the game… I’m staring at the roof, searching for inspiration…
I remember my mother standing up from the bench, where she was holding court with the other mothers at the time; bear in mind this is still early high school… she walks up to me in her immaculate outfit, looking very professional, especially in comparison to the tracksuit wearing crowd… she steps to my face, all 5 feet or so of her, grabs my attention, then starts yelling at me…
Not screaming, or shouting, but yelling.
She tells me, sorry, she yells at me: “You love this game. You have been doing the same thing for an entire half. When your game plan doesn’t work, you change it. Now get out there and play the game you love.”
By now everyone in the stadium is staring at us, staring at me…
I love this game… why am I acting like I don’t know how to play?
Our game plan isn’t working… why are we still trying to run it?
The game begins again, we have possession… I take the ball up to about 3 feet behind the three-point line on the right side of the court… and launch a perfect, albeit nervous, shot…
Now we’re back in the game.
My boy and I stop playing as if this was our first time; we turn every possession of theirs into a battle just to reach half court… our only aim is to burn that net with the frequency of our shots…
We end up winning by 10…
My mom has consistently been there for me at the right moments to remind me of what's important... thanks mom...
Bit of a segueway, I know, but there’s a point to the story, bear with me...
So many people I’ve come across in this profession, in this country, seem to just be going through the motions…
So many people, so many organizations seem to just be sticking to the same game plan… and the results are… well I hesitate to call them results at all…
So here is the source of my frustration today; if you don’t love this game (stay with me on the metaphors here), why are you still in it? If you do love this game, why are you still stuck on the same game plan? Isn’t now a good time to try something a little different?
If you’re only going through the motions, maybe it’s time to step off the court and let someone else take your spot…
This “game” is too important to lose… the challenges just seem to be increasing, and in some cases rather than provide any real development there seems to only be a steady stream of "band-aids" rolling into the third world... less development and more dependance...
Where is the urgency?
The Millenium Development Goals are an NGOs to-do list, and so far we're barely ticking off the boxes...
30,000 children a day die from preventable or treatable diseases. Damn...
There's why I work so much. It's half-time, my team is clearly down, and I'm the rookie trying to find a new game plan...
Apologies for the jumbled thoughts, it's been a long weekend...
The first time one of my teams made the grand finals, it was because of my shooting guard and I… we had gone the entire 22 game season trying to outdo each other… trying to score more points, get more steals, get more assists than the other… it may sound destructive, but somehow it worked so well… teams could barely inbound the ball after a basket, since we were so hungry for steals that full court press seemed a natural progression… in fact, we would even go out of our way to pass to each other so that we could keep accumulating assists… by the time we reached the finals, we had an unbeaten record, and were the combo of the tournament thus far… our opponents were a bad-ass team; we were the Showtime Lakers, they were the Detroit Bad Boys… by half time, whether through nerves or tension or being man-handled by the opposition, we were down… by a lot…
I still have one of the pictures that were taken at the half… my boy is sitting on the court, staring at nothing, completely out of the game… I’m staring at the roof, searching for inspiration…
I remember my mother standing up from the bench, where she was holding court with the other mothers at the time; bear in mind this is still early high school… she walks up to me in her immaculate outfit, looking very professional, especially in comparison to the tracksuit wearing crowd… she steps to my face, all 5 feet or so of her, grabs my attention, then starts yelling at me…
Not screaming, or shouting, but yelling.
She tells me, sorry, she yells at me: “You love this game. You have been doing the same thing for an entire half. When your game plan doesn’t work, you change it. Now get out there and play the game you love.”
By now everyone in the stadium is staring at us, staring at me…
I love this game… why am I acting like I don’t know how to play?
Our game plan isn’t working… why are we still trying to run it?
The game begins again, we have possession… I take the ball up to about 3 feet behind the three-point line on the right side of the court… and launch a perfect, albeit nervous, shot…
Now we’re back in the game.
My boy and I stop playing as if this was our first time; we turn every possession of theirs into a battle just to reach half court… our only aim is to burn that net with the frequency of our shots…
We end up winning by 10…
My mom has consistently been there for me at the right moments to remind me of what's important... thanks mom...
Bit of a segueway, I know, but there’s a point to the story, bear with me...
So many people I’ve come across in this profession, in this country, seem to just be going through the motions…
So many people, so many organizations seem to just be sticking to the same game plan… and the results are… well I hesitate to call them results at all…
So here is the source of my frustration today; if you don’t love this game (stay with me on the metaphors here), why are you still in it? If you do love this game, why are you still stuck on the same game plan? Isn’t now a good time to try something a little different?
If you’re only going through the motions, maybe it’s time to step off the court and let someone else take your spot…
This “game” is too important to lose… the challenges just seem to be increasing, and in some cases rather than provide any real development there seems to only be a steady stream of "band-aids" rolling into the third world... less development and more dependance...
Where is the urgency?
The Millenium Development Goals are an NGOs to-do list, and so far we're barely ticking off the boxes...
30,000 children a day die from preventable or treatable diseases. Damn...
There's why I work so much. It's half-time, my team is clearly down, and I'm the rookie trying to find a new game plan...
Apologies for the jumbled thoughts, it's been a long weekend...
Comments
Coach, I`m all the guards you need.
p.s. Love the child hood basketball tale... and I`ll be sure to remember the moral of the story: When in doubt, launch an improbable three from down town...
You must have seen too many Reggie versus the Knicks games growing up hahaha