Jones 1 J.R.

Jones Professor Lewis English 114A 10/31/13 Orange Complications My mind is very alert when it comes to the color orange. Is it because Ive seen the color so many times in my life? Is it because I have a love for an orange-balled sport? All of the above apply. Ever since I was a child, I have been in love with the most fascinating game, basketball. Today, it is an essential additive to the African American culture. Icons like Michael Jordan have set precedence for future aspiring players like myself. Michael Jordan is a legendary basketball player who played for the Chicago Bulls. There are many reasons why I have such a strong passion for basketball: seeing people giving it their all, sweating from their foreheads down to their toes. The 10 bodies going up and down the court at such a fast pace doing marvelous acrobatics with this orange object called a basketball. Besides the physical aspect of the game, basketball offers valuable life lessons. The biggest life lesson basketball has taught me by far, is the essence of teamwork. Growing up in an urban neighborhood, everyone and their grandmother played basketball. All of my closest friends always wanted to play; they never wanted to even try other sports, no other games, just basketball. Because no one was an outstanding player everyone was forced to play as a team. But I remember always wanting to dominate a game single handedly. I was always athletic, but I was never the Michael Jordan of my neighborhood or school. My friends never saw me as a future basketball star. In my opinion, I think they just saw me as another athletic body on the basketball court. I told myself I needed to work on my basketball

Jones 2 skills and become dominating player. I do not think any of my friends imagined I would ever take the game as far as I did. One day during recess, the journey to me being great took a major leap. I was at the top of the three-point line and got passed the ball. At the time I was not paying attention, so when I received the ball, I panicked. But it was a good panic; the defender in front of me attempted to steal the ball from me. Noticing what he was doing, I quickly crossed over to the opposite side of him to prevent him from stealing the ball. In doing so, I stepped on his right foot. He tried to reach for the ball in one last effort to steal it and ended up falling. From my perspective, all I saw was that someone tried to steal the ball away from me and ended up falling. However, to everyone elses perspective I just had an Allen Iverson highlight. Allen Iverson was professional basketball player who played for the Philadelphia 76ers. He was mainly known for having outstanding dribbling skills, making a lot of players fall with his crossover dribble. Everyone went crazy; they were shocked that I was able to pull off that move. The feeling I got that day was unmatched to anything else. I could not explain the glory or pride I felt, all over one move. From that day forward, I saw myself as a true basketball player and was even more determined to become a dominating player. What I failed to realize is that exact game we ended up losing. They all kept feeding me the ball because they thought I was so cool for doing the crossover. I fell in love with having the ball and shooting it, so that is what I did: shot the basketball. My own selfish pride blocked the fact that we lost because all I cared about was playing solo. Soon enough this same pride would come back to bite me. The crowd in the game only sees and expects great play. However, the crowd does not take into account how much time is truly put forward into furthering your skills as a basketball player. At that time I was only focused on myself, not the rest of the team. People assume two very wrong facts about the sport: It is all about one player, and secondly, people think the game

Jones 3 is easy. Basketball is most definitely a five-man game, not a one-man show. Understanding the dynamics of a team is essential to playing for a good cause. It is extremely important to the game because you must depend on every one of your teammates to do two main things: stop the opposing offense as a unit, and score on the defense as a unit. It takes a team to pull off a win; no one can play the game alone. Secondly, it is by far not an easy sport to play, ask any professional players. You have to be able to shoot, dribble, pass, be aware of your surroundings, and do all of these tasks at an extremely fast rate. Day after day, practice after practice, I was determined to be the best player I could be. I was, and still am completely in love with the game. Right before my peak shooting level, I had shot twenty thousand shots in twenty days. The mental, and physical toll it took on me was immense. I truly had to focus, and stay committed to the game. This also explains why I had a selfish mind when it came to the game; I put so much time into becoming a better player, but I forgot to include teammates. Once my junior year in high school came, I thought I was a sure shot NBA point guard. But my junior year humbled me, the whole year I barely played at all. It really tore me up, until I looked at the game from a different angle. I stopped being so serious about the game and became a team player. My team really benefitted from it and so did I. My senior year was my breakout year and I got to put all my previous years training to the test. We ended up winning our championship, and I was awarded the top player in the league. It was very memorable and showed that I could do anything. Learning from this experience, I was curious if anyone else had the same change of heart. For my freshman English class, I decided to observe other basketball players and ask them about the game. I found that the same story from my life played out for theirs as well: the importance of teamwork. As I was watching them play the teams had two very different attitudes. The team

Jones 4 that had won a game prior to the current game they were playing was very cocky. They played a mediocre team who did not pose much of a threat. Thus, they blew the team out by a large margin. That should of taught them a lesson, a lot of basketball players know a weak defense can make an offense seem unstoppable in a sense. Meanwhile, the new opposing team was still gelling as a team. They all did not know each other and therefor did not what to do as a unit. The opposing team did, and they were confident they were going to blow this new team out easily as well. At first, it almost did seem that way. Their team went up five baskets to none; they were on quite a roll. Had they of scorn one more time, the game would have ended. Interestingly, the new team began to gel quite quickly. They scored a basket from the free-throw line. It was intriguing how they subconsciously took different roles on the team. Someone was the teams main scorer, defender, rebounder and passer. As they set into their respective roles, they pulled themselves back into the matchup; tying the score. The game got really intense once the two teams starting talking trash. Eventually the opposing team had a very good chemistry and was competing very well. Towards the end of the game, both teams competed with their very best efforts and left everything out on the court. In the end, the new team that was not cocky ended up winning due to their great use of teamwork. This theme can be seen from high school all the way to a professional level. Michael Jordan spoke in an interview where he showed the value of teamwork. Jordan said, There are plenty of teams in every sport that have great players and will never win titles, explained Jordan. Most times, these players are not willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. The six-time world champion understands that it takes unity to win. The quote says a lot about his character. Being the best basketball player in the NBA at the time, saying such a statement really embodies who he is as a player, and a teammate. I am sure that his wise words carried on

Jones 5 to other star athletes all around the world. I know one thing is for sure; it definitely carried on to me. Teamwork is the most important thing in basketball, but also in life.

Jones 6 Work Cited

Starkley, Bob. "Hoop Boost: Michael Jordan on Teamwork". 11 Apr. 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.