Buzzer Blog

I'm 6' 5" but don't live up to the hype of my height. Kinesthetic intelligence was not integrated into my design and sports have never kept my interest for too long, or too high for that matter. I played varsity tennis in high school and have never risen to a higher level in any other sport, especially basketball. People usually approach and comment on my tall stature, and then immediately ask if I play any sports. After I tell them that I like tennis they always, always, always elude to me playing basketball. It's inescapable. They always ask. And I always reply, "Yes, I do play basketball." Shortly after I say, very softly, "but not very well."

When I step on the basketball court to play a game the opposite team always perceives me as a threat. There is no doubting this. They always talk amongst themselves or directly out loud about how everyone should watch out for me. After the game starts they commence their neighborhood court watch program and then abandon it as soon as they figure out that my tall stature was deceiving. The ball suddenly becomes stolen from me, my shots are blocked, rebounds are recovered by people who are shorter than me, and neither person on the opposite team or my own take me seriously. All the above was true until I really tried, which was just last week.

I currently play for a beginning intramural basketball team known as The Owls, and our record is 1-1. We lost our first game, 59-32 or something embarrassing like that. Not to make excuses but our team only consisted of five players, the entire game! That meant no subs and running the entire game on our own. It was a 40 minute brutal test of stamina, but somehow, we finished it.

Our next and most recent game brought us into a different scenario. The next team we were supposed to face off with was a no show. Fortunately this time however we had more than five players on our team. We decided instead to have our own 4 on 4 game and played a game until 13. That whole game I pumped out every maneuver and shot I could muster. It resulted in at least four or five points and plenty of rebounds and blocks. I was known as the LTMVP, the Losing Team's MVP. My team still lost, but nothing will summarize my actions better than the shot I took during the same time a buzzer was going off in the background. The same goes for this post. It's 11:59 PM and I'm making the buzzer shot for this daily blog to count.

~Anthans