Big Smooth

7th Grade AAU Basketball…If you haven’t witnessed an AAU Basketball tournament, let me paint you a picture. Teams typically get to play two games on a Saturday, and one Sunday morning. If they have the best record in their bracket, they get to play a game in the afternoon on Sunday. Sometimes, teams want to play in that game, and sometimes the wheels fall off and parents, kids and sometimes coaches wish the Sunday afternoon ends up with a lemonade in hand, and not a meaningless championship.

So, a lot of games get played. And sometimes, and depending upon the team and AAU program, some games can get really sloppy. Our program, Next Play Basketball, prides itself on doing things the right way, preparing properly for every game to build good habits and fundamentals. We pride ourselves on taking every game as it comes to us, and play team basketball with the goal of building upon successes from the previous games and learning from our failures. Each week, each tournament, is like a test.

This past weekend’s test highlights 7th grader Franklin Gilbert, aka Big Smooth, from Doylestown. He misses his first seven shots of the game, and our team is getting down on themselves and losing by double digits with an opponent who is out for blood. It was great theater. If you saw the way Big Smooth shoots the basketball, you’d think the ball was going in every time he shot it.

We called a timeout, made some adjustments. I noticed that Franklin had the opportunity to take his 8th shot, and decided to pass it up, a sign that his confidence was “shook”, a term from the courts meaning he didn’t believe in himself. I reminded Franklin that he was best shooter in the building. I believed it, and wanted him to hear it, and his teammates to hear it as well.

These games go fast, and the pace of the game can be at a torrid pace. His teammates kept finding the Big Smooth, to which the fans in the stands began asking “Why are they leaving that kid open?”

I’m glad they didn’t key on Franklin, as he caught fire like Steph Chicken Curry. The Big Smooth ended up with 20 points, and Next Play Basketball enjoyed a memorable come from behind win, having been down five with four minutes to go. NPB won by 11 in dramatic fashion, displaying great team basketball to the delight of the crowd, as the Big Smooth floated down the court after making shot after shot.

There are many lessons that we learn each day and each AAU tournament weekend. This week’s lesson was provided by the Big Smooth. Sometimes it’s hard to believe in yourself, especially when things aren’t going your way, or when the results are what you are looking for. Sometimes you need to be reminded that the work that you’ve put in will be good enough. Sometimes you just need to take a break and refocus. Sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in. But if you believe the ball will go in, and you make adjustments, and your teammates get you the ball, you learn that shooting the ball, a la “shooting your shot” is the same life lesson that we all must learn. Raise your hand. Get the question wrong and learn from it. Take on that new business opportunity even though the last one didn’t work out the way you had planned. Take that new job, even though it feels scary and uncertain.

Thanks, Big Smooth for the lesson. It’s a lesson for us all.