I wasn’t sure how to feel. I mean, it was weird.
Finally, a championship win. And in what ridiculous fashion.
I was trying to think back to the last time I won a championship in an organized sport. And the last time I can remember winning one was for the NYBA. And it wasn’t even really a championship because the first place team (us) just played the second place team in a one game playoff.
Since then I’ve been in a complete drought. 8 years and no rain. No glory.
I was on some good teams. Basketball, football. All solid teams. All good players. And still when it came down to it, we became choke artists. No one ever wanted to take over and pull through at the end.
To this day, even tonight, after what happened last night, I still get shivers about “the play” in football.
Flag football. Intramural Men’s league. Probably the most fun and yet most intense sport I have ever played. On 4th and ridiculously long we are down by 4. A touchdown would win the game. Rain coming down, mid 30 degrees, fans yelling from the sideline. I’ll always remember the scene. We had to get the ball in to the end zone. The QB was scrambling chased by 2 guys. Somehow the ball is up. The ball is coming to me. I am double covered, but the ball somehow makes it through a few defenders hands without getting knocked down.
It’s tipped by one of the hands though. And the ball spins just enough and there’s just enough rain in my eyes for me to take it off of the ball for that one second. The ball slips right through my fingers and to the ground. My one chance to play under the lights of Husky stadium for the flag football intramural championship. Gone like that.
Other losses have been less intense and less painful than that one. Last season in the Boeing basketball league we were undefeated. Up until the championship game where it all fell apart. 14 straight wins to lose the only one that counts. In other leagues I’m not so lucky.
For softball we didn’t even make the playoffs. In fact, we lost a tiebreaker to another team…just as our team was starting to get hot. The other basketball league I play in we haven’t made the playoffs for 2 seasons running.
So you start to question your ability after awhile. You think maybe you are the reason your teams are losing. Or maybe the people you choose as teammates. Or maybe the refs. You start to place blame, and the ghosts of previous losses come to haunt you. I always have to humble myself and remember that for every winner, there is a loser. Try as I might, I can’t win them all.
This basketball season for the Boeing league had all the makings of another loss in the championship.
We played our best basketball the first few games of the season. And then after that things just went down the drain. Sure, we pulled out victories, but they were ugly. Terrible shooting, turnovers, no defense and laughable amount of second chance points allowed for the other teams.
Making it to the championship game was a miracle in itself. If we hadn’t hit a last second shot in the semi-final game we wouldn’t have even been playing in that game last night.
The game was a struggle from the beginning. The refs were calling everything tight, and we were in double bonus already with more than half of the second quarter remaining. I was on the bench longer than usual this game because I got a quick 3 fouls in the first half and then proceeded to get my 4th foul early in the 2nd half.
The score was tied at half, and emotions were being worn on the sleeves as technicals and double fouls were being doled out by the refs. We knew in the 2nd half we’d have to take over if we wanted to take the victory home. So we turned up the defensive pressure. We went man and pressed full court. Something that had worked in the last game we played. The opponents lost their composure and I could smell blood in the water.
Suddenly what had been a fierce struggle and a tie ball game had started to look like a blowout. We were up by 11 points 54 to 43 and cruising to the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
It was exactly at that point that a player can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. We let up. We thought we had it in the bag. We stopped hustling. We kept trying to slam the door shut, hammer down the dagger – but it wouldn’t come. And by the time we panicked it was too late. We were only up by 4 points now and the other team was closing fast. You could feel the momentum building because they brought a large crowd – and it was the loudest I’ve ever heard that gym. The screams from opponent’s families and supporters was deafening and at the least had me scared.
A few missed calls by the zebras when we had the ball had our team frustrated and making stupid mistakes. Due to the terrible officiating, we had a few key players who had fouled out and no one willing to step up and be the answer. We watched the lead disintegrate. From 54 to 50. To 58 to 59. We were losing now. With 27 seconds left.
Everything was coming to me in waves. This is normal I thought to myself. It’s happening all over again. I’m letting this championship slip out of my hands. I could see the stress on one of my teammate’s face and I tried to reassure him but the voice I heard come out didn’t sound too confident.
We had fouled them in the back court and we got lucky. The person we fouled twice in a row (we were again in double bonus) missed his first 2 free throws in a row. We were again not able to convert on the offensive side and had to foul again – luckily the same player. Still down 59 to 58 he once again missed both free throws. On the 2nd free throw up, I swore I had the jump on the person I was defending but he somehow grabbed the ball just as I was. And as he went up with the ball 2 of my teammates went in for the hack and luckily we prevented the foul and the score.
I looked up at the clock and it read 7.4 seconds left. Not enough time to really get a play off. We were yelling at each other, trying to will ourselves to grab a board, and to remember that we had a timeout just in case we needed it.
The guy had been solid at the line the entire game so I thought we were doomed. Sure enough he hit the first free throw. And at that point I had given up. In my mind, there was no way we were going to get down the court in 7 seconds for an open 3 pointer in order to even tie the game. And if we did tie the game we only had 5 guys available to play what would be an overtime game and a lot of us were in deep foul trouble.
Magically the 2nd free throw came hard off the iron and one of my teammates grabbed it between two guys. 60 to 58 now. All we needed was a 2 pointer to tie, maybe the 3 to win? The rest of what happened is a complete blur to me. It was 7 seconds long, but it seemed much shorter than that:
My teammate who grabbed the board underhanded the ball to me between the outstretched arms of two defenders. I started to dribble out of the backcourt up the right sideline. I could hear teammates yelling my name down the court but I was only looking to get it up the court without turning it over. The defenders came and crowded me as I reached the half court line and the only face I could see was that of our center.
I passed the ball to him to get out of trouble, but he looked terrified and I knew he wasn’t going to be able to make the final shot from half court. I continued running past the half court line and I waved over to him and yelled his name for the ball back as the defenders who had tried to stop me had rushed to him.
I remember catching the ball, and I don’t even remember if I dribbled. I think I did, but viewer accounts say I didn’t dribble at all. I picked up the ball knowing there wasn’t much time left, I looked down court at the block and didn’t really have any other option – less than 2 seconds now and counting down – I threw up a prayer.
The ball was true. It rattled home and I saw the ball go down to the floor, get grabbed by the other team as I raised my fists in the air, sprinted the opposite direction and watched the clock roll over to 0:00 with the buzzer sounding. All I could think of was Derek Fisher vs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RodiAAns6Jk&feature=related
I was laughing hysterically as I watched my entire team chase me to the other court and try to tackle me. Even now when I think of it, I get those chills again. I hope I can look back to this game as a time I saved the team, instead of screwing it all up for them.
This is definitely one for the books. My first buzzer beating shot couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s silly, but I’m very proud of it since I know all of the hard work we put in throughout the season. It feels damn good to be champions of the Everett Boeing basketball league, division 2, fall season.
Here’s looking towards next season where the goal is to go undefeated.
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