Your Basketball Career

[Gator]

Have you guys ever been on a basketball team? Did you start or were you benched? Are you going to tryout for the team when the tryouts come soon? What was your favourite game ever? Did your team ever make it to the finals or playoffs?

If so, post all of your highschool basketball stories here.....

[Oznogrd]

Just high school? or we can do whole stories? I know many people here talk about playing alot and still do...but anyway heres my stories:

I'm going to preface this by saying to anyone/everyone who has never seen wheelchair basketball: If you took away lateral movement and jumping/dunking as being an important aspect of basketball, a basketball based on fundamentals: thats what wheelchair basketball is. Everything comes down to position and speed.

I played from 7th grade through my senior year of high school. In wheelchair ball, before high school you play on a lower rim (8.5 ft). The first year, i started and we ended up 6th of 8 at nationals. The next year, we added 2 new players and proceeded to win the 8.5 foot championship by 1 point in overtime. Then we moved up to 10 foot. Unfortunately my coach douched out on us for the next several years. Most wheelchair basketball teams meet at least once a week for practice, we were meeting once a month. But anyway, there were no tryouts, anyone who wanted to play could play but they just werent promised much. But anyway, we had the same coach for my first 5 years. He was one of those guys who never took the starters out except for foul trouble or getting a tech (their punishment). So i didnt play much. It wasnt for lack of skills though. I was 3rd fastest on the team (out of 10), probly the best or 2nd best passer (hard to quantify) and our 2nd best defender outside of the post...I usually played wing, setting picks and double screens for our 3 main shooters. occasionally i would get a fast break or a nice little mid range shot, but my career high was 7 points. Anyway, my senior year, i wasnt getting much play time and i was actually about to quit to focus on graduating etc. My coach called me, had a 2 hour conversation, and convinced me i needed to play and i would get decent PT this year. He wasnt lying. I went from playing 15 minutes tops to playing 25-30 (We play college style with 20 minute halves). My coach once explained it to me that it was because when we were down by 15, i was the only player who would still play as if we were only down 1...the only time i got complacent was in blowouts against the other team when it was a bunch of little kids or something. We ended up 13th at nationals due to poor seeding and we had to play the national champs of that year first round. After that, we were still reeling and lost to a team we should've beaten. Then we dominated the losers bracket. (We were seeded 13th and got 13th going 2-2...the number 8 team lost all their games by blowout margins, i hate politics). And i guess i'll quit rambling more and let other people talk. Flash 02 suggested talking about play styles one time and i wouldnt mind discussing that if there is enough interest....I no longer play and me writing this much just proves how much i miss it...

[cklitsie]

There have been various thread about this already, most notably http://www.nbaliveforums.com/ftopic21510.php