Hoop Notes

I've decided that I need to get obsessive and fanatical about exercise. So I went and shot baskets.

A Saturday afternoon, windy and rain showers lurking. I drove to the local middle school and after checking the parking lot for cars and witnesses (none) I parked and made the uphill stroll to the outdoor baskets.

My first thought? "This rim looks high." Of course that was also my first thought the last time I shot baskets and that was a different playground ..... So maybe it's me?

Again the knees didn't want to cooperate and my first shot clanked off the rim almost breaking the reinforced steel, the ball bouncing far away. I was hoping that it would just come directly back to me like it does after a perfect swish.

Ten more attempts without a make .... all short because of the seemingly elevated rim before it occurred to me that additional thrust was needed. That required increased bending of stiff knees.

The next shot rimmed in and out, the one after that, a swish!! Two or three more misses followed before another swish! After that, four out of five swishes. "Hey this is coming back to me!" Just one issue .... on the last swish the ball failed to drop completely through the net. So there I was, standing below the net looking up and thinking: "Oh no! How am I going to get that down?" ..... There was no way that I could jump up there.

Or was there?

It raced through my mind that I was going to have to drive home for a long stick or broom handle to break the ball free from the net.

It was then that I decided to try. To attempt to elevate like the old days and knock that damn ball down. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, in hindsight the most important step, again bent my creaky knees, reached for the sky and jumped. I managed to nick the ball with the fingernail of my middle finger ...... But that was enough!! The ball fell and I returned safely to earth from the two or three inches of elevation that had been achieved.