Basketball has changed my life for the better. When I was entering the third grade, my elementary school had a basketball team. The youngest grade group they had was a third and fourth grade team. My older brother already was in the fifth grade and had been playing for two years, which eventually helped influence my decision to play. When I went to my first I immediately loved the game of basketball. Since I was only nine years old, I was able to only play as a guard because I was already shorter than most of the kids at my age. I learned to like the position of point guard as I would set up my teammates and make it easier for them to score. I could also shoot decently as a kid and loved to shoot.
My real love for basketball came when after one practice, my coach told me to go watch some basketball games to study and see how the pros were playing. So I decided to go home that night and I immediately noticed how much fun it was to watch and how good the players were. This led me to asking for NBA2k, a game where I could play as my favorite players. I eventually started following and liking one player and one team, Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets. This moment here would be where I became a fan of the Nuggets and eventually would watch as many games as I could.
I eventually kept playing basketball up until the 8th grade, where during that year I noticed I became too short for the game I loved. I stopped playing but I still kept an interest in the sport. I would still play with my friends sometimes and would still continue to watch it on TV. During the time I played basketball, it taught me how to show up on time, to keep myself in shape, to work on my game outside of practice and how to enjoy and build a chemistry with my teammates.
Fast forward a few years, I started getting back into basketball a lot again. After a bit of decline from track and field, I started paying attention to basketball on the same level I used to do when I was a kid, expect I really started following it like crazy. All of my friends played pickup basketball, which made me get right back into the sport. However, one thing I noticed right away was I had lost some of the ability to shoot as well as I could, and how I couldn’t dribble as well. Another thing I noticed was I really was shorter than most of the people on the court, and since I couldn’t dribble as well, I had to play as a shooting guard since I could still shoot a bit. This made me realize I need to learn and work on my game on my own. So for the next few years, I’d try and play as much basketball as I could on my own, and the results have been paying off. I can shoot better now, know how to defend better, and can even create my own shot. Even with some odds against me, this game taught me how to stay dedicated to something even when the going get rough.
The other half of what made me fall in love with basketball again was watching the Denver Nuggets. It was the 2018-19 season, and now that I was a freshman I had much more time to watch them. So now was the time where I would watch the Nuggets pretty much every night, even sometimes skipping things with my friends to watch games. The NBA season is a long one with a lot of up and downs, but one thing it sure does teach you is how to remain faithful and loyal to a team you’ve loved for so many years.
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