Women in Basketball – Lessons & Life

Yesterday I played basketball. Like many other Sundays. Nothing significant or even weird (for a girl), though I am usually the only female in the auditorium and on the court in that two (2) hour period. What was different this time though was that;

  • Only three other persons from our normal eight person team showed up
  • We had to play with members from another team to make up numbers
  • I have never played with any of those ‘new’ guys before

I am not good at shooting hoops. In fact my first foray into basketball was about three(3) months ago when I joined the guys because I needed to stop wasting my Sunday mornings watching ‘Netflix and Chilling‘ in bed. My height is an advantage for me, I can catch rebounds and high balls – but I am by no means Shaquille O’Neal. So over time, my team trusted me enough to want me on their team, though I am slower than they are.

So, this Sunday morning we were led by a different informal team captain. One I have never played with, and based on further comments thought I was much younger than I actually am (not sure this is important).

While playing with this almost new team, I noticed something. This guy would almost never pass me the ball, no matter how ‘free’ I was. The guys on my old team would use me like any other member, giving me the opportunity whenever it arose. This new guy, no. We played like that for a long time, with him trying to dribble all the way down half court and shooting on his own if his only other chance was to pass it to me.

I had missed a couple of shots, scored a couple, but I kind of stood there and stopped engaging after a while when I noticed I was not in the game once he had the ball. We lost.

After the game, instead of keeping quiet, I asked him if he didn’t notice I was free most of the times – he offered a mumbled apology and walked off.

I sat out the next game. I watched the dynamics between the new all male team. I noticed a couple new things:

  • Everyone seemed to be on even footing now. Everyone had time to touch the ball – captain more than others, obviously.
  • Captain still tried to be a one man show, still missed most of the shots, but people kept passing the ball to him.
  • Even after failing with the last attempt, Captain repeated the technique over and over.
  • They still lost the game.
  • The other team had equally important players, there was no captain.

 

My Basketball Lessons

  • People who know you will trust you more, lean on them when you need to.
  • New people will be skeptical of you, don’t be afraid to prove yourself.
  • Call out unfair/biased treatment if you see it.
  • Sometimes stepping back and observing your team is the best way to see how to approach a challenge. The competition is not always better but may be more unified.

 

I will be playing again next week of course. Hopefully with my old team, but if not, I already started making an impact on the new guys. Next time they may play with me as their equal.

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