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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