Backboard Game

It had nothing to do with March Madness or the NCAA final championship game between Arkansas and Duke in 1994, but it was one great game.* In fact, it was one of the greatest games I have ever witnessed. It was a basketball championship game in which my youngest son played. This basketball program of the junior high level was sponsored by the Park District in our community. There were two team members that will forever be fixated in my mind. One was the point guard and the other was my son, the-two guard. Our team lost that game, but it should have never been close. The point guard had great speed and some great offensive skills. My son was a great ball-handler, great free-throw shooter, and blessed with great defensive skills. This game was lost because the point guard did not do well at the point. With too few passes on offense, he missed far too many layups. He would race down the court in Nascar speed only to miss too many uncontested layups. Such weakness was not revealed until the last game, and by then, it was too late. The point guard was short and never learned the magic of utilizing the backboard for maximum performance. The ball would fall short of the goal where it needed to be in order to bounce into the hoop. Sometimes, basketball is all about the backboard. 041320PoSp *This happened in 1994 and was written in longhand some years later and not dated. I found this story a couple of days ago in my garage. This was written at least 10 years ago.