A man's game

"Yo. This is a game. This is a man's game." - Xavier McDaniel, New York Knicks

"If you can't take the heat. Get out of the kitchen." - Some other guy (haha)

Thats me in the yellow shorts

I thrive on the competition of sports. I thrive in competitive environments that require some blood letting, pride on the line, mano a mano, violence, adrenaline, action, muscle, testesterone, power, speed, aggression, skill, physicalness. I thrive in situations where you absolutely have to deliver, the game is on the line.

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I love the thrill of being in competition, where the game becomes v simple: Put the basketball in the hole and stop the other guy from doing so. First to 11 wins. Must win by 2. Always. And you forget the aches, the pains, the body blows, totally numb to it, and you are so in tune with your body.

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And when you are in 'the zone', 'the moment', where everything else is blurred and narrowed and totally blocked out, when you are tied 10-10, its a deuce game, first to score 2 wins, and we r bloody and scarred, wounded, can taste blood in our mouths, arms bearing the scars of the battle, and our concentration is totally focussed on just one thing: VICTORY. And you are holding the ball, and your team's fate. And the opponent looks you dead steady in the eyes, eyes locked on yours, arms and legs in a defensive stance, equally determined to stop you. When life is basketball, and the rest are details. When you are running on pure adrenaline, heart pumping and racing, every sense alert and heightened, and the game slows down, and you can read movements and positions and intentions like an open book. THAT, my friend, is one of the things that Life is about.

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And when you are in 'the zone', everything you touch turns to gold. You are King Midas. You feel the ball sticks to your hand like a yoyo, obeying your commands instinctively. You see plays happen before they do. You have a sixth sense of where to pass, where your teammates are. The hoops feels big. Everything you toss goes in. Your confidence is sky high. You know one thing: they can't stop you. You communicate with your teammate via eye contact. You sense frustration in them. You know they are intimidated. They smell fear. And you know you are in their heads, and you have them where you want them, where they will make mistakes. And then you get them to a stage where they start scolding each other. Or your defender doesn't want to mark you and switches with his teammate. And when they resort to dirty tactics and hard fouls. I just sneer and shrug it off. This is a man's game. You can be what you want, but I will beat you. Fair and scquare. And if I really hate you, I will even tell you what I am going to do, and you still can't stop me.

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Thats what its all about. I can't understand how some guys cannot appreciate and partake vigorously in sports, especially basketball, the disrespected sport, where futsal rules. No knock on futsal. How can you be a guy if you are not into sports!? Not very manly! Come on, get btw the court lines and lets play ball, show me what you got. Lets sweat, lets bang, lets knock each other up a bit.

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I get extremely pissed off when a teammate does not show heart, or does not show intensity, or does not play defense, or is a pushover, or is a walkover, or does stupid things with the ball. Where is your pride my man? Where is the PRIDE, that sense of 'you ain't getting this on me pal'. URGH. It happens from time to time, when you are playing hard as fuck and your teammate isn't pulling his weight in defending the other team and they exploit that again and again, and its tough to score and your teammate is gifting baskets to the enemy.

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Why am I suddenly bringing this up?

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Well, I used to be a bball afficionado, but due to various reasons such as injuries, availability, time constraints, etc, I stopped. And it was disheartening to play again and get schooled by people you know you were better than. Recently been trying to play it regularly again, with my boys, now that we are mostly back. We used to travel around, trying diff courts, seeking the best opponents. Now we are out of touch, out of sync. But we are slowly getting there. And its been great, been real fun, to slowly improve as a team, and start defeating the guys who used to defeat us. And we knew all along we were better - we just needed to get our timing, touch and fitness back. Last couple of weeks have had some good games. And this has spurred us on to play more together, to get back as close as poss to where we once were, and reclaim past glories.

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This stuff might be taking it too far. But then, it just means you don't understand.