What Sports Taught Me

On Saturdays or Sundays it’s hard to ignore the masses of SUVs gathering in stadium parking lots — large monuments honoring America’s lack of moderation where we over-feed ourselves with sodium-rich, fat-filled food and crappy beer at a four-hundred percent markup.

Indeed, Sports looks like our modern day gladiator games. Sports is flawed, corrupt, greedy and vain. Sports is the downfall of the republic. How dare you, Sports. Shame on you, Sports.

But wait: you can’t blame Sports. It’s us — we made Sports this way. The money, athletes, and media are too convenient to blame.

Sports is innocent. I forgive Sports for flopping, Tim Donahey, steroids, and Donald Sterling — after all, those are all human problems.

I forgive Sports because Sports is trying like the rest of us. Sports has ups and downs, but at its best, Sports is a magnificent teacher. In fact, Sports is one of my most important mentors, and I want to talk about why.

Sports taught me about pain and anger

Sports taught me how to fail, get back up and try harder. Thanks to Sports, I knew what it was like to get punched in the mouth, hit in the face with a baseball, elbowed in the teeth, sprain an ankle, and keep playing.

Because of Sports, I knew what it was like to get picked last. I knew what it was like to get cut from basketball teams once, twice then three times before I made them. I missed game-winning shots and had game-winning shots scored on me. I learned how to get angry about it, dust myself off and get to work.

The pain and anguish of Sports, learning how to cope with them and overcome them, prepared me for life. Sports kept telling me to get back up and fight.

Luckily, it became a habit.

There are no home runs, just inches

Sports taught me that what you do between games and in the off-season matters; that luck is the combination of preparation and opportunity. Sports taught me that winning is about quality of effort and doing things the right way — that you aren’t a winner because of a trophy and there are no shortcuts.

Training, learning, studying and obsessing about your craft is how you excel. Weekend warriors who waltz into the gym and expect to compete get busted. Teams who focus on flair, authentic NBA jerseys, selfishness or retro Jordans get whipped.

A formative experience for me was making my high school team. In my junior year of high school, I was cut from tryouts, second-to-last cut. The next summer, between my junior and senior year, I was determined to make it. I refused to get cut again.

For three months, I played for nearly 3 hours a day. I frequented these courts:

the playgrounds of Mililani: mainly Hokuahiahi Park and Kipapa Park
community gyms at District Park and Whitmore Village
military courts at Sub Base and Hickham AFB

I got my ass kicked every fricking day for a while. I got made fun of, punched, pushed around, bullied. I even got picked on for being (well, half) white, which was new. People made fun of my hair, skin, face, shoes, shirt, school, game, passing, dribbling. I didn’t listen. I kept playing.

I grew tremendously. I ended the summer having changed my entire jump shot, developed my handle, increased my vertical by 8 inches and drastically improved my court vision and quickness. By the end of the summer I had the nickname “batman” for wearing a tattered Batman shirt with no sleeves and folks wanted to pick me up on their team.

All of those battles added up over time made me a better player. I started to win a lot of games, but there was no magical turning point — no home run was hit, no miracles. Success, for me, was the sum of all the inches I clawed for through countless hours of practice and struggle.

Then, the next fall, I made the team. I made it because Sports taught me to fight for all of those inches in the off-season and get back up every day. There was no other way but to grind. The willingness to grind and the feeling you have after is the stuff success is made of.

Value the journey

My dream wasn’t to become an NBA player, although I did fantasize about it occasionally. I wasn’t too focused on long-term outcomes, I just wanted to get better. I learned to value the journey. When I look back, I miss the sounds, smells, feelings of just being there and learning. I don’t think about milestones, I think about the little stuff.

There’s the sound of nylon swishes, the musty smell of the gym, the worn bleachers with spider webs and dust bunnies beneath it and the metallic simplicity of the water fountain. The long nights spent playing 21 or HORSE at Oregon State with my buddy, endless games of 1-on-1 and playing pick-up games until nobody was left.

And there were so many firsts: a no-look pass, a perfect 28-foot shot, pinning someone’s layup against a backboard, dunking for the first time, etc. All were tiny championships.

In life, I’ve come to learn, outcomes matter but not that much. Tiny championships matter, or how you do things. Do you play the right way? Are you someone a teammate would want to go to battle with in the trenches? Do you trust your teammates? Will they back you up in a fight, and you the same for them? Can you win together? Can you lose — and lose bad — together? Can you take feedback from your teammates?

When you start answering yes to those questions, you are winning. Sports taught me that, and I try to reproduce the same thing whenever I can. The quality of your journey and how you do things is what you’ll always remember.

Yay Sports

Sports is human. Sports teaches, heals, unites and fills us with joy. Sports can also divide, destroy, injure and defeat our spirit. Sports is like us, and we are what we make of ourselves. Sports is a reflection of us, for better and for worse, and I’m okay with that.

Sports, you’re alright. Thanks for everything you’ve taught me. I’ve got your back.

Heart statistics

So I got this Garmin device that does GPS in hopes that it’d make me run more. So far it’s been successful. The GPS and Google maps mashups on their activity summary web app are super cool (see full example):
garmin

Over time, if you keep up with it you can see improvements in different categories:

Distance – you can run more as you get in better shape
Heart rate – peaks and average should normalize
Time – you’ll improve your time (ideally!) 🙂

Since I’m not a running super-beast and I’m not very fast, I have been pretty interested in the heart rate! I’m also interested in it because the first few runs were pretty tough because I’d run for a bit (at the speed I remember running at) and my heart would go nuts and I’d have to walk for a bit. For a while I’d have to keep doing that, and my heart rate chart showed why.

On my first run in about 2 years, I was getting owned:
first

After waking up this morning at 430am and going for a crazy morning run (which, if you knew me, is something I never do), I was happy to see this:
new

I still have to walk a bit in the middle of a 3 mile jog, but while I’m running my heart rate remains constant and it never felt like it was going to explode. I’m now able to sustain for longer and I also have less movement between 180 and 200 bpm (Note that the top graph was 1.5 miles and the bottom one was 3 miles).

As I was writing a blog about browsing statistics and how they can improve how we use the web, it made me think of this little Garmin watch and how knowing more about my own body can help me improve my life.

Data is good, knowledge is good. By itself, not so much — but if you use it right it can make all the difference.

Commonly Misinterpreted Basketball Rules

People who play pickup games often don’t know the rules. Unfortunately they also think they are right when they get into an argument with me about the rulebook.

Yesterday I got into an argument with someone over whether or not you can catch your own airball. Guy on my team threw up a layup and it barely missed the rim. He picked it up and layed it up. Traveling?

Surprisingly, no, it’s not traveling anywhere except the NBA. Though in most games at Rucker Park I’m guessing they’d call it a travel.

So this made me think of other rules that I commonly get into arguments with people over. Here’s the top 5:

Catching your own airball is allowed if it was a legitimate shot unless you’re playing your pickup game according to NBA rules, which makes you a douchebag.
The top and side of the backboard is not out of bounds, only the back-facing plane of the backboard is.
Step-throughs are not traveling. An initial jump-stop with two feet makes either foot eligible as a pivot foot. Therefore the act of jump-stopping with two feet, choosing either foot to pivot and stepping through with the opposite foot is a totally legal move even though it may appear to be traveling to an idiot.
The playground hesitation dribble is a carry. You know that move that “all-star” ballers use on you? They bring the ball back, turn their hand over like they are going to shoot it and when you crowd them them resume their dribble and go around you. Well, that’s bullshit and it’s double dribble because they already picked up their dribble.
A player can’t touch the ball until they’ve established legal position. If I’m out of bounds and I jump back in, touching the ball before my feet hit the floor, I’m still out of bounds and I just turned it over to the other team no matter how much I complain.

Of course, none of this matters, because in pickup games the person willing to be the biggest complainer usually gets their way. Doesn’t make them right, though.

Phelps, A-rod and the fame machine

If you’re wondering why we’re so good at tearing down our sports heroes and celebrities, you should read this article by Jeff MacGregor.

Porter Sucks

After winning at home by 48 against a crappy team, instead of using it as an excuse to build his guys up, Porter says this bullshit, “… this win was definitely needed, from the standpoint of our confidence. Maybe we’ll start believing we’re a good team.”

Terry Porter, you are a massive tool.

If I was the coach of a struggling team, I would say something like this, “I knew we had this in us, and this shows that when we work hard we are the best team in this league. I am proud of my guys.”

But you see, Terry Porter is an idiot and silently resents his own players. That’s why they don’t try hard for him, and that’s why he won’t succeed in the NBA.

Rockets: please shut up and leave the building

Holy shit. Best Blazers game I’ve ever been to.

I have never seen a crowd cheer all the way into the train and back to downtown.

And, as an added bonus, we all got free chalupas because of that last shot.

Uh oh Spurs fans

Party is almost over. But, to be fair, Steve Nash will be a weaker defender because of the rule change. 🙂

Yeah, it was a foul

Okay, Brent Barry got fouled.

Awww... poors Spurs fans...

It doesn’t matter.

It’d take more than 10 fingers to count how many times the Spurs’ got ridiculous calls or no-calls. In fact, if you take into account just 3 flops (two by Oberto, one by Bowen) you negate 7 Spurs points and add 6 Lakers fast break points.

Lakers should have won by 20, it was close because of the referees in the first place. Phil Jackson was right during his 2nd quarter interview. The refs turned an 11 point lead into a 5 point lead with 3 consecutive bullshit calls.

Let’s take a closer look at the last minute or so shall we?

Fish’s shot hit the rim. Small detail? How convenient to overlook that.
Odom’s block was legit. Eh, let it slide.

Hank Abbott ain’t talking about those plays, though. Instead he sees an aging Barry and vicariously plays the old guy not getting the fair call on a shot he never would have made. Face it – that shot wouldn’t have gone in. Not even in Hank’s pick-up game that he talks about in his article.

And this isn’t a pick-up game. Even pick-up games — and series — shouldn’t really come down to one play. Spurs still lost to L.A. three other times. Thing is, they know it’s over now, and it sure stings doesn’t it?

But after all the crying, shameless flopping, cheap-shot Rob plays and getting away with continuously fouling Kobe and CP3 — isn’t it a shame that when the Spurs play, win or lose, there’s always some trailer about the refs or dirty this or that?

It should be about basketball.

Then again, maybe it is — sometimes the ball rolls where you don’t want it to. Sometimes the calls don’t go your way. Sometimes your star player is chucked into a scorer’s table on purpose and you lose the series because of a technicality (yeah, I’m still pissed).

The game isn’t perfect, people aren’t perfect, refs aren’t perfect. One bad call after another or just a poetic reflection of the human condition? You be the judge.

Anyway, Spurs should just be grateful they’ll have all of their starters back. Sure would suck to lose two starters for a game 5, huh?

Stupid.

Statistically speaking, most series where the home team is the better team do end 4-1. I hope Hollinger was right. Would be nice to watch real basketball in the Finals and not feel the urge to ship a barge of No More Tears to Timmy and Manu after every play.