A good result ... and a last hurrah

My girls won the firm's mini Olympics basketball competition!

In the final we had to beat a team that we 'ambushed' in the preliminary rounds - and who seemed to think we were not good enough to beat them. They complained about our 'rough play' - when their problem was really that one of my girls (unexpectedly) had the capacity to play good man to man D on their best player and completely disrupted their game.

In any case, they were determined to beat us the second time around. My team was equally determined to win again. This is a bit unusual for Indonesians - who are usually cooperative rather than competitive. I suspect there was a bit of Collingwood (slums) vs Melbourne (silvertails) - or Lakers (Showtime) vs Celtics (Blue collar). In our case it was professional staff against secretarial / support staff - with my team being the ones who felt they were being expected to 'know their place'.

So quite a final was in prospect!

I decided we needed some new defensive wrinkle to create the same lack of composure that won us the first game. At this stage anyone who knows basketball is going to think I'm nuts, but I taught my team (of one stud and 9 beginners) to play a 2 - 2 - 1 zone press. To cut a long story (slightly) shorter - their first 3 possessions resulted in 3 turnovers and 2 baskets for us. Not long after we were up 8-0 and we coasted to a 15-5 victory playing our second stringers for much of the second half.

It didn't hurt that Lisa played a great game offensively - although she and our second option (Chiara) had to withstand a mauling to do it. Our opponents played rough in the final - while we only ever played tough.

That made it extra good to win!

Later that day I left a competitive basketball court for the last time. I played 2 minutes in each half of the (so called) Allstar game. It was a bit like the rest of my basketball career really - a few points, a few rebounds, but not really what I should have been capable of.

What matter?

I will remember scoring 24 points against Waimea College for my high school in 1970. And playing for the Marlborough mens team as a schoolboy. Then when playing for Victoria University, how we slowly improved over 3 years. The competitive games against Marist and Coca Cola - and finally the victories. We won the 1974 New Zealand National Club Championship beating Marist in the semi and Coke in the final - even if I sat on the end of the bench by that stage. I will remember a few good games against class players after I stopped playing for Vic Uni - (so I could start and not play behind national team centre John Saker). I'll remember scoring a bunch for a team in London with an old Vic Uni team mate (Kevin McGrattan) watching and being ticked off for taking jump shots instead of powering to the basket. I'll remember dropping in 4 hookshots in a row from the right hand block (off Neil Faulkner entry passes) in a game at the old Albert Park stadium. And I'll remember playing just one game with son David at Broadford Stadium - which was when my knees finally started to hurt.

In life I aspire to follow the wise counsel of Coach John Wooden. He says "Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but rather by what you should have accomplished with your abilities". I never really worked hard enough at basketball - to claim accomplishment. It wasn't until I was a very slow triathlete in my mid 30s that I think I got close to doing that.

But sport is not only about 'being your best' - it's also just about fun - and I've had a lot of fun playing basketball - and rugby, cricket, squash, golf, soccer, ten pin bowling, table tennis, tennis, 40 or 50 fun runs including 2 marathons and 60 or 70 triathlons including 1 Ironman!