Some people believe that a sport will bring out the worst in a child. I disagree. Sports provide children with competitiveness, camaraderie, loyalty, respect, and responsibility. Basketball has had that effect on me. Basketball has given me my best friends. Being as shy as I am, I would never have as many friends as I do now. I will have these friends for as long as I live. The sport has also given me respect for my teammates, coaches, and elders.

The lessons learned while playing are not just used in the game, but also in real life. My coach once said, “…if you do 110% at all times then it will all pay off in the end.” My first thought was that this speech was just to make us run faster, but I soon realized it also applied to almost every real life situation. For example, I remember it was a must-win game of our season. We were down by 4 at half time and the referees were not helping our cause. The head coach of our varsity team was there watching us play. At halftime, he ran to give a piece of his mind to that lousy referee. He soon came up to the locker room, and we were scared to hear the outcome. If the little speech had gone okay, then we might get better calls, but if it went bad, then we were in deep trouble. He began to speak in his very serious, “I am disappointed in you,” voice. The whole team immediately looked at their feet. But, to our surprise his voice soon changed to an encouraging, “you can beat that mean and brutal team,” voice. We saw a whole new side of him that day and the last half of the game we got a second wind. We came from behind and got the big win.

From that moment, every speech he gave I remembered that kind and supportive side of him. That lesson taught me that even if I am in a tough situation, I should never give up. Basketball has had many other effects on my life and it has taught me many more important lessons like loyalty, respect, and responsibility. Even though basketball is a 12 month sport and it has complete control of my life, you got to love it. I would not have missed this experience for the world. Basketball is the best experience that has ever happened to me.