Wanna Be a Baller

I had a basketball game on Friday. As I was warming up, Rian joined me on the court, as he does before and after all of my games. Usually he just rebounds for me and the other guys on the team, but lately he has been shooting more and more. When he shoots at a full-sized hoop, as we were on Friday, he shoots granny-style, holding the ball underhanded below his waist and scooping it up to the hoop in one motion. He just isn't strong enough to shoot overhanded at a hoop that high. Even when shooting underhanded, strength is the biggest problem. It is usually cause for celebration if the ball gets high enough to touch the net. He has never so much as hit the rim, much less made a shot. But he tries. Over and over and over.

So there we were on Friday. The game wouldn't start for about 15 minutes, and the gym wasn't very full yet. I was working on my touch around the basket (after missing about 5 shots from point-blank range last week... sigh) and Rian was hoisting granny shots up toward the rim. I was in between shots and happened to catch Rian lob another ball up toward the basket. Right away I could tell the trajectory of this shot was different than all of his others. It was going higher, faster. I turned and watched as it rose higher and higher toward the rim. The ball reached its apex just as it got above the rim, landing on the front of the rim. Time seemed to stand still as everyone watched, wondering if it would curl over the rim and into the basket, or fall back toward the floor and the wide-eyed boy that had thrown it so high. The whole thing took less than a second, but felt like it lasted much longer. The ball hesitated for a moment on the rim, then rolled forward and into the hoop.

Rian had made his first basket!

I let out an exclamation that got the attention of everyone in the gym, and made sure that everyone around knew the significance of what had just happened. Not only was this Rian's first basket, it came on a full-sized (10') hoop and with a full-sized ball. He was beaming as he received high-fives from my teammates and me, unsuccessfully trying not to smile.

So that's how Rian made his first shot.