You Can't Shoot the Ball if You Don't Have the Ball

 

You Can't Shoot the Ball if You Don't Have the Ball, period.

Guess this is a no-brainer. You can't shoot the ball if you don't

have the ball. But for the duration of the NBA Finals last week, Duncan Robinson, today's hottest shooter in the NBA, was showed a video clip on the eve of every game by the Miami Heat versus the heavily favored LA Lakers. Why did the Miami Heat brain trust [including its leader, Jimmy Butler] prepared those video clips for a shooter who has proven his mettle throughout this NBA Season? What was at the very core of each of the video clips the Miami brain trust kept playing for Duncan? Simply put, you can’t shoot the ball if you don’t have it.

‘Twas because, in the grueling NBA Finals, every player needs to raise the bar, step up, take the next notch higher. As the NBA Finals will progress in a biting Best-of-Seven Series, your best plays in Game 1 will not be enough as the series progresses. That shot of Jimmy Butler gasping for whatever fuel remains in his tank went viral in Game 5. And that picture didn’t need any caption because it said it all.

In our lives, we all got our goals, we all need to shoot but how common and frequent is it to witness or be made aware of someone indeed wanting to shoot but it happens he “doesn’t have the ball”?

Without the grit, you will be ‘grated’ out.

Without the guts, you’ll end up in the gutter.

Without that ‘fire in the belly’, forget your goals.

Such is life. Even fruits from those fruit-bearing trees are nurtured, they are hard earned. Only the old school of thought will egg you to just lay flat on the ground and wait for the fruit to drop. That ain’t happening these days. Why? There could be worms which will prey on the fruits up there even before it’s supposed to drop.

Going back to that grueling NBA Finals last week, the key message in life is that whatever best you gave in your initial trials in life will not be enuf when you’re face with your next trial. You gotta step up.

Trajectories goes either upward or downward. It will never plateau. So, as you trudge in life, even your trials and tribulations will never get tamer. Life will get tougher. Tomorrow’s problems will be worse than yesterday’s. And next week’s problems will likely be worst than tomorrow’s.

Don’t look far. We’re all in the same boat, stuck up in this long-drawn pandemic. Heard and seen those flash floods? Decades ago, roads get flooded after a Typhoon Signal #3 hits the ground. These days, all it takes is a modest downpour for an hour and presto! Floods are neck-deep right in the metro’s main thoroughfare, with sedans running aground, breaking news unheard of a decade ago.

Quoting Michael Jordan, basketball’s greatest player: ‘The game has its ups and downs but you can never lose focus of your individual goals and you can’t let yourself be beat because of lack of effort’. Such is life as well, never lose your focus even as you step up after every milestone success. Never get drowned and prematurely celebrate with ‘kampais’.