Steve and I are one and the same and at the same time no two alike like a snowflake. We started our Basketball Officiating Journey in September 2013; only to both re-start in September 2014, for different reasons. My reason is hardly glamorous; in fact, it’s marred by hubris. My speed reading, basketball playing, smartest person ever-ing a** thought that this would be a cake walk. Well, that walk caked my a**.
I’ve been around Basketball all my life; I played it, coached for a terse time, and most certainly watched, most of the time. Might as well make number doing it. Before those numbers, these mattered. I was only allowed to get 8 wrong out of a 50 question test, but the macabre of getting 9 wrong – 1 more than allotted, allocated an unbearable blow. I had to toil for 365 mo’ days, just thinking that I was already able to officiate. Yet, I can’t EVEN pass the class of my favorite sport.
Steve, in my myopia, had it worse. He passed the written test with flying colors. The only color on the floor was one red slash to denote his 49 answers right. Between Steve, the rule book, and a test taken between A1 and B2, he was a savant.
I would have never predicted I’d be friends with him.
We. GOT. Even.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. I thought the same thing. He told me last year, 2 weeks before his floor test, he went down, practicing at a scrimmage in Manhasset. He tore his Achilles, left for dead.
“I love to work; we don’t approach things like we’re good – we approach things like we’re going to work, and we’re going to work hard. You’re going to get good. If you work that hard you’re going to be great.” – Lil’ Wayne
Maybe it was meant to be. We both came back, with vengeance. We both flew colors this time, left no doubt that we were going to right our wrongs, With. No. Doubt. Left. Except, the scar that the surgery left from Steve’s
“Ever since I was a lower case g, but now I’m a BIG G.” – Montell Jordan
And so, I worked on my play calling; got in where I fit in. The feel of the game was the real – I wanted to know, ubiquitously how to handle situations. Steve was different. He was in the rule book, slowly building his knowledge base until it was
We converge on this podcast at the same damn time.
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” – Leonardo da Vinci
Rules. &. Situations. Episode 2 of the podcast, today.
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