The Best Of The Best

I played basketball on the Freshman B team last year. I practiced every day after school and we played games twice a week. The practices were an hour long and relaxed, running drills and practicing plays. While I was not in any way extremely good, it was fun exercise and an overall good time. Allonzo Trier plays basketball for 7 hours a day. In is apartments gym with his mom, at another city gym with a private ball-handling instructor and then two hours with his All-Star team. Talk about a love for the sport. Allonzo is 13. He has his own clothing line and the attention of college scouts. But Allonzo came from humble beginnings. He doesn’t know anything about his father except that he was black and 6 foot 3. His single mother earns a modest salary as a social worker at a shelter for victims of domestic violence. But despite his normal circumstances, Allonzo is anything but normal. At a young age he was determined to be the best and that sense of determination hasn’t run out yet. He is a committed player, he has to be: to be able to sustain the long hours of practice that are required to become good. Unlike other sports like football or soccer basketball is a mostly inner city sport and good players come from all income levels. I play occasionally play basketball remedially on intermediate teams or shoot hoops in my back yard, missing baskets in a game is alright and losing is ok as long as you play hard. But some people like Allonzo can’t miss a shot. They know that every game they play is being watched by college scouts or commercial business like Nike who pick out only the best and leave the semi-good ones behind. Allonzo’s mom said, “If his game falls off, they will kick him to the curb. That’s what makes me nervous, and I don’t want that to happen” While most of us just play for the exercise and fun of it, some people show extreme determination to overcome their current standing and be the best.