One major difference between Ireland and the states Is how young athletes perceive basketball players. Realistically, in America if I told a kid that I was a D-3 basketball player they usually just shrug there shoulders and ask why I wasn’t D-1. Here, on the other hand it doesn’t matter if you were Division 1 or Division 6, in the eyes of young Irish athlete we’re all stars. I’m sure other Victory Scholars can attest that some of the reactions at the primary schools we visit are pricesless. The norm when you walk in the door is jaws dropping, getting swarmed with a million questions and kids begging for your Instagram. Many have never seen American “professional” basketball players before so it is our job to make a positive impression on them. Almost all young hoopers dream of being like MJ, Kobe, Lebron. Everything including re-inacting there moves in the backyard, mimicking there celebrations, and completely internalizing their re words of advice. Majority of kids here have never seen high-level basketball in live action so from their perspective, to a much smaller extent, we are that “MJ” like figure.
I realized the amount of influence we have on the young ballers at one of our basketball games a few weeks back. In the week leading up to the game, we ran a basketball camp in different locations around Donegal and handed out free tickets to the upcoming game. When game – day finally arrived I was amped to play in front of a decent home crowd. I had been teaching basketball moves for the past 5 days and I was delighted to demonstrate to the young fans what can happen if you keep practicing. Well in the first half of play, I was horrific! Bricking foul shots, turnovers, air balling shots, you name it. At halftime, I can recall sitting on the bench absoloutely heated. I wanted to make sure the campers that showed up had fun, and I just knewI wasn’t doing that at all. As the game was about to continue, two ten year old campers about walked up to the bench and tapped me on the shoulder.
“Hey can you show me how to do that spin-betweeen-the-legs-thing that you did? That was amazing!”
And then the other said,
“Your doing great can I get your autograph?”
I couldn’t help but laugh and thank them. I promised them that I would do both of those things right after the game. I was humbled. There was I was feeling sorry for myself on the bench when all the while, those kids were just happy to be there and were some how still impressed with what they saw. I realized at that moment that the game was bigger than me. They didn’t care about how garbage I was playing, they were only there to admire basketball on a level they had never seen before. I was thankful to to think that my ability could bring that much joy and excitement to someone. The kids made my day and I was much better more positive in the second half despite a losing effort.
There ended up being over 20+ kids that arrived to that game and judging of there excitement, you would’ve thought we just won a championship. Their positivity and genuine interest in the game changed my perspective. Our situation is allows us to inspire every time we step on the court and that day reminded me of the importance of sitting back and enjoying the process of influencing those around you. That is why I play this game!
