Duke University; that’s pretty much the only college I knew existed when I was growing up because my brother was overly obsessed with the idea of Duke Basketball. Every square inch of his room covered in royal blue, with Duke t-shirts, hats and player posters covering the walls. He even had a “game day” Duke stool, he took one of our wooden kitchen stools and painted it blue and drew Duke symbols all across it. It was his dream to play at a school like Duke; it pretty much consumed his every conversation, and playing basketball consumed the rest of his life.
Growing up basketball was always a part of my brother Darren’s life. By the time he was old enough to walk, he was grabbing the little rubber ball and throwing it into the Little Tykes basketball hoop. As far back as I can remember there wasn’t a day that I can’t remember going out onto the driveway on a late summer night just to shoot around the basketball with my dad and brother. It was a part of my brother, and a part of our family.
Everything always didn’t come easy though, “I never want to play this sport again. I don’t want to play anymore and I don’t want to on this team.” It was his 7th grade year, the year where he still wasn’t the most athletic kid, still in his semi-gangly stage, but man he could shoot. I will never forget this weekend though. It was an ordinary weekend for me, but for my brother it was the AAU tryouts that he has to nervously await for. He sat in our kitchen talking to my mom, “I don’t know if I’m going to do so good this year, I just can’t get over this cold.” My mom sat there encouraging him, but she knew that it wouldn’t be his best tryout either. He has been sick for nearly a week, and my parents did everything they could to get him healthy by this time, but unfortunately it just wasn’t enough.
He came home that day after try outs with this look of disappointment and anger upon his face, a look that never came up unless something was terribly wrong. At that point I knew that tryouts didn’t go the way he had wanted them to; normally he came home from basketball happy as can be. This was different, he came into the kitchen and sat down, “I made the B team, THE B TEAM,” he screamed with so much anger, my mom and I shared a look, and didn’t know what to say to him.
It turns out that being on that team was one of the greatest learning experiences of his life, he learned so much about basketball in those few months, and ultimately learned about himself and what kind of basketball player he really wanted to be. It wasn’t about what team he was on, but what he did when he was out on the court. He busted his butt off that season to show the players and the coaches that he was truly a good player. He overcame, what to him was the biggest devastation ever.
Growing up, playing basketball was something that he loved to do. It was a hobby for him and he enjoyed every minute of it. The smile on his face after a victory, and watching him lead his team out on the court was something really amazing to watch. He loved that game; in fact I really don’t think he even ever had a girlfriend growing up because he was so consumed in the game.
Basketball had brought him a long way, with a bunch of guys that were as close as brothers. Throughout the years these guys had played together on every basketball team, and fast break league there was. Their senior year was there time to shine, and that’s what they did. It had been an honor for my brother to me nominated as captain for one of the greatest basketball teams to walk the halls of Eastview. This was the first year that the Eastview Boys Basketball team had made it past the section finals and into the state tournament; in fact they still are the only team that has made it to state. They ended up making it into the championship game against Hopkins, but it didn’t matter the outcome because they had already made it so far, this was an experience the boys, and Mr. Gerber would never forget, “It was one of the most exciting experiences that the boys have gone through, I can’t even put it into words the way Darren played that night. It amazed us all.” Although that game didn’t end as they had hoped, that game was what got my brother recognized by Kansas State University.
He knew growing up that playing basketball was something that he wanted to do post high school, it was his passion and he wanted to continue this passion of his. However he never expected to go somewhere to far from home, he always imagined himself at a DII college, he was 6’ 11’’ but was such a scrawny kid that he never thought he could go somewhere big. The day after the state tournament he received a phone call from Jim Aldrich, the head coach of the Kansas State Boys Basketball Team, “we saw you playing in the state tournament these past few days, and we would really like you to come play for us.” It was no Duke University, but it was a full ride scholarship to a DI school. I don’t think I have ever seen my brother more happy then when he hung up the phone, and has made his decision to be a wildcat for the next 4 years.
The next 4 years of his life were some of the hardest, yet most amazing years of his life. He had to get used to living 8 hours from home, and being yelled at on a daily basis while working his butt off to be a top notch athlete. He appeared in 3 NIT tournaments, and 1 NCAA tournament. Playing with some of the top players on his own team like Michael Beasley and Bill Walker, and coached by a very well known coach Bob Huggins. He became such a great basketball player the 4 years he was there, and really grew as a person.
His senior year at Kansas State he was nominated to be the Captain, which again was such a great honor to him. He worked so hard the past 4 years of his like, and to be honest it was very difficult for him he had a lot of ups and downs and a lot of “I cant’s” but he pushed through every struggle he had, and now it had paid off for him. Next year he plans to be going over to Europe to play professional basketball as a career. So this hobby and passion that he had growing up as a kid, had now turned into a career, and he couldn’t be happier to be continuing his passion.
No comments:
Post a Comment