It's about damn time (total bragging)

[Rounder041]

Greatest sports achievement would have to be the time when I was sopohmore in high school. I was on the basketball team, but didnt get the most PT, so pregame a friend of mine and I are shooting to get warmed up, and I say to him..."I GARUNTEE you I hit a last second three but it wont matter because we will be up like 50." His reply was a pretty standard "Right, right." So...the game goes on, and we sit on the bench chatting, our team is handling the opponent with ease. Then the fourth quarter comes...we are up by about 30 with a few minutes remaining, and the coach starts putting in some fresh legs. We get the signal and are put in. Anyway, the clock is ticking down, maybe 5 seconds left, we inbound the ball, another friend of mine passes it over half court to me, I take one dribble, pull up and nail a triple as the buzzer goes off. I then casually glance over at my friend who I GARUNTEED a last second triple, give him a smile and a little shrug as if it were nothing and walk off the court. Needless to say, from that day on, if I garuntee something, he takes me word for it.

[NLSoldier]

My greatest sporting accomplishments have come while playing with Rounder041 in our annual 2on2 easter bball touney.

There are 16 teams usually made up of one varsity player and one scrub (to keep it fair and competetive). Needless to say, Rounder is the stud and I am the scrub. In the first year the tournement was held, in our 2nd game, we were up against our other friend, Ben, (the kid rounder made the garantee to in the above post). Rounder had an off game and we were sure to lose. But I somehow stepped it up, scoring 7 of our 11 points and hitting the game winner. Ben, the friend whose team we beat will not let me hear the end of the fact that the "game of my life" came against his team.

The other best accomplshment happened this past easter. In a rematch of what was the best game the year before, Rounder and i were against the kid who organized the tournement, and arguably its bets overall player since it was played on his home court. Our game went into OT and it was "next bucket wins" so they decided to start fouling me every time i got the ball. ( I mentioned I am the scrub member of my team right?). The first time they did it i missed, but the second time I banked it home for the game winner of by far the best game of the whole tournement, finally avenging our hard fought loss from the year before.

[Rounder041]

I would deffinetly have to say that the game in the 2v2 Easter tourney was unbelieveable. The court was in this kids backyard...it was cement but it was only about 1 foot bigger than the lane all the way around.
There must have been like 50 people jammed right up against the court in folding chairs and on picknick tables. If they were to extend their legs, their feet would be on the court.

This was the game of the tourney.

The tourney usually lasted a number of hours seeing as there were quite a few teams, so people would get bored, wander around or even leave for a while, but not this time. Every last person was devoting 100% of their attention on THIS game. There were tons of people who came and didn't even play, they came, sat, and watched us play basketball for hours.
This game with NLSoldier and I vs. the host and his brother was like an epic battle. We went back and forth, each team hustling like mad, diving on the concrete, scraping our knees and elbows (we couldn't feel it, were numb with intesity) leaping over the closely packed crowd to save a loose ball, every posession mattered, every little play could have been the difference in the game.
We went back and forth each team scoring, then each team would stop the other, then one would get up by two posessions, and the other would rally back to tie the game. After much of this, we reached overtime. Where NLSoldier decided to shine... next team to score takes home the victory. Like he said, they chose to foul him, putting the pressure on, making him shoot the free throw in the clutch.
When he stood at that line, dribbling the ball, that backyard was silent, the only thing to hear was the sounds of the players on the court catching their breathe...

...NLSoldier took his time...

...looked up at the hoop and released...

...every head in the backyard could be seen following the shot, up it went, smack off the backboard and through! The crowd erupted! Mauling our team on the court, I didn't think it would have been possible to jam so many people onto such a small patch of concrete, but sure enough, those crazy fans made it happen. NLSoldier's clutch shot gave us a key W in the win column. He was the hero. Now that was a game for the ages.