As a kid, I always watched professional basketball and watched my brother play basketball on multiple teams. I was ultimately surrounded by basketball my whole life. I always found the sport fun, even in kindergarten. It was only until second grade, where I took the game of basketball seriously. I began to play on an AAU team, and I was developing the fundamentals and basics of the game. I realized that I was actually pretty good at basketball, plus it was fun for me. I kept playing since then, and have only gotten better and better. As I progressed and grew older, it became clear that my practice had paid off. I was always the best or one of the best on my teams. Then, the middle school season began and our team was looking to win it all. We practiced hard, put in hard work, stayed focused, we had a good brotherhood and good chemistry. We made it to the championship, today was the day to show out.

On the bus, everybody was quiet. We were listening to music in headphones and staying focused on the big game. I was thinking to myself, this is really the last game of the season. We still have next year, but we didn't come this far just to lose. Eventually, we arrived at the school, I was anxious, nervous, and excited. We all walked into the locker room, we played music on the speaker and were trying to get psyched for the game. I was changing into my jersey, and everything was hitting me. This would really be our last game of the season, no more practice, no more bus rides to other schools, no more of anything. We walked into the gym, it was noisy and the stands were packed with students and fans. My adrenaline was rushing, and my body was full of energy. While I was warming up, I had nothing on my mind, no distractions, nothing. I was mentally focused and nothing was going to phase me.

The game was about to start, we were all in the huddle. Coach Mitchell was going over the plays and the game plan. I was locked in, the game was a couple of seconds away. Coach Mitchell was done talking and it was time to start, “Hard work on 3, Family on 6!” I exclaimed. “1… 2… 3…”, “HARD WORK!” the team yelled.” “4… 5… 6…”, “FAMILY!” they cheered again. The starting five walked onto the court, and it was game time. At the beginning of the first quarter, everybody was nervous and still had the jitters. But, in time, the game started to pick up the pace and we were playing for real. At the end of the first quarter, time was running out and I had the ball and I shot at the last second… I made it! We were up by 10 points, but the second quarter was bad. The other team was fighting for the win and started to come back. We were throwing turnovers and playing loosely. By the end of the second quarter, we were only up by 3 points. I was disappointed and upset. We shouldn’t have let them come back into the game. We were now heading into a room at halftime, to talk about the first half. I was determined to win and wanted to play hard in the second half.

We walk into one of the rooms in the gym at halftime, we are all breathing heavily, drinking water, and are tired. But, we still had more fight in us. Coach Mitchell was coming up with different plans to beat their defense, so we could score easily. I looked around and most of us had our heads down like the game was already over. We still had a whole other half of basketball to play, and we could win the game. I was now used to the environment and I was comfortable. I was listening to Coach Mitchell and remembered that this is the last game of the season, and I wanted to make sure I did my best. We were still winning by three points, but it seemed like the other team figured us out. We couldn’t score as easily, and they were beating our defense almost every possession. We needed to go into the second half, with intensity and the desire to win. This was a very good team we were playing, and I knew it was going to be a battle. We headed into the gym once more and got ready to finish up our last game.

The second half was rough, we were diving for balls, playing aggressive, bumping each other, and fouling. Both teams knew that this was going to be the last game, and no team was going to try and lose. We were trading points, and the game was very close. The atmosphere was intense, the fans were screaming and were out of their seats, both coaches were yelling out different plays, us players were talking to each other on the court, the sneakers going up and down the court, the basketball pounding against the hardwood floor, and the buzzer going on and off. But in the fourth quarter, there was a series of events. First, we allowed them to score, then one of my teammates threw a turnover and they scored again. They were now up by two points, and we were all in shock. The game just slipped out of our hands that easy. There was only a minute left in the entire game, it all came down to this. All the practices, all the games, all the hard work and dedication, all was done for this moment. Now up by two points, the other team had the ball. We needed to play phenomenal defense in order to score again. While one of the players was driving to the hoop, my teammate fouled them. This was bad, there was now only seconds left in the game. The other team was at the free-throw line and got a chance to gain two more points. The first shot… swish! The second shot… swish! With only a couple of seconds, we needed a prayer if we wanted to win. I dribbled up the court, and with only ten seconds left on the clock, down four points, there was no way to win. I passed it up the court, my teammate shot and missed. The last buzzer went off and with that, the game was over. I couldn’t believe it. Everything was for nothing, I felt like a loser.

The stands were going crazy and all the fans were cheering for their team. Every cheer hit me in my heart, I looked around, all my teammates had their heads down and were down in the dumps. We just couldn’t accept the fact that we just lost in the championship. We headed into the locker room, nobody said anything. “Keep your heads up, this isn't the end. There is still next year, be proud that you made it to the championship in the first place,” Coach Mitchell announced. “I don't care, we just lost the championship. There's nothing to be proud of,” I exclaimed. Nobody said anything after that, so we walked silently to the bus. On the bus, I had time to think about the game and the entire season. I reminisced about every practice, all the games, and the memories this team had. Honestly, I wasn't that upset with losing this game. The whole team made some mistakes, but we take the loss as a team and can only try to be better for the future. I knew that I could have done better in this game, I could have tried harder, and made better decisions. Overall, I was still unhappy with losing any game, but as long as I learned from this game I would be fine. My seventh grade basketball season was now over, and I did all the thinking I needed to do as soon as we returned to our school. The team got off the bus, and all went our separate ways.