With the recently concluded NCAA
tournament’s March Madness, and Louisville Cardinals bringing home the bacon
against Michigan Wolverines; it’s not surprising how the world stops as it
holds its breathe as two elite team clashed. Disregarding Kobe’s arrogant statement, “I ain’t watching shit! They should be watching me” when asked if
he’s going to watch the March Madness’ final four, many of you for sure, still
enjoyed all the thrilling actions it has given to all basketball fans.
We all love basketball for so
many reasons whether be it from a simple street ball game, collegiate hoops, up
to professional leagues and we all have
variety of reasons why. Despite the euphoria it has given the world of sports
we still have to bear in mind that when one’s victorious, the other has to
embrace defeat and learn from it. When you cheer for your favourite team and at
the late push, someone from the other team drains a game-winning-buzzer-beater
(GWBB), it pisses us off our mood; it irks us and leads us to curse the late
game hero, and can’t help to talk about it all night. It happens, it happens all the time when you
compete. No doubt about that. In fact, no true
champion has ever reached the peak of its career without encountering
heartbreaking and unescapable losses during the course of his/her competitive sporting
vocation. Inevitable in its very nature too, we human beings have the inherent
emotional attachments to things and people we adore. That is also the reason
why we fans mourn when we see our team suffer an ‘L.’ A fan’s anguished on a
matchup where his team fell short is completely no matched to the athletes’
feelings that played the game themselves, which is why we often see ace players
anew after a tough season because losses, when viewed objectively, could play a
great impetus for another aspiring season. For those who haven’t tasted defeat
– maybe you’re not human at all, and those who’d testify how devastating losses
are – don’t worry, you don’t have to waste a single calorie uttering your very
own experience because probably we have the same.
For some extraordinary gentlemen
they view defeats as opportunities in disguise. For them, failures force them
to re-evaluate their goals and priorities, and often propel them forward much
faster than continued success. These failures, defeats and losses we’re referring
to are outcomes of subpar performances in the field of sports. In basketball
for example: failing to close out a shooter beyond the arc during clutch times,
failing to crash the boards, and failure to communicate during a pick-and-roll.
All those are just few of the many ingredients that produce inevitable losses
for games that should have been won. To ballers possessed with a competitive
spirit and used or obsessed to winning, ending a game shorthanded not in skills
but the will to win resulting to a loss, absolutely drains them emotionally. Good thing disheartening losses causing depletion
of morale can be healed by replacing them with good memories to look back. Superseding
a tainted record by means of championship calibre kind of return, superstar
type redemption, and setting the bar high by a performance one of a kind are
just few ways how achievers, not just in basketball, silenced their respective
haters.
But what happens when failures
are no longer entitled for redemption? When defeat has gone beyond the unthinkable?
And, when a loss destroys a part of you hampering you to compete for another
try? This is when failure is associated to giving up and this is when defeat is
linked to natural tendencies that has gotten beyond the unimaginable. You
failed when your body has given up rising to the occasion and you were left defeated
because all what’s left in you is only a dream, now unreachable. This is a sad flip side of basketball – yes, injuries.
I’m talking about, career bothering, if not career ending injuries.
To be frank, I think I just saw the worst basketball injury
in my life.
March Madness has given historic
games and unforgettable upsets throughout the whole course of the tournament. However, a historic and an unforgettable
turn of events transpired during an elite eight game between Duke and
Louisville that shocked the world, at the midway point of the 1st quarter when Kevin Ware
attempted to close out and blocking Tyler Thornton and landing badly causing
his shinbone to pop out of its skin. The crowd visibly stunned by the gruesome
incident more especially to Kevin Ware’s team mates sitting on the bench (
Kevin landed in front of the bench as he injures himself) when they witnessed
Kevin on an excruciating pain. Let’s get more of that later.
I have in list my edition of basketball
injuries that has completely changed the way people view the sport. This is
devised for scholarly purposes, to all students of the game and also to those
concerned spectators whose only wish is for the continued elation brought by
basketball. For those who are not immune to gross incidents that may make you
grimace on looking at the scene, I would respect your decision to take a
graceful exit on this blog post, and please as you leave don’t forget to
include Kevin Ware to your prayers for his speedy recovery then recommend this
whom you think would benefit reading.
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Now... For those brave and
willing to see it for themselves my list of basketball injuries that has
completely changed the way people view the sport, let's bring it on:
Edgar Sosa Injury
Anrew Bogut injury
Kevin Ware injury
If a picture is worth a thousand
words, looking at the photo, the word ‘painful’ should be on the record. You might
wanna take a look how it happened here.
During a nationally televised
game Ware accidentally suffered a mind blogging injury that rarely happens in
basketball. Contact sports e.g entertainment wrestling like WWE, mixed martial
arts, and motocross will have injuries like this only once in a blue moon, and
for a game like basketball, chances are astronomically uncommon. He wasn’t
tripped nor was the incident predetermined as soon as he left his off the
ground due to the fact that the action is routinely done by defensive players.
Nonetheless, Kevin Ware’s injury triggered a chaos to college athletes’ health insurance . A relief on his side when his team
proceeded to another bracket of the tournament when Louisville routed Duke and
eventually being crowned as champion when they battled the Wolverines in the
championship, not an insult to injury. It was Ware’s injury that motivated his
team mates to do the extra mile but more credit has to be given to the injured
player when he encouraged his pals not to worry about him and told them to focus on the
game.
"I don't think any of us, with what we had to witness, could overcome it if it wasn't for Kevin Ware saying to the guys repeatedly, 'I'll be fine. Win the game'," says Louisville Cardinals coach Rick Pitino.
Ware was with them sitting on a wheelchair during the
championship and the Cardinal who cut the net off the ring as a basketball
tradition for the winning team.
As I was surfing the net and I
didn’t know why I was routed a men’s magazine site, God, I don’t know if it was
my ISP’s going faulty again or it’s just my notebook requiring a reformat now. Ahem! I suddenly noticed an article
pertaining to Ware’s injury, how’d it happened, and how to prevent it so I’m
sharing it to you guys so you’d be aware too. Credits to Philippines’ most famous men’s magazine for this photo, I’m still overwhelmed how a men’s
magazine site could help men take good care of their bones. Yeah! Up to now I’m
still on the verge of convincing myself about this.
That wraps it up hoop junkies. I
hope this blog post offered a great public service reminder to all of you.
Please include Kevin Ware in your prayers, let’s hope this is the last of the
worst, and take good care of your bones.
On the other side of the court,
playoffs is fast approaching so support your teams and expect more blog posts to
come from me. So long!
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