The bind that ties

I had my first game with the first team on Saturday. It was a 2 hour trip to Getxo, which is just outside of Bilbao. If you wanna check out more on my hoops club, have a looksee, Ardoi Baloncesto.

It was an interesting first go. I haven´t been in an actual seriously comptetive game for a while. Suddenly I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. I should own this (I thought), I need to make the people who helped me get this opportunity see it was worth the work they put in, I need to represent America well!!! Ok, Darb calm down. That´s what I needed to hear.

We won our game, but it wasn´t pretty. I had a few theatrical moments that I wasn´t proud of and I was getting frustrated. The last thing I need to do is freak out. I missed some easy layups and made some crappy passes, got yelled at by a few teammates in Spanish and travelled... twice. It didn´t feel good. By the end of the game I was disappointed and embarrassed, not in my team at all, but myself.

I called mom and dad right when I got home and gave themn the low down. They said, Darb don´t be silly and have some fun. Dad said, "Darb, remember, basketball is the bind that ties..." mom and I laughed right away, because of course, he was a bit backwards. Oddly enough, it fit for this situation for the phrase to be backwards. I felt bound by the fact that I thought I should be kicking ass and it tied my hands behind my back and made me play less effectively.

By yesterday afternoon, I felt better. I had given the game more thought, rather than just how I played. We were running plays into the ground, going through one screen and quitting, not really running anything that gave me a good opportunity to score, not scoring from the outside... it was the first game back after Christmas and people were shaking the rust off. I mean the final was 51 to 43, no one was really scoring.

So, on to the next one, which I think is on Sunday. It´s supposed to be a big one. We´re tied with the team and we´ll have to go hard to win. Those are always the games that are the most fun.

Now, I must read a book in Spanish that I´ve been putting off for way too long. Sorry for the short/serious update, but I´ll send some laughs back home soon. Love you!