Thursday, January 26, 2023

Four Basketball Games, One Baseball Practice, and a Run to Remember

One of JP's buddies from school asked him to play on his recreational league team this morning at 9 a.m. at the old Cohn High School building in Sylvan Park.  Joe had basketball games at 10 and 11 a.m. at CPA. JP had baseball practice, indoors, for his travel team at MBA.  Then, Joe had a basketball game at 4 p.m., also at MBA.

Four basketball games, one baseball practice.  Just another Saturday in January for us.  

Oh, and after I picked JP up from MBA after baseball practice and brought him home, I ran 5.5 miles, back to MBA, so I could watch Joe's basketball game.  

For me, a perfect Saturday.  

This morning, before Joe's first basketball game, I showed Joe a YouTube clip of "White Chocolate"- Jason Williams.  Old school.  He loved it.  Williams whirling, spinning and, most importantly, passing to teammates for assist after assist.  

In his first game - against admittedly weak competition - Joe started out like "White Chocolate," as he passed to teammates for the first three buckets of the game.  He passed to a teammate for a layup on their first bucket.  Next, on a 2-on-1 fast break, Joe looked away as he drove down the right side of the lane and passed the ball to his teammate for another layup.  Pure "White Chocolate," channeling Jason Williams.  It as awesome.

The best part, though, came a minute or two later when Joe drove into the lane and whipped a behind the back pass to . . . nobody.  Turnover.  I laughed and laughed.  I love the creativity and, more importantly, I loved that Joe had the cojones to try the pass.  For me, that was, by far, the best part.  That's Joe, for sure.

Later, my run was damn near perfect.  One of those days I run all year for, you know?  Shorts and t-shirt in January, a different route, running to somewhere.  A fast pace, too, for 5 + miles.  Slightly under 8:00/mile.  And I felt really, really good.  It was one of those runs where I felt thankful and blessed to be a runner.

Overall, a perfect Saturday.

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