Make It Take It In Basketball & Life
One basic rule of basketball is a change of possession after one side scores. I grew up playing a form of basketball called “make it-take it.” If I made the shot, I retained possession. Conceivably, if I scored on each possession, the other person wouldn't get to play offense. Of course, this never happened. I missed a lot. I kept playing. I took my best shot and lived.
In adult life, I encountered another street rule, fake-it till you make it. After a long jagged learning curve, I finally learned, since points are not given for faking, only for making, I still had to shoot in order to have any chance to make it. I could not score without taking the shot and taking as many as possible. I went from having a lot of possessions and never taking a shot to taking a lot of poor shots. It was an improvement.
In retrospect, I don't care how many I've missed. I don't care how many I've made. I care how many of the shots I take now are the best I'm capable of taking, making and not faking.
This game has always been between two of the oldest rivals, my strengths and my weaknesses. If I'm to come from behind in this lifelong series I have to reduce the number of possessions given up by careless mistakes and stolen by my weaknesses. I have to stop throwing up a prayer, without the ball going with it. I have to have a long memory rather than a short one and allow my spirit to call the plays. Through much practice and better coaching, I am taking better shots by making better use of my teammates.This keeps the possession of my life out of the hands of my weaknesses. That alone is enough to go from being self-defeated to living fully as intended kinda like what Miami did to San Antonio in Games 6 and 7.
