We are a good month into the basketball season for some schools and a couple of week for others.
The season is going well for some. We have some better teams than I expected at the first of the year.
It is a long season though.
What is not getting long is my patiences for people who are causing trouble.
They may not think they are, but they are.
You find these people mainly on Facebook, because it is the platform that most of these people use. We all know that Facebook is the best place to get coaching advise. I don’t know why college and high school coaches are not spending all of their time on The Facebook to get those pearls of wisdom dropped by people who know so much about the games.
The comment’s I read this week were from one school. However, it could have literally been any school’s fan that were involved.
It started with naming a player and saying he was the outstanding player of the game.
Then another agreed with the first person and started to complain about how the players of the game's awards are always the one that scores the most points.
One writer stated some truth, stating it takes defense, rebounds and passing for a team to win.
Those words are true, but started to complain again about how “Little Johnny” wasn’t selected.
This person had to speak her mind. She so wanted everyone to know how she felt.
She was so selfish in her desire to be heard that she didn’t care what kind of damage she was going to do to the team.
To those who don’t know how a team works or in particular a basketball team, here are a few pieces of knowledge.
It takes five people doing their individual jobs for a group to have success. Some players are lock-down defenders. That means they take pride in being able to stop the other team’s best scorer.
Then there are scorers. Those are the kids who can throw up any shot and some how it goes into the goal.
There are those physical players who push around the other team’s players inside the paint. (Inside the paint is the area called the lane where players can stand for three seconds before having to get out of that particular area.) Some players have an ability to see where the basketball will bounce after a missed shot. They collect rebounds like I collect speeding tickets.
Some players can pass a basketball through eight other players to find a player under the goal.
It takes everyone for a team to have success.
These kids develop a friendship and a family bond. However, Aunt Suzy thinks Little Johnny was overlooked so she is going to rant and rave about it.
Even though these kids have a bond, Aunt Suzy is driving a little bit of a wedge between them every time she has something to say. Then Uncle Bob joins in with comments and then Mom and Dad hear this enough and decide that Little Johnny is not getting his just due as a player.
Little Johnny hears this enough. He knows he can’t make a layup to save his life. He knows he will not hit two free throws in any trip to the free throw line, but he begins to believe what is being said.
Then all of a sudden Little Johnny becomes the Devo Davis of the basketball team. He can’t make a layup and turns the basketball over multiple times in the final minutes of the game. He feels he needs to be the hero and he doesn’t even have a cape to wear for the role.
I am making light of the situation, but folks' stupid comments like the ones I saw posted will do nothing, but damage a team.
Keep your mouth shut. Keep your fingers off of your phone and sit in the stands and cheer for the team.
Don’t speak non-sense in front of Little Johnny. He doesn’t need it. Your team needs you to be supportive.
If you want to select the player of the game, become an insurance agent and pick away.
Jeff Brasel is the sports and managing editor of the Newton County Times. E-mail him at sports@newtoncountytimes.com or follow him at twitter.com/jeffbrasel.
