If you ask my dad what it was like playing basketball when he was a kid, the answer would be simple: He used to gather up as many kids as he could find from his neighborhood and head over to the closest courts. They would play pickup game after pickup game until the sun began to set and dinner was ready on the table. There was no such thing as AAU. Elite camps for the best players didn’t exist, and there was not an endless choice of trainers and coaches to help athletes improve their game. The game of basketball was simple and pressure-free back then, so when and how did the game of basketball and the sports world change?
One reason for the change might be the increasing pressure put on athletes of all ages. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of AAU programs and teams — and an increase in sport camps designed for refining a player’s skills. Along with these camps and fancy teams comes the promise for an outstanding basketball player. This gives parents a sliver of hope their own child will become a world class athlete — and thus the pressure begins.
As a basketball player, I have seen firsthand how these pressures begin and the effect they have on teenagers. I have been playing basketball since I was five years old, and since then I have seen many tears shed by a number of my teammates. But at some point the reasons behind these tears changed: Girls were no longer crying over a scraped knee or a hard foul that left them feeling sore; instead, tears were being shed because of the pressure felt by many of my teammates. The source of this pressure was different for each of my teammates, whether it was the burden of a parent’s expectations or the self-imposed weight of not being good enough. The pressure only continued to intensify as each new basketball season began and the level of the game increased.
This pressure is not only found in the game of basketball — it can be found in any high school sport. I have watched friends begin to resent their parents for forcing them to go to soccer practices or games when they had no interest in participating. I have watched teammate after teammate lose sight of why they chose to play basketball in the first place. Even I have felt tempted to quit basketball. During a season full of drama, I became disinterested in anything to do with basketball and wasn’t sure I wanted the unnecessary stress in my life.
The game of basketball and sports in general are meant to be simple. Sports can be the best kind of medicine for people after a bad day, the perfect escape from reality for an hour or two, or a time to have fun and relax. But at some point in recent years the simplicity of sports was lost. Parents and athletes are continuing to overlook what is truly important about any sport. You have to enjoy a sport for it to be worth it. Because isn’t the reason any of us play sports rooted in the pure joy it brings to us? So how do we get back to playing a sport just for the love it?