My earliest clear memory is probably in 4th grade during a basketball game and it was the semi-finals. I was nervous to play. My team was nervous. And my coach was nervous.

The game start and we won the jump. I caught the ball and passed it to Noah. Noah brung the ball up the court and we ran our play. I ran to the post and set a pick for Noah, I rolled of the pick and Noah passed the ball back to me. I caught the ball and kicked it out to another one of my teammates. They shot and missed, I grabbed the rebound and put it back up getting the foul call.
“On the floor, #41 black with the hold” The whistle was loud even they opposing team knew I guessed based off their face expressions. “I got it.” one of my teammates said but I replied back with “Nah, I’ll take it” as I grabbed the ball out the ref’s hands. I passed the ball to Noah at the key he pulled up for the three and he banked it in.

“Timeout!” the opposing coach yelled, his face red and tired.

“Timeout, black, 30 seconds coach.” My coach just told us to stay on the court and I overheard their coach telling them; “The key to playing a zone defense is to force bad shots and get defensive rebounds.” And for some stupid reason they huddle chant “on 3” was “the key”.

The opposing team inbounded the ball and Noah told our team to set up a zone defense, one confused kids asked “Where do I go?” and Noah shouted at him “Over there, over there!” The kid still was confused so I stepped away from my position to helped him get to his correct spot and told him “Right at the top of the three, the key.” gently pushing towards the spot. The opposing point guard didn’t take advantage of on our less skilled players and just stopped at the key. He called out some play where both forwards come up to the wing but apparently the same #41 kid who fouled me screwed up the whole play.