There’s also one other issue which probably ought to be addressed. The OP has mentioned that his religion precludes him from practicing/playing on Saturdays. While there have been some high profile players that have had similar restrictions, that’s an additional headache that, right or wrong, some coaches may not want to take on for a marginal player. A large percentage of collegiate and professional basketball games are played on Saturdays. If you’re the best player on the team, the coach may be more willing to accommodate a player that has some scheduling restrictions. If you are a marginal player coming in, that’s going to be a somewhat harder sell. It also might explain why you have some difficulty fitting in with your teammates; whether fair or not, the reality that you do not attend a specific weekly team function is going to engender some difficult feelings that you have to overcome by being likable, instead of being a prick.
I do think that if I work to it I can, I accept the challenge. I just know that if I went there at this very moment I would stand no chance. I want to be as good as possible. NBA. The thing is that I want to be better than everyone. I don’t even seek the fame or fortune as much as I think it’s cool to have a Lamborghini and what not. I literally want to be good at basketball for the sake of being good. It’s something that itches at me every time I see a player that would beat me or everyone else kisses the ass of. I don’t know where this feeling comes from.
Being good at basketball makes you likable. The reason they don’t like me is because they don’t respect my game. And they have no reason to. The only thing they respect is my work ethic, but they, too, think I’m merely a stubborn dreamer.
no. you have the personality of a turd sandwich. that’s why people don’t like you. if you get good at basketball, you’ll be a turd sandwich that’s good at basketball.
Fix your personality. That should be marginally easier for you than getting into the NBA.
Marginally. You’re pretty hard to communicate with.
There are many humans that I respect but don’t like, and many that I like but don’t respect. You are missing the mark by a wide margin here.
Would you hang out with you? Why or why not?
It almost seems like a minor point considering the killer advice you’ve been getting here, but experienced lifters have been telling you, in pretty much every one of your 14+ threads over the last year and a half, how to train smarter.
Instead, you’ve been lifting like a powerlifter specializing in the squat. You’ve spent a very long time not lifting like an athlete. It’s why you got the disc injury and it’s one reason why you can’t dunk yet.
and apparently all of that has only left him with a 225 squat at the end of the day, on top of everything else?
I feel like I need to pull up some of these old threads. I had to have seen them, but I have zero recollection right now.
If you sincerely believe this, I have some very bad news for you (or maybe it’s actually good news, once you learn and accept this).
I spent a fair amount of time in high school thinking that being really good at sports would make me more popular (I don’t know if I’d say that I was actively unpopular, but I certainly wasn’t popular, either). I was a three-year starter on a football team that went 31-5 with two 10-0 regular seasons; a team captain in wrestling that placed in every invitational we attended, won the sectional tournament and qualified for the state individual tournament; and in my third-best sport, a reasonably good shot-putter and discus thrower that frequently won meets in one or both events.
I still wasn’t popular. As a senior in high school, any close interaction with an attractive/popular girl in class usually left me just about unable to speak and sweating bullets, and I still was often picked on or teased by male classmates for the usual assortment of things that teenagers use to poke fun at one another (I was a kid that tended to sweat profusely, had acne, etc). I became a lot more comfortable with my personality in college and graduate school, and while I still wouldn’t exactly call myself a “popular” person today, I have a better understanding of my personality, am much more comfortable in social settings, and have a much easier time making friends than I did in high school.
None of this occurred because I got better at sports.
There were several, probably best summed up by his training log that lasted just under a month.
Squat day, squats and deads, squat day, squat day, squats and bench, squat day, squats and 3 sets of overhead, squats and basketball, squat day…
I know right. It makes me so upset at myself everyday. All that work for absolutely nothing.
The training log continued but I just stopped posting. I have not lifted heavy in nearly six months. Nothing has changed besides a huge decrease in max strength and a slight decrease in athleticism.
You remind me of one of the kids that went to all the basketball try outs in my high school. He was cocky, swore he belonged on the team and was better than anyone else on it, and during try outs would talk shit to us. Needless to say, that whenever we stepped on the court with him, we just took turns embarrassing him on defense. He worked his ass off, practicing hours and hours a day, but was never able to make the team and would blame the coach and the other players for that.
You’re not as cocky as he is, but you sure remind me of him. Anyway, I don’t think being good at basketball will make you likeable. That’s another issue I probably have no response to.
Thats terrible. Why did he not get better when he worked his ass off? He must have been doing something wrong. And I’m just like that. I don’t talk shit like that though, people talk shit to me for whatever reason. But I don’t get embarassed on defense. I wish you all could see me play
This thread is nuts.
OP, go for it. Seriously, give it your best shot. Who knows, why not you?
HOWEVER
Have a plan B. For the love of all that is holy have a plan B.
you seem to have an affinity toward working hard, without care for working smart.
that’s something you should try to change.
Not to derail the thread, but this got me thinking of another pros vs joes experience I had fairly recently.
A well known guy in my town is a pro fighter with Bellator MMA and also happens to have a losing record. He’s also a regular at the bar I bounced at. I can’t count the number of guys who would talk shit about him, even going so far to say that they’d whoop his ass in a “real” bar fight.
I’d laugh at each one of them. I’ve actually trained with the guy and he’d eat an untrained bar room tough guy for lunch. The biggest challenge he’d face is deciding to choke them out, break their bones, beat them senseless or just pretzel them up and spank them like a child.
every smart phone on the planet has a video recording feature, most people have smart phones, and it’s easy as hell to upload a video to youtube. I know you’ve posted videos on here before. Make us a video.
It’s that it makes me look as if I’m not on shit, if you know what I mean.
I think some of the remarks I have made earlier in this thread havr given you guys the wrong impression, but it’s hard to know me as total strangers. I’m not some asshole who goes around just hating people and life. I love life, I love the world. I have good conversations. I love helping people. I’m not some stubborn shit that thinks they are better than everyone else. I try to be cool with everyone. Certain things you can just get about people sometimes. I usually text every player on the team telling them good job after a big win. I try to be positive and help people. But you can see the tinge of disrespect in the way they respond. Some people just leave the text on open and such.
I’m a nice person. I’m the oldest kid in the house. I try to be a role model for my siblings but I’m still figuring this stuff out. I feel like all of my failures make them look down on me sometimes.
I help people man. My best friend I helped with essays for his college scholarships, and one of the essays I helped him with got him a full ride to a school in Virginia. He told me he swore that he’d pay me. I declined though. I help people for the sake of helping people.
I don’t hate on people, even though I do get jealous sometimes.
I do bitch a lot though, but when I do it’s almost always as a way to emotionally charge myself.
Would people want to hang out with me? Probably not.
The dynamic in Chicago is kind of different I think. I’m a typical “broke boy”. I don’t have the best clothes, I don’t have an iPhone, people think I’m weird too. I am weird to an extent, people think I’m depressed. I’m not depressed, I just get angry sometimes. People also have a hard time understanding me. My mind is often all over the place. I’m not good with words really.
I just try to respect people and be nice. I still say hey even to the people that look me off.
flipcollar nailed it on the head. You seem to be working hard but not smart. That was this kid’s problem, he played with all the shitty players in school and did well against them. When it came time to play with against guys on the team, the level of competition was something he wasn’t used to.
Also, since you aren’t playing on any team, your defense probably sucks. If all the practice you’re getting is alone in the gym or in the park, then you won’t have the proper training for how to attack the pick and roll, high screens, back picks, or even how to properly get back on defense against a fast break. Guys that have been playing on the same team know where their teammates should be so they can gamble or play straight up.
Finding a team outside of you school is a smart way to train, following programs from this site geared more towards the athletic bunch is a smart way to train. Making friends with the coaches is a smart tactic. Why havent you done any of those.
You do a lot more than I would be doing for the other kids. Kind of comes off as you’re begging them to like you. But also, you’re in high school, everyone gets made fun of in high school. Some people can just deal with it and not give a shit about it, others bitch about it on online forums. To each their own.
If people don’t want to be your friend, why do you still say hey? focus on the friendships you have NOW, and if you do have friends on the team, workout with them.
The sophomore coach is a good friend of mine. He tells me that my problem is that I’m not coachable and don’t listen. Since then I’ve been taking their advice. Like stretching more. The disc has made me stiff, even more than I used to be.
I used to practice with the team, until I switched Wednesday classes to get more experience speaking Chinese.
My school runs a 4 out 1 in motion offense switching between rotations on the wing and control by the 5. We use back screens to get players open from the corner and such.
On defense we trap ball screens and hand offs, and have weak side shot blockers/help defense.
Last year we ran a different defense where we used a 2-3 and trapped the corners. We were in a higher division that year.
I know the basics but another one of the main things holding me back was my IQ on both sides. I know how to play pickup, but real basketball is not the same at all. Another thing is that I played the 5 for some reason. I have flat feet, but I’ve been working on my pivots more to get better. I got this program called Attack and Counter by Don Kelbick to help me work on my offensive moves. I also got a program called Elite Guard Training, both have actually helped with my game a lot.
Another thing I struggle with is decision making. My coach would say that whenever I got the ball he could read my face and see a million different options going through my head.
You see, I actually have skills, but I don’t think I actually know how to play basketball. I don’t have the nuances that many other players seem to have.