Airball

By Kanishk Raj Bhalki

{Common basketball terms used in the story-

Dribble- the action of tapping the ball to and fro from the hands to the ground

Drive- the action of running while dribbling the ball

Block- the action of tapping on the ball when the opponent is going for a goal

Airball- the action of shooting the ball but missing completely, not even hitting the ring or the board}

The sun was about 2 hours away from calling it a day and making way for the moon. The students of St. Joseph’s high school were almost out and on their way home, except a few. Adrian was one of them. He was walking from his block to the basketball court. He bumped into a boy who, on impact, shoved Adrian away. “Watch where you goin’ man, why you got your head down like a withered rose” said the boy, angrily. “Sorry” said Adrian his head still down. “Not good enough” said the boy, starting to plot a way to bully Adrian.

“Back off mate!” a voice shouted from behind Adrian

“Leave the guy alone or else deal with me” said the voice. The boy bullying Adrian walked away with a scoff. “Thanks Pat” said Adrian to the voice. Pat was a huge boy for his age. A stature of 6’3 is nothing to laugh about, and nobody did. Pat was huge and he acted accordingly. He was called out multiple times by the staff about his violent behaviour. “You’ve got to stand up for yourself dude I can’t shield you every time” Pat said. “But that’d mean making conversation with another living soul and you know how much me and my anxiety hate that” said Adrian, smiling. “So you’re just gonna stare at your shoes while you walk for the rest of your life?” asked Pat. “Let’s talk about this later we’re getting late for the match” Adrian said.

They ran over to the basketball court and their friends had already gotten a ball and started taking shots. Bert, Nate and Bobby. These 4 were the only people whom Adrian dared to talk to. He was very anxious of social interactions. He couldn’t look anyone in their eye except for his 4 friends, who might’ve been friends with him because they were, in some way, mentally disturbed or crazy. The coach called out for the 5 of them and arranged a match of them against the team of their seniors. The 5 friends, though a bit disturbed, were amazing basketball players, best in their school! So they warmed up and began the match.

The ball started off in Adrian’s possession and he drove with the ball till the circle which lies on the line dividing the court into 2 halves. He passed the ball over to Nate. Nate was a very interesting member of the squad. He was suffering from depression for years now, thanks to his abusive and denouncing father. His father was almost always drunk and bet his money away on sports and whenever he lost money he would take his anger out on Nate. He never let go of an opportunity to show Nate down, to crush his motivation and his self-confidence.

“You are burden on my money”

“Give up on school dumb pig, go work at a gas station and earn some money”

“Basketball won’t pay the bills you dumb moron”

These were some of the emotionally damaging things his father said to him on a regular basis. “He gave birth to me, he must know better” Nate kept telling himself, further deepening the scars formed by his father. When he practiced his game he was a quick and deceptive maneuverer with the ball, and a sharp shooter. But during a match his depression always got the better of him. “You sure you can make that shot dumb moron?” a voice said in his head and he fumbled and mishit. The same happened this time and Nate missed. A player from the opposing team rebounded the ball and started driving the ball towards their goal.

But luckily Pat blocked him as he was taking his shot and Pat took the ball and started pulling away towards his goal. But he had his own problems which affected his game. His aggression always had him and his sense beat, making him unable to make rational calculations and decisions. He pushed the defender who was trying to steal his ball away, causing him to fall and making a foul. The senior team got to start the ball now and the tallest one of them took the ball at the 3 point line and was being defended by Nate. He took the ball from between his legs and behind back and faked taking a step to the left, causing Nate to lose track of the ball and giving the senior a clean shot at the goal. He took it and made it. The score was 3-0

There was a reasonable explanation to Pat’s rage. He was disturbed, crippled on the inside. At his house his parents always forced him to study and become a doctor but Pat of course was passionate about basketball. So there was this never ending tussle between the 2 parties and it usually ended with Pat’s parents hitting him with belts and sticks and just their bare hands. Pat’s anger at this just keeps piling up and he is forced to vent that out on his peers. He had a younger brother but he was mom and dad’s precious. They wouldn’t allow him to even lay a finger on his younger brother. He cooperated with their parents’ ideal plan, unlike Pat, and got protection and partiality in his favour. So Pat was forced to vent his anger and his frustration out on anyone who dared to talk back to him.

Adrian passed the ball over to Bert and he passed it over to Pat and Pat fell through. He pushed away the defender who was on him and the defender fell to the ground, bruising his knee. The referee blew his whistle and gave the senior team’s defender 2 shots against the foul committed by Pat. The senior landed both and now the score was, 5-0.

The only one whose mental state didn’t affect his game at all was Adrian. In fact he kind of benefitted from having social anxiety, because his mind wants him to avoid people and doing that with a basketball is all it takes. Nate passed the ball over to Adrian and this time he didn’t pass. He drove and avoided 3 defenders and scored a running shot, making the score 5-2. This backfired though because now the opponents knew who the best player was and were doubling down on him. Adrian had to pass the ball over to Bobby. Bobby was an excellent defender. He could smack the ball away when the player tries to go for a running shot. He was exceptionally good at blocking. But the one place he lacked was shooting. But this didn’t stop him from taking a shot even when it’s seemingly impossible to make it. This was because he was overcome with guilt since the passing of his mother. His mother passed away 2 years ago and when his mother was moments before death, she called Bobby on his phone and told him she loves him. Bobby smiled and hung up and ran home to kiss his mother. He went over to see his mother lying unconscious on the couch. He tried waking her up but it was of no use. He called his father and an ambulance and went to the hospital with his mother. “You’ll be fine. You’ll wake up and I’ll kiss you on the cheeks and say I love you too” Bobby said, his voice cracking up with despair. The doctors tried their best but they couldn’t save her. Bobby was flooding the hospital with tears. His father was trying his best to confront him but he himself was worn down from the news of his wife’s death the same day as he lost his job. Bobby walked over to his mom who was on the stripper getting carried over to the mortuary. He bent over, pulled the cloth covering her face and said “I love you too mom” kissing her on the cheeks, wetting them not only, from his lips, but also his tears. Right there Bobby made the decision to take every chance he gets in life, no matter how impossible or far-fetched. This was a very touching and honestly unquestionable motive.

But that didn’t really translate well into improving his ability to shoot goals. He took a shot, per usual, and missed horribly but that didn’t matter to him. He was smiling as he sprinted back to his side of the court. As he was sprinting back he patted Bert, his polar opposite, on his back.

Bert was the antithesis of Bobby. He had zero confidence in himself. He was a frail young man, barely weighing in at 50 kilos, which for a boy of his age was plain unhealthy. Bert knew about his physical capabilities, and he decided for himself to never take a shot or drive when there was a defender on him. He felt he couldn’t shake defenders off with his delicate body. He only took a shot when he was completely free and open. The opposing team drove with the ball till the 3-pointer line and passed it over to the shortest one of their team and he was being defended by Nate. The short one was fast and he shook Nate off with no problem whatsoever, scoring a goal and making the score, 8-2.

Adrian passed the ball over to Bobby who drove with the ball to his goal and took a 3 pointer shot and missed terribly. The opposing team tried to score but Bobby put his skill to use and blocked them from shooting and stole the ball from them. He passed it over to Bert, who got lucky and was all alone and he took a shot and landed a clean one, from the 3 point mark, making the score, 8-5. The seniors passed the ball to their tallest player who was dribbling the ball when the star defender Bobby and he passed it over to Adrian who made a running goal, bringing the score very close to, 8-7.

But when things seemed to go well, Pat messed up. He was defending and while defending he slapped the senior by mistake and gave them another 2 shots. But the player shooting was a defender so he missed both his shots because he wasn’t good at shooting. The referee blew his whistle and shouted, “The next goal scored takes it all. If the seniors score they win, if Adrian’s team scores a 3 they will win if they score a 2 then the match will go into a tie breaker”. Adrian passed the ball over to Bobby and took his position at the 3 pointer line. But he had 2 defenders on him, forcing Bobby to pass the ball over to Nate. Nate had to score this three’ to win the game. He loaded up a shot and as he was starting to release it, a voice in his head said, “You’re gonna miss you dumb moron, you worthless pig.”

Nate had two options; either push through the voice’s words and focus on the game or give in to the voice’s criticisms and fumble. And sadly Nate chose the second option. As he was releasing the ball from his hands, he said to himself, “I am going to miss?” This messed up his form, making his hands leave the position they were supposed to be in to score a goal. Nate shot an airball! The tall senior got the ball straight in his hands and he took the ball and drove towards his goal and scored, ending the game at, 10-7. They shook hands with Adrian’s team and the coach/referee told the seniors that they could leave.

The coach turned over to Adrian's team with pure dismay in his eyes. He lectured them about teamwork and whatnot for 15 minutes.The boys pretended to listen but didn't. The fact of the matter was that the boys, they had not learned from their failures, they had learned to live with them. They all very well knew what was wrong about them, but they chose not to work on their flaws but instead to work with them. The trauma or stress or incompetence they suffered or felt was like a brick wall in their conscience. It affected them in ways it shouldn’t and they were okay with that. They were okay with anything, as long as it meant they wouldn’t have to deal with their flaws, because they were, also an impenetrable wall. They considered themselves beyond repair, they considered themselves to be such distant and long shots that they didn’t even stand a chance to touch the ring or even the board, they considered themselves to be…….. Airballs

The boys walked out together as the sun was setting and Pat shoved Bobby for making fun of him, Nate was thinking whether he should give up, Bert was looking at his arms and contemplating and Adrian……

Well he was still looking at his shoes.

By Kanishk Raj Bhalki