The best day of my life...

Since i have never had kids and never gotten married or even close to it, i can only imagine the joy of such days. So when i say the best day of my life, it isnt relative because i dont have a "next to" day to compare it with.

Sunday morning was a good day.

I love practice. We only had 5 kids come (the starters), but thats enough for me. We went over how to transition from the running game into the motion offense. We also practiced how to play good 2/3 zone defense and transition defense.

The kids make fun of may japanese, but i like it. Its a way of being taught how to speak correctly. And its good fun. The one kid, Kojima, skinny kid whose game and jump shot remind me what reggie miller must have looked like at 12. He picks on my japanese. So i pick on him back by calling him つまようじ、or toothpick. another kid, Inoue, calls me Mega Mac because of my stomach and the conclusion that it got that way by eating alot of McDonalds. As my point guard and the closest one to resembling my thinking on the basketball court, its hard to get on him so much. Besides, he has the best decision making on the team.

Then there is kotsuji. You can tell he is a youngest child. He demands attention. All the talent in the world, but emotionally he is soft. I can see how important having a father is for a young boy. In japan it is rare, but i can see how that has destoryed so many black families.

Anyways, 2 of the retired 9th graders came to practice to help. As coach, i have an open door policy to any player that i have ever coached. If you have time to come to practice, you are free to play, shoot, even teach kids, i have zero problems with it. None at all. So we practiced eating up their zone, 3 on 5.

It was so much fun.

I made a couple of plays where my kids just looked at what i did and were simply amazed. On one play, i ball fakes to get the front defending guard to shift outside so i could get into the lane. This led to a bang bang sequence of 3 quick passes and an easy layup.

I made the run for 1) not calling out who had the ball, 2) allowing a cutter to cross the lane without contact. 3) allowing an offensive rebound.

There was a lot of running on sunday.

But from that, they can learn. How to hide what you see with your eyes. How to move without the basketball. How to push the ball. How to think about defense.

Maybe the best day of my life to date had something to do with waking up next to a particular past girlfriend or with my family as a kid, but sunday was, just a whole lot of fun.

At least the first part, anyways.