I have always wanted to fly. Hasn't everyone gotten the sensation to just want to fly away from everything or just fly to be flying? Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to dunk the basketball. All through bam boosters, little league basketball, when we played on eight feet, I always tried to dunk it then, but I never could dunk eight feet until the year after when we played on the regulation 10 feet. Everyone always told me that I wouldn't be able to, because I wasn't tall enough. I bet they would change their minds now.
I quit basketball and all other sports I played in the seventh grade because my parents got a divorce, and that made me not to want to do anything. I didn't play on a team again until my sophomore year of high school. I only played around outside and played pick up games.
English: Former basketball player Michael Jordan
Geary Claxton makes a slam dunk for Penn State aga...
English: Julius Erving in 1981 performing a slam d...I wanted to be able to dunk the ball more than ever then. Now I wish I would have never quit then, because I would be able to do more than I can now, because I would have had more practice and time to develop my game better.
At the end of my freshman year of high school I could barely touch the rim. I knew if I was going to be able to dunk a basketball, then I would to work hard at it. So, all I did the whole summer was play basketball from the time I got up to the time I went to bed. The goal I played on was in the middle of the road, right in front of my apartment. The road was a big circle at the top of a hill that people always turned around at. The cars would always turn around at the other end of the circle so I could keep playing. I kept my basketball goal at a height that I could barely dunk, and I would move it up little by little as I could jump higher and higher until I could finally dunk ten feet.
At the start of my sophomore year I could dunk it fairly easy. Everyone asked me how I was able to do that over the summer. So I told them how much I had practiced. The next thing I wanted to do was dunk in a basketball game now. I never attempted one through the entire regular season, but in the first game in the district tournament, we were playing the Sequoyah Chiefs and we were up by about fifteen points and there was only a minute and some odd seconds left to play. I had a wide open lane, and I drove down the middle of the paint and as soon as I jumped I thought I had my first ever dunk in a game, but I got fouled and missed the dunk. I mad sure I popped the rim, because I had worked so hard to get that dunk and I was so close to just get fouled to make me miss it and not do anything. I was mad, but I knew I would have some other chances to dunk in a game some other time.
At the start of my junior year I still had not had a dunk in a real game yet. I had a few in a couple of scrimmage games. Those came easy, so I knew I would get some dunks this year. We were just a few games into the season when I thought I would finally get a dunk in game. It was at Chattanooga Central against the Chattanooga Central Purple Pounders, and their best player already had a dunk earlier in the game. So, I really wanted to dun k one this game. I got steal and threw the ball out to Jason Combs, one of my teammates. As I caught up to him I told him to throw ma an alley-oop off the backboard, but he didn't and he even missed the lay-up too. After the game he told me he was sorry that he didn't know what he was thinking and that he would throw me an oop if it ever happened again. I told him that it was ok and not to worry about it as long as we win, but to throw it to me if it happens again.
The next game we were playing at Polk County against the Polk County Wildcats. We knew we would win, it was just how much we would win by. There was about two minutes left in the first quarter and Polk County started to full court press us. We broke the press and it was two on one. I knew Combs was going to throw me an oop this time. As soon as I started to jump he threw it perfect and I finally got a dunk in a game. Right when I dunked it I heard the crowd and everyone on our team yelling. Polk County called a time out and, they were never in the game from that point on. After that game for the rest of my high school career I got a dunk almost every game I played in.
My high school coach, Coach Sam, always told everyone that if you wanted to find me anywhere then you should look in the gym, because I was always in the gym working on my basketball skills to get better. He said I needed my own key to the high school, so we talked to the principal and he said it was ok if I had a key to the gym to be able to do my workout and drills when I had time on my own. Part of my workout was to practice game time dunks and game time shots, so I wouldn't miss them if I got the same shots in the games. Now it is nothing for me to dunk in a game. It comes easy now. Now my next goal is to do well in college basketball and to get a dunk in a college basketball game. I may not be Michael Jordan, but like him I know what it is like to fly now. It might just be for a split second, but it is flying.
ein zweihändiger Dunk
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