The Hoop

Back in the day…

When I was in 6th or 7th grade I wanted my own basketball hoop so bad. Back behind my trailer there was this old goal with no rim, and sat on a pretty much all grass court. To me, this looked like a page right out of a Larry Bird movie. So, I figured that I’m going to find me a goal and put it up there and make my jumper pure, country gold.

Well, I would never quit lifting weights, and I’m not sure my jumper was ever “gold.” I was more of a slap your hand on the floor defender than anything, who could jump and take it to the rack. Either way, I ended up finding an old rim in the woods down on my road, that this old timer didn’t care that I took. I rehabbed the hoop by sanding it down and washing it, and then finding the bolts to put it up. I was pumped, and I have to admit that I had a love for basketball that was big.

MJ was my favorite without a doubt, as he was for most around my age growing up. So, I had this hoop up for about one week when a bunch of older guys that I wasn’t necessarily a fan of stopped by.

Ripping down my rim

One in particular was way bigger and stronger than me, and he decided that he was going to straight rip my rim down. I couldn’t do anything about it. I tried stopping him by yelling and cussing at him, but he continued to hang there on the rim bending it, trying to rip it off. Pissed, I stormed back to my trailer… and there sat his brand new mountain bike.

I’m not super proud of this, but it was kind of epic. I wheeled his bike out into the middle of the street and started slamming it into the pavement about 100 times in five minutes. I took every ounce of frustration out on this bike by driving it into the blacktop like some sort of lunatic. I could not stand this spoiled kid, and did not understand why he would want to break something I was so thankful for.

Using this mentality

I watched through my trailer window as he attempted to ride it home with a bent frame and two bent tires. He was in the wrong and so was I. In the end, I paid up $260 to replace this bike. At this point in my life I was bailing hay for about $4 an hour, so it took me literally almost all summer.

I went home last week and saw my hoop again, which sparked memories of this day and how I felt. It’s a controlled rage that I’ve learned how to tap into, and it it this same type of feeling when I lift on meet days. Using this mentality selectively, I’m able to hit some lifts that may have been out of reach on a normal day.