As many of you know, I am a huge headcase on a basketball court. Even at noonball, winning is the only thing that matters, and in the heat of a game, I have no problems yelling at people if they are throwing away passes, casting up shots, not playing tough defense or boxing out, and basically doing anything that constitutes not caring about winning, even if these teammates are also my friends. There has sadly been more than one occasion over the years where a teammate and I have had to be separated before a fight broke out. By fight I mean the other guy, usually bigger, tougher, and most times black, punches me and I go down.
So, needless to say, there are plenty of people at noonball who think I am a giant douchebag. I can't blame them; I would probably think that I am a douchebag too. The ones who I am friends with outside of noonball, or that I have been playing noonball with for many years, know that I am only like that on the court. A guy that had recently become my new archenemy was guarding me today, and it wasn't 3 possessions before we were talking shit. However, later in the day we found ourselves on the same team, and after a couple of games of passing each other the ball, screening for each other, and helping each other on D, we were high-fiving like old friends. Afterwards he came up and gave me a handshake, and told me he was glad that it looked like we were "turning over a new leaf." A very classy move on his part. I was just gonna go for the unspoken leaf flip, but it was cool.
So it got me to thinking: maybe I should stop being such a shithead on the court. Besides helping me vent, nothing positive comes from it. Then people wouldn't have to talk to me outside of noonball to know that I am not a dick. So from now on, I will be doing my best to "turn over a new leaf." Good attitudes all around. No more yelling at teammates. Just box your guy out, please.
