Matt's Clutch Free Throws

You can tell I don't have a ton of sports excitement in my life. I mean, the Cards stink at football - and I don't really watch them play basketball. The Colts are doing great and we get excited about that.

But these 3rd-4th grade games have us on pins and needles for 1 hour every week. There are so many missed shots, dribbling into traffic, dribbling, dribbling, dribbling, jump ball, jump ball, jump ball, oops I dribbled out of bounds etc. But how many 2 point games can we have?

This week Matt was asking me what the best basketball award was - Best Defensive Player, Best Free Throw Percent, 110%, Most Rebounds, Most Points, etc. My response was basketball is such a team sport - every player needs to know how to shoot, pass, dribble, play defense, etc. But there's no better feeling than hitting the game winning shot at the buzzer or hitting the free throws to tie or clinch the victory when all eyes are on you and the entire gym is screaming or dead silent waiting to see if you choke. Those are the moments you remember for the rest of your life. He just smiled like he was picturing it in his mind.

At the beginning of the season, I taught Matt how to shoot a free throw. He wasn't real keen on it at first but I insisted that no son of mine was going to have crappy free throw form - if you miss, you are going to look good doing it! Now - I wasn't sure if he'd get in a game and just launch a shot at the basket or take his time and actually shoot a "free throw" like I taught him.

Today he had his chance. As he went to the line, all the Dads around C and I said, No pressure but if he knocks these down, we're all tied up. Well, Matt took his time and knocked down 2 free throws to tie the game late in the 4th quarter. When he sank them both, I turned around and told the Dad's, "He has my genes!" They all laughed at me. Matt ended the game with 5 points - shooting 75% at the line and we won 13-11. He is completely pumped up!