minding my own business

There's a kid (probably late teens) who plays basketball incessantly across the street from our house. He's tall and seems athletic and obviously has a good work ethic, considering that he's out there shooting jumpers and rebound for hours day after day. Sounds great, except that his form on his shot is beyond ugly. It's got this big hitch in it and he essentially actually shoots one handed, because right as he's extending he drops one of his arms. For awhile I used to think that it was some sort of drill but then I saw him shooting like that in games. Needless to say, it rarely goes in.

It might seem weird that I've watched his shot so much, but the park is directly across from our house, I walk the dog or sit on the porch a lot, and again he's there all the time. The sad part for me is that he's endlessly practicing a broken jumper. I don't think he's in a formal baseball league, in part because he is at this court all the time and in part because I would hope that any coach would prevent him, by force if necessary, from shooting like that. The shot just never gets any better and he doesn't ever seem to shoot for a higher percentage.

It kind of makes me wish I was some old grizzled man, so that I could go up and say, "hey kid, watch some videos of Wesley Person." But you can't do that if you're just some dude. Actually I kind of can't wait till I have white hair in general so that I can just go around dropping pearls of wisdom in a grizzly voice. I don't know, maybe there's a secret selfish motivation here. That shot, boy.

Not that I can really say anything. Back when I used to play sometimes with my friends my shot was so wrong they called it "the Back Scratcher."