I had heard that the showcase was coming up, and I was excited that I was going to be a part of it. I had never played in the showcase, but the word was that you play pick-up games with other good players so I couldn’t wait. My whole travel team was going to play in the showcase. When the day came I was going to be as ready as ever. To sum it all up, I was pumped.

The morning of the showcase I woke with butterflies in my stomach. This was normal. No matter how important a game is I am always nervous until I get into the flow of the game. When I arrived at the Joy of the Game center at a little past eight in the morning there was already a line to check in. The line moved quickly and soon I was all checked in. I was on the purple team. Once I changed I went onto the courts to see who was on my team. It was all too easy to spot the blaring purple shirts. At this time I only spotted three other players on my team. One of them just happened to be on my travel team. Some of the nerves went away once I was with someone I knew. But before I knew it, it was time to play.

In the first game we had to play the best team in the showcase. We didn’t get off to a good start. The other team seemed to be too fast, too strong, and quite frankly, too good. When my group was called into the game we made a little run to get our team back in the game. By the time we came out we had narrowed the deficit to three points. The next group kept it up and when another group was called in with ten minutes left, we were only down by one. But the other team was too much as they wore us down and expanded their lead. We lost by sixteen.

Although I was bummed after the first game I had to keep my spirits up for the next one. We were playing a team with some more of my travel teammates. I couldn’t lose to them. But when the game started our team played horrible. Within five minutes we were down by almost twenty points. This was going to be a long game. Our team was not playing team basketball at all. No one was passing and everyone was trying to be a star. This proved to our down fall. As the buzzer sounded we had lost again, this time by more than twenty.

I was not looking forward to the last game at this point. I just wanted to go home and relax. I had no interest in losing another game. But I had to stay. So as the third and final game started we finally started playing better. I was finally having fun and scoring points. It was a tight battle all the through. My team was down with five minutes to go and I had to sub out. Now all I could was watch and hope. My team rallied back and won the game. I couldn’t believe it.

Although the showcase was not my all time favorite thing to do I thought that it was a great experience.