BASKETBALL DIARIES III

[For previous entry click here]

My life as a division one basketball player was 90% basketball and 10% school. I went to a private school that cost about 33 grand a year. Lucky for me i was pretty good in high school so they coughed up some money for me to play my first year. I guess basketball can help huh? Well anyway like i told you in the previous post my coach was an asshole. To this day if i seen him i may be quite intimidated. He was really crazy and had a problem. Practice was the hardest thing of my life at school. It was like 3 hours of prison. Not to mention we had to get up at 5am for early morning workouts then a 45min practice right after. I type this as i watch the final four. Fans dont realize how hard it is off court, all you see is the cbs highlight and interviews, but boy o boy it was hell for anyone off court that played D1 especially school work.

In practice, i wasnt a starter and the point guard that started was my nigga Rob who was about 5'8 i had to basically d him the whole practice lol. That was a killer! He would tell me i had the quickest handle on the court but i always laugh at him like he was crazy, because he was fast as hell. Dude was like 6th on the NCAA Assist leaders that year, not to mention who was number one.

Balancing practice with my hardest class which was a 8am english class which i barely went to. The class was pretty cool, and i tried to be discreet that i played for the bball team but guess what he knew because the professor happened to be a big fan of our basketball team. Suck right? I was the worst in this class i would sleep, half the time, sometimes i would keep a conversation with the professor to brown nose but it was bad because i still wouldnt be there half the time. So i didnt know as a freshman you couldnt miss X amount of classes or you will be dismissed. I think it was 7.

So my professor would always talk about basketball in my class. It was about 15 people in the class and i would hate when he talked about it because i didnt want to be singled out. I thought professor and I was cool like the other side of the pillow. WRONG. One day i was on campus just coolin' with my white goons. I had a bunch of goons and fans on campus even though i wasnt the star so we would be coolin around. I got a call on my cell from my coach saying right after practice we need to meet. Now im soooOooO scared. Im already intimidated by my coach. So now i dont even want to practice now, its like going to work and your boss says he wants to meet right after work, if you know you fired you dont want to work that day! I got to the locker room in my cubicle stared at my picture of above my area and was like "well i guess this the last day". This practice happened to be the worst. Coached kicked everybody out and said you since we dont want to practice on his time, we can practice on our time, see you guys at 3am! I couldnt believe it. So now i really dont wanna go to his office. Right after practice i went up to coach office. He sat down and says

" What the fuck do you think this is"?

"Huh? Coach what you talking about"

"What im talking about"

"Professor tells me you barely come to class and all you talk about is basketball in class"

HUH?!

I couldnt believe my professor did me like that. I never talked about bball in class i hated to discuss it. I was smart and i didnt want to be looked at as just an athlete. Coach told me with his red eyes and screamed that if i miss once more class i fail english and im not eligible to play D1 basketball. I almost cried leaving that room. Not because of him but i knew i had to be back at 3am lol.

3am came we practiced good! I remember we made up, coach was feeling us. Bam! We back in business. 5am i got back in the bed, so scared to sleep knowing i probably would be sleeping past my 8am class.

8:02am i woke up! I looked at the clock and i moved so fast to class! I sprinted all the way to the building. No teeth brushed, doo rag and everything. I didnt care. I made it by 815am. Right after class i spoke with the professor and told him how sorry i was for not being to class etc. And begged him to not tell him i came late lol. Told him Coach made us practice at 3am. He laughed. Told me that i will be ok, your just a freshman. You live and you learn.

I left class happy. I was good and it was only 9am. When practice came, before we started i remember coach pulled me to the side and said

"So you telling professors what time i have my practice?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

SMFH!