Written by Jake Heinzer

10/13/23

It’s down to the final seconds folks, the score is all tied up and if he makes this shot it will send them into the finals, with no time left on the clock, all of this comes down to the last shot. Sweat running down his face as everything comes down to this. He steps up to the free throw line, ball in his hand as he shakes and his heart beat starts to speed up at an unhealthy pace. He knows that if he misses this shot he will never forget himself. He stands ready to take the shot as he steadies himself into his shooting position. He breathes in and he breathes out. All of his teammates are cheering him on, while also the other team is yelling and ranting trying to do anything they can to distract him, booing, saying he will miss. The shot is up and he prays that it goes in, it hits the backboard and it spins around the rim as all of the people in the stadium follow the ball with their eyes as if they are being hypnotized. It spins for a solid 10 seconds and the ball forces itself inside the net, “they won they did it”, yells the announcer as if it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off of the chest of the player. His teammates surround as they celebrate their big win, Welcome to the game of Basketball.

There is a lot of young talent in the DMV area in the sport of Basketball. However,  There are two players that I am here to focus on and they are Ej and Finley, both show a great liking to the game. These two may be different players; they still both have a great passion towards the game. 

EJ Brody, baller 1

“I wasn’t an athletic kid when I was younger.” (Ej). But as he started to grow he wanted to get in shape and fill his time with something. His friends had already been playing basketball and convinced him to start playing when he was in middle school. 

Ej has really shown his strength over the last two years wanting to improve. He  is hoping to join the Varsity Basketball team this year so that he can prove to himself that he can play at the higher level. 

Ej wants to see if he can play basketball in college as a walk-on or even see if he could receive a scholarship to play, “It would be nice to be able to play basketball after highschool.” 

Now Finley is somebody that like Ej started to really pick up basketball when he was in middle school. Finley reclassed because of his birthday in late february, and the other reason he reclassed was due to the fact of Covid. His parents saw the effect that it was having on his education in 7th grade and going into 8th grade, so they decided to switch him into pri vate school for a better education.  

Finley when he was younger did many sports including travel baseball, football, and soccer– he did not show much interest in basketball till he was older. He started playing basketball when he was in middle school and playing at a higher level when he reached his last year of middle school. 

Finley, like Ej, is hoping to play basketball at the next level,  “Basketball can take me a lot of places and bring me a lot of opportunities but at the end of the day I play it because I enjoy playing a sport that consists of throwing a ball through a hoop.”  

Going into their training they both practice, but they have different ways of doing it. While Ej really does Basketball in the Winter Finley does it year round as his main sport. Ej trains on his own, while Finley practices with his coach and his own personal trainers. Finley is very motivated by his coaches and depends on them very much and his coaches are always saying how much raw talent that he truly has, “This kid is something very special and has all of the talent in the world.” 

Talent is something that everyone has whether that be for basketball or not, but the way they are both practicing is showing that they are willing to put in more work than others to find their true talent. 

Now moving into their positions they have a decent height difference between them. Ej is about 5 ’11-6 foot, while Finley is a freak of nature standing at 6′ 8. “I can thank myself for my height.” Finley is very proud of his height, and it is something that he likes to show off. Also something that he gets asked a lot is what is it like being so tall, and he just answers with one word, “Fun”.  Now, Height is a way that people determine positions in basketball, generally the taller players play more of the center and power forward position, because they need the height to rebound and shoot layups, while the shorter players play on the outside like shooting guard or point guard. Ej plays more point guard, but Finley despite his height is not the tallest player on his team and plays power forward. 

Looking back now Finley has said that he has had some played some other positions, and he said that he did not enjoy them as much. He is not the best shooter in the world and that eliminates the two positions that require shooting and more of the dribbling. Now from what I have gathered he loves to rebound and stay inside the paint which calls for two different positions, so center and power forward. As I said previously, center is usually played by the tallest on the team, so that is why he gets to play power forward, he can play in the paint while doing what he loves, and he can also work on his mid range shooting as well. Now Ej is the opposite. He likes to dribble and shoot from further out and he is fast. So he does not have the height that he needs to play the two big positions in the paint, so those two are out. Point guard would be the best spot for him, because of all of the things that he can do, he can either pass the ball, shoot the ball, or just try and dribble his way through/around the defenders. That is the beautiful thing about basketball positions, you don’t necessarily need a certain skill set to play a position. 

From Positions to people they admire is something to take into mind, the positions that they play won’t mean that their favorite players have to play that position. People take inspiration from others in different ways, whether that be based on their actions or what they do.  Both Ej and Finley both get great inspiration from great legends in basketball. Ej’s most influential player to him is Mj, because of how he was able to dominate the game. Finley’s most influential players are Russel Westbrook, Kawhi Lenaord, and Shaqulie O’neal “Russel Westbrook is more than just a player to me.” says Finley.  The three players that Finley worships are some of the best centers of all time, they were so dominant in the paint, they made it look easy, like taking candy from an empty bowl. 

Now getting back to the game, the after celebration is so crazy, after the player is surrounded by his teammates who pour gold gatorade on his head, all wet and soaked now he goes to look for his parents. After all of the celebration he went out with his friends, and they talked about how much this game meant to them, and why they did it, it helped them bond as a team, and this is the other side of Basketball, Family!