Have you ever shoveled snow off of the court in the middle of December,  just so you can practice your foul shot?  Have you ever called "next" knowing that you were going to have to wait 4 games just to get on the court, and you didn't even have to think twice about it?  When you walked to school in the morning, did you dribble a basketball all the way there, just so you could work on your handle?  Have you asked for a new basketball for Christmas, every year for as long as you can remember?  Did you wear your jersey the night before a game because it was your favorite thing in the world and you knew that you wouldn't have it forever?  These players did.  To these players basketball wasn't a hobby, it was a way of life.

Every year thousands of 14 year old boys and girls show up for try-outs, hoping to make the basketball team.  Four or five show up KNOWING that they will make the team.  Why?  How can they be so confident, or cocky is a better term for it, that they are that good?  It's simple...they love the game.  Ask any one of these "cocky" players what their free throw percentage is and they will know it.  Most likely they will say something like, "Yesterday, I was 78 for 100."  Ask one of the other players just trying to make the team and they will have no clue.  That is why, on every team, there is always one or two great players, and the rest of the team.  Like it or not, there is a hierarchy in basketball.  The best ball handlers handle the ball.  The best shooters take most of the shots.  There is no way around it if a team wants to be successful.  Some people in the stands are quick to say it is not fair that one or two players get to shoot more than their son or daughter.  It is fair.  These people are very narrow minded in this aspect.  They never stop to think that when their kid was watching TV every night over the summer, what was that other player doing?  That other player was playing basketball, day and night, shooting over and over until the lights went off at the park and they were reluctantly forced to go home.  Now, how fair would it be to a player with that kind of dedication, to say, "Stop making so many shots, my kid is getting upset because he doesn't get to shoot".  That would be unfair.  This page is dedicated to the players who probably will never have the time to read it, because they are constantly working on their game.  These players believe in one thing:

"If you are not training hard, someone, somewhere is, and when you meet him, he will win."