A great story of sportsmanship and kindness

[MJT]

I know some of you don't like these and think it is not the way sports is supposed to be, but many of you are like me and feel these are great stories of love, kindness, and how life is bigger than the sport.

This is a true story from a game in a town 40 miles from where I live.

Apparently the JV basketball team has an incredibly uncoordinated, non-athletic kid on the team. He rarely plays but just loves being a part of the team. The JV played last night and were winning by a comfortable margin. So, the Coach substituted and put Matt in the game.
According to one of our Mom's (her son plays JV), Coach told our guys to make sure to get Matt the ball. They tried 4 times. The first 2 times, the team got Matt the ball and he shot air balls - in fact, the gals said he wasn't even CLOSE to the basket . . . EXTREME air balls! Coach then told Matt to stay under the basket, not even play defense. So, there he stood alone under the basket. We got the ball back, passed it straight to him - alone under the basket and he missed the pass and lost the ball. With only a few seconds left, and our team obviously winning, our opponents had the ball and dribbled up the court. Matt is still standing alone under our basket. The other teams player with the ball dribbled to the top of the key, stopped - turned around and instead of running one last play - threw the ball in the opposite direction, straight to Matt, who turned around, took the last shot at the buzzer and MADE IT! The only basket he has EVER made! How cool is that kid to have recognized what was going on and helped make Matt year??!! Apparently the entire gymnasium erupted in applause and there was a lengthy standing ovation.
I know that at least two of the bank staff (also parents of players) have called the schools principal and superintendent today to commend that player and to say "thank you." Too many folks take the time to complain, not enough take the time to recognize the good.

[Bad Zebra]

Great story. It gives us hope for the future that are still a few kids left out there playing sports that understand there are things in life that are bigger than hanging another "W" on your record.

[Indy_Ref]

Great story! Hopefully the standing ovation was for Matt AND the kid that passed him the ball!

[mplagrow]

Originally Posted by Bad Zebra

Great story. It gives us hope for the future that are still a few kids left out there playing sports that understand there are things in life that are bigger than hanging another "W" on your record.

That would only be true if they passed it off to him when they were down by one!

[Mountaineer]

I had a similar situation happen to me a couple of years ago. One team just let a kid shoot and shoot until he scored and even "guided" a defensive rebound to the kid and he scored. The coach called time and came at me and actually accused my partners and myself of telling his kids to do that. I said, "No coach - they did that all on their own. I think you need to go back to your huddle and praise them for being such great kids in spite of your attitude."

He apologized to me after the game.