We are the champions

I leave my left hand up in the air as I watch the ball snap through the net. I have just put my team up by 10 points in the closing minutes of the citywide basketball final, virtually sealing the championship for my team. A small smile grows on my face, equal parts excitement and relief. The crowd is cheering surprisingly loudly, and all I can do is shrug my shoulders and backpedal down the court.

This is a childhood dream of mine – the sort that so many little boys have while shooting around in local parks/schoolyards/driveways as dusk gently settles across the sky, blurring lines between fantasy and reality. It is also, incidentally, exactly what happened on this past Saturday afternoon while playing in the eThekwini District Basketball Tournament.

On Saturday morning I got up early to help the Peace Players International (PPI) guys run another basketball clinic out in Chatsworth, as has become our weekly custom. After we finished cleaning up the balls and cones at the Chatsworth Youth Center and were back on the road back into downtown Durban, they invited me to be the fifth man on their team for a basketball tournament that they heard was being held down at the Durban Institute of Technology. Excited at the prospect of some good hoops and an interesting experience, I quickly said Yes.

Four games and three hours in the hot Durban summer sun later, the final whistle sounded, and we were crowned champions of this (annual?) tournament. And while I wasn’t entirely happy with my individual performance, we played some fantastic team basketball and had come out on top. We were each given individual medals and a big trophy for the team to share; don’t worry I have already put in my request to have the hardware at my house one day each week. It was an amazing experience – a dream-come-true in the purest sense – and one hell of an early birthday present.

You wanna see how happy I was?:



And, just because I'm sure you're wondering, my birthday was lots of fun as well.