The horn alarm went off as a sign that our 30 second timeout has come to and end. My other four teammates walked onto the floor as I got up off the bench trying to relax myself. I was lying to myself to calm down the moment. “Act like these fans are not here.” “Its just another gym session shooting free throws.”

Our basketball team was down by 4 points, with 0:40 left in the 4th quarter.

Although I told myself those lies, the noise of the crowd made it hard to detach myself from reality. “It’s okay,” I thought. “I’m not letting them get the best of me.” I got angry. Turns out, anger sometimes brings the best out of people.

As he stood under the hoop, the referee passes me the ball. I felt every single eye staring at me in that moment. I called it “a hollywood movie premier to ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ and I was Leonardo DiCaprio.” Once I received the basketball, I move my hands around to improve my grip and essentially become one with the ball. “Right hand center-right, guiding hand to the left,” I thought.

Releasing the ball, I focused on the hoop to see the product. *CUFF* The net sounded as the ball went through. Down by 3.

My friends who came to watch in the stands overwhelmed the noise that the fans of the other team made. “Yeah. I shut up a home crowd,” I thought. The greatest achievement that a player, or team, that is “away” can accomplish.

I got the ball back for one more shot attempt at the free throw line. My teammates who were lined up to grab a rebound, Jordan and T-Mac, looked at me and moved there hands in an up-down direction, signaling to calm down and not to worry about the crowd but about the game. I did just that. *CUFF* MY crowd went crazy! Down by 2.

Inbounding the ball, the other team had to respond to those two shots I made. They did just that. Collapse on defense, Jordan and I did not communicate with each other that there was a man open in the wing. *CUFF* He made his shot. Down by 4, again. They killed the clock as there were only 0:10 seconds left.

We had no more timeouts, but everyone was on the same page. We needed to score fast, even though the odds were against us. Inbounding the ball to Henry, I ran as far up the court as I could to get a shot up. Trapped, I couldn’t get free to get the ball. Time expired and the game was over.

“DAMN!” We lost the game by 4. Personally, I don’t think I have ever heard a home crowd switch and get back into the game as quickly and obnoxiously as they did. A bunch of unnecessary comments were thrown at us as we exited together.

“Guys!” I said as we left the gym. “This is only a sign that we can keep a close game even when we are the foreigners. We will get them next time and I can guarantee you that.” Loses are remembered more than wins for those who are true competitors, and that loss influenced me to get back up no matter how hard it may be.