A Basketball Snap-Shot

Andrew Saltzman

A Snap Shot Of My Life

I see it all in my head, it is glued into my brain. It's my moment of greatness. It was exciting; nerve wracking, intenseful, and it was my medal round basketball game. My team was playing for the third place bronze metal in the Utah Summer Games and I had a hurt back, which hurt more than any broken bone that I've ever had. The pain stopped me from playing in the game. But later in the game my team was down by ten points going into the fourth quarter. Despite the sharp pain in my back, I decided that I needed to go in to the game and try to make a difference.

Soon after taking my position on the court, I scored two lay ups, I gained one assist, and my team had made one foul shot so we were only down three. I wasn’t about to let my team down. It was my time for us two tie up the game game up because the was only a couple minutes left in the forth quarter. But as time went on, my back pain only got worse. I wanted to help my team out one more time before I could not do anything with my back at all.

Then, I had a perfect chance to contribute to my team once more. We had just finished stopping Snow Canyon and we were heading down the court to set up our offense. Right as I got down the court, I went cutting through to the three-point line. I was wide open because Nate had set a pick for me while I was down low cutting through. I yelled for the ball saying, "I’m open!" Just then, Dillon passed me the ball. Right as I turned to release the ball for the three pointer, I saw the defender running towards me. I was tasting the flavor of the Gatorade that I had finished drinking earlier and the gross salty flavor of sweat that was running down my face. I could hear the yelling of the defender that was getting closer. I felt the smooth, strong, leather grip of the basketball which was slowly leaving my hands as the defender jumped up trying to block the ball. But he missed the ball by about four inches and I drained the three pointer. Score!

The Crowd went crazy and the game was tied up. My scoring really made Snow Canyon mad. Everyone on our team believed that we could now finish Snow Canyon off. Unfortunately the sharp pain in my back was hurting way too much for me to stay in the game any longer so, I was benched for the rest of the game with a minute left in the game.

The last minute of the game was intenseful. Snow Canyon went down and missed a wide open lay up and we received the rebound. Then we went down and made a lay up. With twenty seconds to spare, they went down and made their lay up. So we had to try to score once again but, unfortunately we failed. The game ended with them running down the clock and hitting a three pointer for the win. We had lost out on winning the bronze medal but, we played a great game and we had a fantastic time at the Utah Summer Games.

When we arrived home, I went to the doctor and found out that I had a broken vertebra in my lower back. When my coaches found out about my diagnosis, they looked back on that snap shot of time and were amazed and pleased with how well I played basketball during the Utah Summer Games despite my having a broken back.

For now, I have to rest my back and let heal it until Jan. 2009. I can hardly wait until I can get back on the court and play basketball!