Over the holidays I was able to watch my nephew play in a high school basketball tournament. The game was engaging, partially because we were ahead for the entire contest — until the 2-minute mark. At that juncture, we were up by 10 points, but suddenly the team made some turnovers and allowed a few three-point shots to be scored against them — and to overtime we went.
And then to double overtime — and our guy scored a free throw with seconds remaining — but the ref said that his foot was on the line. So the bucket did not count and we headed into triple overtime.
After all that, unfortunately, we lost the hard-fought contest. The players were physically exhausted; the fans were emotionally exhausted and it was a sad way to end the afternoon.
I thought back to the final two minutes — oh, if we could replay them again. Take a lesson from this game and resolve to keep up the intensity until the very end — even if it appears that such an expenditure of energy is not necessary. The game isn’t over until the final buzzer sounds.
Originally published in modified form on December 30, 2013
