Life on the bench

I sat on the bench for 2 years. By bench I don’t mean the common wooden bench, I am talking about the place in basketball where the non playing team sits. Everyone says the bench is important and people coming off the bench make a difference. But I say ‘What a load of crap’. All that is required to win a match is 5 decent players. Players on the bench play a small role of passing on information and building up the tempo.

There is a unique atmosphere on the bench. The mind set of the people on the bench is so complex that it will take a computer a million years to process the chain of thought. There are a lot of conflicting emotions, everyone on the bench wants to play and most of the people secretly hope that someone who is playing screws up, gets tired or maybe even injured. But its their team playing so the player cant even screw up so much as to cause the whole team to loose i.e they expect the player to perform to his maximum thus contradicting the earlier hope. They keep on criticizing, advising the players and when on the court hope that the same doesn’t happen to them. For a player on the bench the victory isn’t as sweet and the loss isn’t as bitter.

All I can say is to earn the respect you need to shape up your game and play. That is the only way you can gain the respect of your team and everyone else, most important your own self for the feeling is worth everything.