A Humbling Experience

I was subbing in the old Huntington gym the other day and was reminded of this story . . .

Many moons ago, back when I played high school basketball, I played with perhaps the best player our league has ever seen. He happened to be my cousin and his name was Mick Shoemaker. Mick averaged 31.6 points per game his senior year, scored over 1,500 career points and received a full scholarship to the University of Cincinnati. There once existed a photo of Mick, just a few feet in front of his home bench and barely past the end of the scorer’s table, shooting a jump shot from about 25-feet out. In the photo his feet are at the eye level of those sitting on the bench. You realize the current high school 3-point line is 19-feet, 9-inches from the hoop, right?

So yeah, good. Really good.

Me? Not that good. I mean, I started and had some good games but Mick was on another level. Anyway, all this leads me to certain game in that old Huntington gym against our rivals, the Hunstmen.

The referee threw up the ball and we were soon on offense. Now, it wasn’t unusual for opposing teams to try a variety of defenses in a vain attempt to stop Mick. Anyway, the strategy Huntington was employing in this game was the old Box & 1. For those unaware, a Box & 1 is a defense where one guy sticks with a really good player and the other four guys play a zone, always ready to help out on him. What made this particular Box & 1 unique was that the one was on me.

Well, now. At this point I was thinking pretty highly of myself. Huntington had figured it out! I was the guy they had to stop! Let Mick Shoemaker have his points, the secret to beating Paint Valley was stopping Dave Shoemaker!

Yep, that’s what I actually thought for about 7-seconds. But then there was a lull in the action, the gym grew quiet, and I heard this from the opposing team’s coach:

“Not him dummy! “The OTHER Shoemaker!”

I swear the Huntington coach screamed it so loud that everyone heard it, including some folks over in Happy Hollow. At that point the guy guarding me scurried away to guard Mick, leaving me standing there alone, undefended and humbled.

On the other hand, our own bench thought it was quite hilarious. Trust me, it took me awhile to live that one down.

Yeah. Not me.