Posted on 02/27/2013 1:06:12 PM PST by EveningStar
Full title:
High school basketball player passes ball to mentally challenged player on the other team so he can score a basket (Video)
(Excerpt) Read more at thechive.com ...
Thank you for sharing. Blurry screen alert.
But lets be honest, the winning coach wasn't going to put the challenged kid in the game if it was crazy close at the end. I don't care what he says about it now. :p
The losing team got to ride the manufactured victory bus all the way home. And everyone was so proud.
But the next time this kind of thing happens, and a kid chooses instead to compete wholeheartedly I hope his parents and team are just as proud.
Nice...
Casie I think you missed the point. The developmentally delayed boy was given one chance to actually play in a game. The last game of his senior year. His team tried several times to give him a chance to score one basket. After the turnover a player from the other team who had been watching this go on made the decision to help him. He inbounded the ball to the challenged kid and it gave him another opportunity. The kid from the other team, in my mind, is the story. It was his decision that is what is making news. That boy “gets it” and that is what is making us cry. He is a fabulous human being. It’s what you do for those who can do nothing for you. Just my two cents.
I just feel its ok for a kid to choose to play a sports game whole hearted as well. I think it is ok to be competitive. And I think a parent should be just as proud of a kid that plays his best with all around good sportsmanship, who may not decide to give the ball away.
The wonderful mentally challenged kid got to play. That rocks! But his appearance in the game should not require another team to quit playing. In my opinion this kind of game ending should be the heartwarming rarity and not the accepted practice of "no one keeps score" or "everyone gets a passing grade".
I have gotten a few private emails on this already, so either I made my point badly or I am in the minority. Either way, it was a nice video. All good kids. But I would have been proud if my kid went for the points too.
:)
Charles Barkley would have elbowed him.
Seriously, though, I agree with you. I don’t like it. They didn’t let him be a real player (even a bad one), just be part of a contrived show.
As a basketball player, he is to them as I am to players in the NBA. It is as if I’d always dreamed of playing in the NBA, and a team that was way ahead let me go in at the end of a game. Then somebody on the other team threw me the ball to make a open layup. That’s not really playing the game. If he knows enough to be a team manager, and watches many games, he knows they let him score.
If they wanted to recognize him, and give him a gratifying moment, I think it would have been better to plan a moment at halftime in which he goes on the court and shoots shots until he makes one. Then the crowd could cheer to show their appreciation for his love of basketball and what he was able to do as team manager, despite his handicap, and then the gratification would be for real and without any phoniness in the game itself.
And imagine if someone tells the kid the truth. He'll be devastated.
I gotcha! :-)
I think he carried things much too far there. It's possible to win graciously (no matter what Leo Durocher said). Basketball is a competition, though, and not a show (I can't stand to watch the Globetrotters).
“For those how don’t recall...” — For those who don’t recall...
Also make “a open layup” “an open layup” in the earlier post. Sorry for the careless errors. It should be possible to type a couple of paragraphs without them.
Though it speaks of "Jonathon's assist" -- and makes a big deal of it --- actually Mitchell missed the shot after he received that pass. He didn't score until four shots later. The "assist" in basketball terms came from Mitchell's teammate, though by that time the other team was just standing around watching.
At the El Paso Times site there's a complete video of the last 2:28 minutes, apparently taken by a spectator. The view is more distant, but I think it's more moving because you can hear the crowd rooting for Mitchell. (I do have some sympathy for the desired end, though not for the means used to attain it.)
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