The first time I touched the ball in an eighth grade basketball practice, I was terrified. As a skinny, unathletic, 5-foot-8 kid, I had been cut from the seventh grade team a year prior. A year later, however, I was a skinny, unathletic, 5-foot-9 kid and managed to claim the final spot on the eighth grade roster. I was on the team to do one thing: shoot the ball. In addition to being a defensive liability, I couldn’t handle or pass the ball, and I clearly wasn’t going to rebound. But I could shoot.
So there I stood, in the right corner, scrimmaging against the first team (every member of whom went on to play Division I sports), eager to prove myself but unsure if I really belonged.