Tough lesson but life can be tough too

Winning a basketball game by a big score does not make it a worthless exercise. Palmerston North Boys’ High School handed out a basketball lesson as they demolished Hawera High School 207-27 on Wednesday.

To claim neither team got anything out of the match overlooks plenty of crucial factors.

Most importantly, for three-quarters of the match, the Palmerston North bench got a chance to prove their worth.

With some top schoolboy stars hogging the minutes for Palmerston North in big matches, there are plenty of players in the team who spend a lot more time riding the pine than they would like. Against Hawera they got their shot and every one of them had something to prove. They were players desperate to convince their coach that they deserve to get more of a run in the big matches.

They spend much of the season waiting for a chance for extended minutes and when they finally got handed a chance, they were determined to prove they were up to the task.

After showing patience all year, just try to tell them to go easy when they finally get their shot.

As for the starting Palmerston North five, they are all trying to prove they deserve NBL contracts or scholarships to American universities and putting out a performance that is anything but their best is detrimental to that.

Basketball is a game of rhythm. It was important that Palmerston North stuck to their drills, their defensive positioning and their offensive spacing, if not for beating Hawera, then to reinforce their tactics ahead of tougher opponents in the future.

Credit to Hawera for playing out the match and then performing better against St John’s College Hastings that same evening. That speaks highly to their character.

The Hawera players can take it as a life lesson because when they leave school and things get tough, the pressures of life won’t take pity on them and start taking it easy.

I am sure the Hawera players would have preferred to be thrashed by a team which was trying rather than one which was messing around. When down by a big score there is nothing more condescending than watching the players on the opposition slacking off and playing silly buggers just to ensure the score does not blow out.

No doubt the loss would have been demoralising, but it would have been worse if Palmerston North had turned to matador defence and let the shot clock expire on attacking plays. That would have been a case when neither team got anything out of the game. It is not a good team’s responsibility to play down to its opposition, but rather the latter needing to step up.

And hell, when you get close to a once-in-a-lifetime milestone like scoring 200 points in a basketball game, who would not want to go for it?