In High School I balled against Kobe Bryant once a week in the fall.
The first time I played against him I had no clue who he was. I wsa playing with four freshman on my team, and,since I was a sophomore, the responsibility of guarding Mr. Bryant was delegated to yours truly.
The first time down the floor I decided to jack a three up automatically. Nothing but net.
Second time down the floor I decided that he wouldn’t expect me to do it again so pulled up way back and threw up another one. It was money. I made the mistake of of actually verbalizing my thoughts with a yell of, “Money!!!” while I released.
He didn’t take to kindly to this and proceeded to dunk on me 15 straight times. I mean dunk with authority. No layups or jumpers. All dunks.
I have never been prouder of being so embarrassed.
A group of us from the Canadian National Ski Team’s telemark division found ourselves at the end of a day in Whistler at the top of a very long, very empty run, in perfect conditions.
No one said anything. We just looked at each other, then all cut loose and raced from top to bottom. Mach 1 as a flock, lauging and screaming all the way. After a couple of minutes, our legs were on fire. Lots of pain. Not enough O2. But we kept on, and on, and on. Amazingly enough, no one crashed. Nothing but panting, exhausted smiles, and hugs at the bottom.
Kipawa river. Just Tom B. and I. A sunny, warm fall day. I don’t know why, but neither of us could do any wrong. The technical moves came fast and easy. Lines were perfect. We floated through stuff that often we portaged. All those years of paddling together and paddling that particular river came together in one glorious day.
Not exactly a pickup game, but rather an unexpected rescue while running a kayaking class.
Paul C. and I had to extract an overturned pinned student from a class IV rock garden. It involved a fair bit of coordinated rope work to get out there, but we did it quickly without hesitation and without verbal communication. It all just came together for us when we least expected it.
Hmmm…it’s a two-way tie.
1.) Making a great, spectacular, amazing diving catch during an intramural softball game in college.
2.) In an intramural basketball game (same college), blocking the shot of a six-foot guy and pinning the ball against the backboard (I’m about 5 feet, 5 inches).
I realize that these are individual (insignificant) “achievements,” not team ones, which is not why one plays team sports to begin with, but those are the ones that came to mind.
