Hard Work

“Perfection isn’t attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence” and “Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price” are the lone adornments on the blank empty walls of his room. Outside, this emptiness is matched by the weather. The snow was still falling, adding even more on to the already knee-high pile on the ground, weighing down the trees till breaking point, and turning the landscape into a true storybook winter wonderland. Spinning a basketball in his hand while staring blankly at the wall, he remembered back to the day when he first came to this state, the state where he learned English, the state where his basketball career would start, the state where he would make his name known by the best Division I colleges, the state where it all started.
***

It was the first day of school for him here after moving to Madison. There were so many firsts on that first day of school: the snow, the buses, even the English language were all new to him. At school he was isolated into a corner, struggling with ESOL, trying to learn this strange new language. The kids, although mostly nice, sometimes giggle and make fun of him in complicated sentences that he couldn’t comprehend. He withdrew into himself, created a shell for himself; he became introverted, and it became very hard for him to socialize and make friends. He, for the first time in his life, felt truly lonely and deserted. It was a new experience, one that he didn’t like at all…

But improve he did. Half a year later he could speak and understand English fluently. Not only that, but he, again, have taken his rightful place the top student in his class in every single subject. And along this journey, he had learned a new sport, a sport which would later get his name, Ming Nguyen, recognition nationally: basketball. From that first day when he met it, basketball journeyed with him, it would help him, motivate him as he faced obstacles and challenges from everywhere, coming even sometimes from his own parents.
***

It was in a 3rd grade’s gym class that he first met basketball. His teacher showed the class how to dribble, how to shoot, and some basic moves. He was fascinated with this sport. It seemed so easy, just simply getting a round orange ball through a basket twice its size. But of course, it isn’t that simple; sometimes it even seems impossible, especially when kids 5-6 inches taller than him loomed over him with their unnaturally long skinny arms. At first, he couldn’t do anything: his dribble wasn’t even legal, his shot was nonexistent, and his passing atrocious. He was laughed at when he when he play with other kids, scorned at when he airball an easy layup, and made fun at when he couldn’t make an easy layup.

But he stick with it. He worked at improving his skills every way possible. He borrowed books from the library and watched videos on techniques and moves of basketball. He watched thousands of NBA games and highlights, just to see how the best did it. Every day at recess, when everyone would be playing other things, he would be the lone one at a basket shooting hoops, even in the bitter freezing winter. He became the “weird Asian kid who shoots hoops alone”, the only one crazy enough to be shooting a basketball and practicing crossovers gloveless in the bone-biting frost of the Wisconsin winter.

With all the obsessive practice, of course he got better. By 4th grade, he could play the kids who breathed and lived basketball pretty evenly. This motivated him, pushed him even further, giving him energy to practice even more and more, even when his fingers would turn blue and purple from the cold. But life decided to throw him a vicious curveball at this time, one curveball in the form of his Dad.

His Dad loved soccer. Every day, whenever he had some free time, his Dad would take him and his brother out to park near their house, and teach them how to play soccer. He showed Minh and his brother all the moves and tricks that he knew, he played 1-on-2 soccer against them, and had them practice their shot accuracy by making them hit a tree with their shots from different distances. He wanted them to become accomplished soccer players, just like him. Thus, when Minh started becoming devoted to basketball, his Dad was tremendously disappointed, if not downright angry. His Dad tried way after way to make Minh stop playing basketball, stopping just short of forcing Minh to quit. His Dad pointed out thousands of ways why Minh would ultimately fail: Minh’s short height, Minh’s late start in basketball, even going as far as saying how basketball isn’t the sport for Asians since they can never hope to even compete with the other races in this sport due to their inferior physical buildup.

Minh’s Dad almost succeeded, as Minh came within a hair of quitting basketball. Although on the outside, Minh pretended to ignore his Dad, in his heart, he knew that his Dad was partially right: all the reasons that his Dad listed makes his chance of ever succeeding at basketball infinitesimally small. The more Minh pondered this, the more disheartened and discouraged he got. His Dad was right, he thought, how could he, an Asian kid who’s projected to be only 5’11” by 18, compete with kids who are going be taller than 7 feet? How could he, a kid who has only started playing basketball, beat kids who’ve lived and breathed basketball ever since they were born? Who was he to try to shoot for the stars, to try to succeed at what millions have failed?

It was at recess on one warm spring day that Minh’s attitudes were changed dramatically. On that day, for some reasons or another, some of the bests kids at basketball in school decided to play some hoops. After teams were picked, one player was still needed, and fatefully it was Minh who was this one player. What happened the next few minutes would remain forever imprinted in Minh’s mind and drastically changed his future for the better. On the first play of the game, Minh received a pass at the top of the key, and then quickly put down two lightning crossovers, which stapled his defender’s feet right to the floor, allowing Minh to blow right past him. Minh proceeded to spun past the next defender before finishing with a neat up-and-under, rolling the ball off his fingertips just underneath the outstretched arms of the helpless defender gently off the backboard into the basket. Minh wasn’t done. After turning in a monster block on defense, Minh quickly grabbed the ball and sprinted downcourt; he then split two defenders with a behind-the-back dribble, before pulling up and swishing a little mid-ranger jumper. Minh did more amazing things the rest of the game, but these first two plays stood out the clearest and meant the most to him afterwards. They showed him that he could indeed compete evenly with the best, if not beat the best. They thus reignited the dying embers of his passion for basketball. From then on, Minh blazed forward, doing anything and everything he can, and then some more, to get better. Minh never again look back, not when he broke his left in arm in 5th grade, not when he was cut from the team in 6th grade because he was too short, not when he broke his right wrist in 7th grade right before tryouts began, not ever. His self-esteem and self-confidence in basketball were locked tight in a box deep within himself, where nothing could ever touch it.
***

Fast forward back to the present, Minh started as he finished remembering his recollections. Three days from now is the opening game of the NCAA tournament for Wisconsin, and Minh is expected to make a great impact on the tournament. He has already done a lot this year, from leading the nation in assists per game to leading Wisconsin to a top 5 ranking for most of the year. Yet there were and always are doubters, skeptics, and haters. Even as a number 6 high school recruit in the country, he was shunned by most of the top perennial powerhouses Division I colleges, ranging from Kentucky to NC. The reasons ranged from he was too short to he wasn’t athletic enough. Yet true to himself, Minh was never fazed by these criticisms. The only way to quiet these criticisms, Minh knew, was by hard work, and that’s exactly what he did. And along the way, basketball has always journey with him, it has always helped him, teached him, and motivated him. Above all, basketball has taught him to believe in himself and believe in hard work, believe that if he works hard enough, he can achieve anything. And so three days from now, when he steps onto the court, Minh will take another step towards his goal of becoming the best in basketball.