The Importance Of Pain In Basketball

In seventh grade I made the basketball team, I had worked persistently to reach this goal and was in a daze for the first few months of the season. It was winter break and the coaches had warned us about kids who did not practice during breaks, to prevent a lack of improvement I was in my driveway practicing my shots. Somehow, I ended up dislocating my kneecap. It was excruciatingly painful however, with a trip to the hospital, countless hours of physical therapy and loads of prescription pain pills; I returned the next season.
Years later, I made the freshman basketball team and was thrilled; by that time I had decided I wanted to play all through high school, college, and possibly beyond that. I knew basketball would provide a majority
I remember letting my head fall to the floor and thinking, "How am I going to pull through this again?" I remember lying on the court, it felt as though I was there for hours, yet in reality it was only a few seconds. Again, I found myself in another doctor’s office, he was explaining to me the results of my MRI. He told me that I required surgery so on March 20, 2015, my experience with pain changed forever. Waking up after my surgery felt as though every single inch of my leg was broken, I ached from my hip to my toes. And it did not stop there; the recovery process began again, but a million times worse: constant excruciating pain, crutches, straight leg braces, long hours of physical therapy, hundreds of doctor visits, bottles of prescription pain pills. I worked endlessly to get my knee back to normal with the result that I could rejoin the team. At that moment, I was sitting on the sidelines watching my friends play and improve. Finally, the first day of practice had arrived, I had gotten a doctor’s note clearing me to play and was ecstatic. Although, my doctor warned me I sustained significant damage to my knee and