As I write this, March Madness is upon us once again and my Hoosier roots are drawing me to the TV to watch the NCAA basketball tournament. But I have to say that a relatively recent development in the game of basketball baffles me a bit. I noticed this phenomenon a few years ago and remember being subconsciously confused and disturbed by it, but my questions about it never quite bobbed up to the surface of my brain — they remained in the murky depths, swimming alongside hundreds of other questions about life that bug me but aren’t important enough to consciously think through.
The other day, however, I was watching a college game on TV and I saw this “thing” occur again and the issue floated to the top of my brain (perhaps because I was desperate for newspaper column ideas).
Here’s what the “thing” is: A player is fouled, so everybody lines up for the free throw. It’s a two-shot foul, so the player who was fouled launches his first free throw. In the old days, back when I played (yes, I did play), if your teammate missed the front end of two free throws, the ref just handed the ball back to the shooter and he or she tried again. Nowadays, if the shooter misses the free throw, all his teammates rush over to him and give him high fives like he just sank the winning bucket at the buzzer. Mind you, I said the shooter has MISSED the first free throw.
What’s up with that? And what are these guys/girls saying to each other when they rush over to high-five their teammate?
“Hey, way to miss that shot! We didn’t need that point anyway! Let me encourage you to miss this second one, too!”
I don’t know when basketball players started doing this. It was obviously sometime after my high school career was over. I do remember, though, that the first few times I saw it occur on TV, I wanted to jump out of my recliner and say, “Hey, what are ya doin’? The guy MISSED the shot, for Pete’s sake!”
But after several years of being subconsciously annoyed and baffled about this new ritual, the other day it occurred to me that perhaps these guys are actually being biblical.
“Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, ‘Take courage, fear not.’” (Isaiah 35:3-4a)
“Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” (I Thessalonians 5:11)
I thought about all the times I have “missed” in my life and how the folks around me have kept on loving me, encouraging me and urging me to go on and shoot again. Even, and most especially, God, who always runs to the free throw line to give me grace for my mistakes and courage to try again.
“For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again …” (Proverbs 24: 16)
“The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.” (Psalms 37:23-24)
The world is full of folks who’ve missed the first free throw and are terrified they will miss again. God, give me a heart that wants to be the first one rushing to the free throw line to give them a hearty high-five.