Chapter Twenty-Nine

The Season is Fully Upon Us

As my senior year and our basketball season sped along, I had less and less time to think about Reynaldo. But, with all the chaos I felt in my life, I kept thinking about something he said during one of our encounters. Out of the blue, he asked me, “What do you think gets in the way of your progress?”

I replied, “All this chaos and confusion!”

Reynaldo quickly responded, “No…chaos creates progress! You can’t improve as much when things are going really well as much as you can when all hell has broken loose. Remember that. Do not ever forget that.”

Now that he was gone and there was more chaos than ever in my life (and in my head), I couldn’t forget it. But I wasn’t always sure what he meant or how to benefit from what he said.

Another time, I was complaining about something wrong with the mechanics of my shot and he said, “Where we are now started a long time ago.” It was another confusing thing that I could not really understand, but somehow it came forward in my consciousness and seemed appropriate given the family secret that had emerged.

Overall, though, I gradually forgot his existence much less his importance in my basketball life. I started to think he may have been just a figment of my active imagination running wild. I certainly questioned whether my stranger was the same person as this half-brother, Reynaldo. Nevertheless, I was getting less distracted by these questions and more focused on the season that was coming fast.

Perhaps more importantly, as basketball practices became longer and more intense there was little time to go to the blacktop. I did not see Reynaldo for weeks and then stopped wondering or expecting him to show up. But I never really forgot the many things that he said to me and had quickly incorporated all that he taught me in a very important and obvious way.

Meanwhile, Guillermo, Emmitt and I seemed to form the emotional nucleus of the team. Though we tended to have calm and quiet presence on the team, when we chose to speak the rest of the team listened. Much of the time we led by example. Our willingness to practice long hours and spend time on their own developing their skills spoke to the rest of the team in an impactful way.

Guillermo, who learned much of his point guard skills from his successful and talented older brother, was also gifted in distributing the ball to just the right person who could score easily from their favorite spot on the court. He always seemed to find me even when I didn’t realize I was open for a relatively easy shot. Emmitt was a strong presence around the basket and could be counted upon to get an important rebound or block a crucial shot by an opponent. He was consistent shooter from within 15 feet of the basket.

Tomas and Jamie also worked hard on defense and were also good rebounders. Adam played the other guard position and had a great jump shot. The truth was that we all had to be good shooters to make our particular motion offense work. We all had to be tenacious and quick defenders to be able to run our all-game full court press to perfection. So, it was obvious that everyone on the team had to be versatile more than anything else. Unlike most basketball teams, as much as we wanted to be a tall team, that was our least important characteristic for the way we played and the way in which we won.

Coach Goodwin had retained a total 7 seniors on our team, which was more than any other year that I was aware of. We had an unusual rotation of 10 to 11 players in any particular game, more than any other team that we played. We relied on our underclassmen, juniors Freddie and Omar, and one sophomore, Cole, to round out our squad. We believed in Coach Goodwin’s team strategy, that we were each an interchangeable part of the whole. We were somewhat positionless as individuals and highly valuable regardless of when and for whom we were substituted. Fouls and defensive assignments and individual matchups were of very little importance in this way of playing basketball.

As the season progressed, our team's chemistry and cohesion only grew stronger. Guillermo's leadership on the court was undeniable. He made sure everyone was involved and playing to their strengths. Emmitt's presence under the basket was a force to be reckoned with, consistently outrebounding opponents and protecting the rim with his shot-blocking abilities.

Our unorthodox style of play, with all of us being versatile and positionless, confused many of our opponents. They struggled to adapt to our fast-paced offense and suffocating full-court press defense. Coach Goodwin's strategy of rotating players in and out seamlessly kept our energy levels high throughout the game, catching other teams off guard and exhausting their starters and their bench players.

However, despite our success on the court, something felt like it was missing. I couldn't shake the feeling that Reynaldo's sudden disappearance was not a coincidence.