If you’re a basketball fan, you might have watched an elite hooper’s highlight reel. If so, you likely witnessed a barrage of a player’s skill and talent on display in different competitive situations.
Fans of Waywards, nothing like that is highlighted here, in this video of compiled clips of me.
As a 5’3” guy in his thirties largely deficient in natural athleticism whose whose body is further limited by an autoimmune inflammatory disease —Ankylosing Spondylitis, according to my rheumatologist — I’m not quite looking or performing like a future NBA lottery pick. Rather, the footage features my frequently stiff, not-so-Herculean physique, rife as it’s been with chronic aches/injuries on top of other issues. The clips of me practicing sets of dribbling moves and shots, recorded on several different days during January, is not going to drop many jaws or inspire a lot of awe.
But you might find highlights from my dribbling and shootaround sessions amusing and perhaps even helpful for other reasons. Competitive hoopers could get ideas for moves to borrow, seriously refine and execute to real fanfare. People who don’t play or know much about basketball could see examples of new ways to stay active while picking up and working on novel skills.
Personally, putting together a faux highlight reel provided motivation to learn, practice, develop and combine various moves while challenging me to knock down different shots. The effort entailed acquisition or creative coupling of skills without pretensions about needing to actually impress or compete with legitimate basketball-themed highlights. The intention to produce a low-key, recreational reel of pseudo-highlights became a liberating challenge, an incentivizing force free from the baggage of expectations that can curb enthusiasm and constrict creativity. In my situation, carrying that baggage makes little sense.
As it turned out, I enjoyed the process enough there could be future faux highlight reels to follow. For now, you’re welcome to check out the one I created using the a Samsung Galaxy S9 camera and free video editing software.
