Think before you do something stupid

I woke up Monday morning to an email telling me about an incident that happened in a local AAU tournament on Sunday. I will share it as an example of how bad things can happen to others when you do something stupid.

This happened to the 7th grade son of a great friend of mine. His son has played and won a ton of basketball games for me over the last three years, so I feel a bond to the young man. He is as good of a kid as you will ever want to meet, nice, respectful, no ego, good sport, etc.

He was going for an open layup at the end of a game in which had long been decided. A player from Greenville, SC decided he didn't want this young man to make that layup and from what I can gather he either pushed or tackled my friends son. The impact was so hard that it slammed him into what was luckily a padded wall. The impact also knocked him unconscious for 30 seconds. Next up was an ambulance ride, then a night in ICU, lots of tests and some very scary medical terms. Fortunately I hear this AM that things have improved, and he will be OK. I know Sunday night had to be very scary for the family.

All this pain because one kid decided to be the ultimate bad sport, because he never took the time to say "what happens if I hurt him?"

I cant speak to how the kid feels now, maybe he is laying in his bed with a terrible feeling that will not go away, maybe he is back in school and had forgotten about the entire incident, I don't know.

The point of this it think before you do something stupid. You could hurt someone really bad, this case had the chance for a few hours to become really, really bad, luckily it hit a point and bounced back.

If my player and friend is reading this, I hope you are feeling better and I hope you can put this incident out of your mind and get back on the court real soon.

If by chance the kid that did this happens to ever read this, which I doubt he will, but just in case... You did something very stupid, I hope you learn from this and become a much better sport in future competitions. I trust you and your family are smart enough to have made the necessary apologies and have displayed a real concern for the well-being of the player that spent the night in the ICU. Luckily he will be ok, so you get a chance to learn from your mistakes, please don't make the same mistake twice.