Forget the Applause. Get in the Lab
Nobody Remembers the Likes, Just the Work
The world wants you to put on a show. That’s the game now, right? Highlights, clips, followers. Turn a good move into a mixtape. Make it look pretty. Make sure they see it. Make sure they feel it.
Somewhere, a kid scrolls through Instagram, seeing another offer post. Another kid his age standing next to a coach, smiling, shaking hands, promising the future is bright. The caption says, I’m blessed to receive my nth offer! No mention of the nights they doubted themselves. No mention of the pressure, the loneliness, the way the game can love you one day and spit you out the next.
That part never makes the feed.
So you work. You push. You grind like your life depends on it. But let me ask you this: Who are you doing it for? The kid across town? The haters in your comments? The scouts who might pull up to your game if traffic ain’t bad?
Forget all of that. Forget them.
If the game don’t love you back, you gotta love yourself in it. You gotta find something deeper than proving a point. You gotta make peace with the long nights, the missed shots, the heartbreak of almost but not quite. If you only play for validation, you’ll never play free.
Do it for the kid who fell in love with this game when nobody was watching. Do it for that version of you—the one who wasn’t worried about rankings, clips, or NIL deals. The one who just wanted to hoop. That’s the real win.