basketball as meditation

A friend of mine asked me once what is the one thing I'd rather be doing in the world right now?

I said, I wanted to be on a basketball court running and feeling free. It goes beyond the teamwork and comraderie, the workout and the competitiveness. It's a beautiful dance that can be shared by people without even knowing each other. Not even words. It's more than feeling invincible for a few fleeting moments.

Its like that's my meditation. It's the time when my mind is clear and no thoughts enter. It's crazy, people in the game will ask me questions and talk to me and it takes me a few seconds to put sentences together. My mind is clearly in the present moment. Peace of mind.

The point I'm getting as it this. Playing sports is like life. In sports we're striving to get to that level of peace of mind. Maybe not everbody is but at least I am. In basketball you can get into something called "the zone". It's impossible to describe it perfectly but it's a feeling of bliss. Things are happening in slow-motion and nobody can stop you. That feeling is why I even play basketball. It's not ego driven it's cleansing. It feels right.

In life we win some and we lose some. Some are big games some are small but we keep playing until we can't anymore. And even then we still keep going. But right now I'm just so BLAHhhhh. That term used to have entirely different meaning but it's funny that it's orginal usage and what it meant to me are the same thing now.