So, Kellen joined a basketball team two weeks ago … a little late in the season, but he’s filling in for a kid who quit, and having fun, and its a neat little team with nice boys, so that’s all good and fine.   (Don’t worry, there will be plenty of shitty, blurry basketball pictures for me to share later, I know you can hardly wait.)

His team had an 8pm game last night, and as is typically the case, the boys playing in the 9pm game started filling in the gym during the second half of our game, just like we usually wind up watching the second half of the game before ours. 

Kellen’s team uniform was red, and the team they were playing (or “versing”, as my kids call it) were blue.  We were winning …. it certainly wasn’t a rout, but I think we were up by six or eight at halftime, and the lead increased, little by little, as the second half played out.

I could hear the boys team, an age division or two older, sitting behind me, commenting on the game.  They weren’t being rude or disrespectful or anything like that, just commenting that our team’s offense was much more solid than the other team’s offense.   Not that the NBA is calling for ANY of them ….. just that we stuck together better the second half, and the other team got a little sloppy.

With just a minute or so left to go, the other team went up for what should have been a simple layup, and missed.  I heard one of the boys behind me say, “Switch to red!” and I thought to myself, “Well that was sort of rude.  Just because the blue team is losing, that’s no reason to insult them.”

One of the boys on the blue team managed to get the rebound, then tried for another shot, and missed again.

“Switch to red, switch to red!” I heard behind me, again. 

“OK, now, seriously?”  I thought, “Do you really think its necessary to badger the boys on the losing team??  That’s just poor sportsmanship.  Boys your age should be setting a better example.”  I would never have had the nerve to say anything out loud, but I was disappointed in their lack of class.

I oh-so-subtly glanced behind me, to see the boys who were being so obnoxious, and realized they were a team with black and red uniforms.  The boys in the stands were telling the boys walking up that they needed to switch their black jerseys to red, for their game that followed ours.

Oh.  Well.  That’s not so rude after all.

And that whooshing sound you heard?  Was me, and the gratefulness that rushed through me, that for once I *didn’t* let my mouth overload my butt.