blue16 Posted December 2, 2007 Posted December 2, 2007 In September I organized and formed a basketball team in a local men's league consisting of some friends of mine and guys I played high school ball with. I was told ahead of time that the league was fairly competitive (even the B league) which was fine with me since I am fairly serious about basketball anyways. Our team is fairly rusty since most of us haven't played competitive b-ball in 4-6 years. After 3 months in the league, we really got our ass kicked. Out of 11 teams, we were the 2nd worst in the league and we only won 3 out of 12 games. We had 12 guys on the roster but only had about 6-7 on average per game show up...even one game we only had 4 guys at tipoff! The commitment level is really poor amongst a few guys on the team. While some of us are attending all of the games and improving our skill level (I've improved lots since September) there are a few guys who are out of shape and very rusty because they haven't been showing up. This only hurts the team because when they DO show up, they're taking away court time from the better/committed players on the team. One guy in particular, my friend, missed the last 2 months of the season due to a 'back injury'. While I do know that he was hurt, and he gave updates at the start of the year about his injury...I didn't even hear from him the last month of the season. The good news is that there ARE a couple of good players, who are committed, that want to join the team. But I can't carry 13-14 guys on the roster because that is too much. With registration starting up again in January, I need to find a way to cut the guys who aren't really committed to the team. I'd love for all my friends to get playing time...but we got smoked this year and if I don't do something about it the better players on the team are gonna up and leave. My friend has already paid for a jersey (which I am more than willing to reimburse him for) but I'm not sure how to phrase it in such a way so he doesn't want to join the team. I know I probably sound really harsh in wanting to cut my friend, but he is just an all around unreliable character and with good players waiting on the side (which will definitely help us out) it puts me in a really tough spot...
NoChance Posted December 3, 2007 Posted December 3, 2007 From your post I get the idea you are running the team / are the team captain. I can relate to your situation as I was in the exact same one. In a league where my friends didnt take it seriously, while I did, but I didnt want a sports league to effect our friendship. I dont think your stance is harsh. If he is a good friend, show him the respect a good friend deserves and be straight up with him. Tell him you love him as a friend, but he's not reliable for your bball team. Explain how you have a list of people waiting for a spot occupied by him which you felt he didnt take seriously last year. For all you know, he could only be on the team because he feels you want him to be on it, and he actually doesnt want to play. If he takes offence to you maning up and giving it to him straight, then hes probaby just as bad as a friend as he is as a teamate.
Author blue16 Posted January 21, 2008 Author Posted January 21, 2008 Well I gave him one more chance and asked whether he was gonna be a part of the team. Gave him no pressure and said that if he didn't want to play that was totally fine but he needed to decide one way or the other. Well he said he was fully healed and determined to play so it seemed like he was back. But after missing our first practice (although he had an excuse) and then missing subsequent games/practices and not returning phone calls I just assumed things had faded out. I stopped giving him the schedule and reminders about the game and just decided to let things die out in a natural course instead of calling and nagging him. I'm not sure if this issue will affect our friendship but unfortunately I don't even see him anymore outside of random parties every few months so it's a moot point. My other good friend who frankly wasn't our best player by any stretch of the imagination also has quit. Fortunately he had the balls to come out and say that he wasn't playing this season because of his injury which really limited his ability as well as the fact that he is super busy. I really appreciated his honesty and the issue hasn't effected our friendship in the slightest. So far we've added a new player and with a condensed roster of committed players we're off to a much better start this season.
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