To be the best of what's left

So summer has been passing by merrily, and I've been doing my fair share of sightseeing and Chicago-appreciating. I've also been making headway in regards to my basketball game. After a sensational outing a few weeks ago, it's been more of a struggle getting accepted by the regular players, and I've had to work hard to not make a complete fool of myself.

So the other day, I showed up at my gym, and started shooting around. Guys filtered in, until eventually we had ten and it was time to pick teams. Two people shot 3-point shots, made them, and became captains responsible for picking teams out of the remaining eight players.

Now, most of us remember the excruciating agony of waiting around to be picked to a team from days gone by, when it was either high-school gym class or the neighborhood kiddie soccer game. In fact, our youth is probably littered with such depressing memories (if yours isn't, then screw you). And no one relishes being put in that same situation again. My strategy is usually to look bored and make no eye contact with the guys picking teams, as if I want to say, "you bore me. I don't really want to play for you anyway. In fact I'm glad I'm being picked last because that'll lull everyone into believing I suck, when actually, you suck."

Here, however, I had no legitimate reason to be picked early. I've already said that everyone I play with is much better than I am. And so it came down to the last three players, with yours truly still available. At this point one of the captains decided to do away with the "I'll-pick-then-you-pick" approach, and said "ok, we'll take Sean and Faisal, and you take Mike." The other captain looked at him with incredulity.

"What? " he said. "Why do you get to pick the best of what's left? Stick to the way we've been picking the teams!"

Ah, music to my ears. I've made it to the point where I'm considered "the best of the rest." Which means there's at least one other person now who is perceived to be a worse player than I am.

Look out baby, 'cuz I'm making progress!