Spurs “Mural” Tour takes a turn at Sea World

Or “How I embarrassed myself from beyond the arc”

So for starters, it wasn’t a mural as much as print of some sort. And to say I embarrassed myself is a stretch. I walk into these situations willingly. But in this case, I didn’t set myself up, I was goaded into paying $10 for a carnival game.

Let me backtrack…

My wife and I took our daughter to Sea World to see the 9 million Christmas lights. If you’ve been watching the home games, the advertisements are displayed in front of the scorer’s tables between the benches. Our friends, another couple with a daughter, met up with us. If you are in San Antonio, the trip is a nice visual holiday celebration. In addition to the lights there are shows, rides, a parade, and places to play carnival style games. One such game is a Spurs-themed three-point shooting contest.

1 play $10. It’s a 12-ball All-Star style 3-point shooting challenge. Three locations (top of the key and both corners) with 4 balls in each. One ball is the “money” ball worth two points instead of one. And you have 40 seconds to complete the course.

I went in for the picture with my kid. There was nobody shooting. It actually looked closed until I got up close. But I asked if I could get a shot (photographic, not basketball) and we stepped onto the court.

Afterward, my wife said “You aren’t going to shoot?”

“No.”

She countered with “the look” while simultaneously taking out $10. When she said “10 or 15” I quickly replied that one time around the horn would be enough for me.

I must say, it is a lot harder than it looks. In my defense, I only watch million-dollar guys shoot. I don’t coach high school or attend college games and my daughter is not currently in a league. So watching the likes of Bryn Forbes, Davis Bertans, and Rudy Gay lob balls from downtown with no visible effort may have desensitized my understanding of the skill prerequisites.

All of a sudden the court lights seemed brighter. The $10 not only allowed me to line up to shoot balls, but the carnie’s boom mic came to life so everyone within a mile could hear that I was about to take the rock. Right out of a movie, a burst of music accompanied his microphone, I stepped to the right corner got blinded by the lighting over the hoop and knew I was in trouble.

He counted me down 3-2-1 and then it happened. I took the ball, lined it up, and hurled with the confidence of a pro. I was channeling pure Curry. This was as easy as it looked. It was a perfect aimed shot…about a foot shy of the hoop. That’s okay, now that I knew how off it was, the second would land for sure. Or not.

Shot after pathetic shot either rimmed the hoop or air-balled completely. I know that one shot in because I heard my friends and family cheer and announcer-boy called it. To be honest, he sounded surprised, which didn’t help my confidence.

And that was it. In the end, I made 1 of 12. One shy of complete failure.

Did I want to play again? Oh, yeah, I was confident I could improve. Did I want to shell out $10 to know? Neither did I want to spend the money nor did I want anyone watching me.

But it got me to thinking. Maybe it’s time to grab my Spurs ball that’s never hit concrete and head to the park.

Anyone want to join me?

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Source: Pounding The Rock