Real Talk: Sus Thoughts in Sports

How insane is the pressure we put on ourselves to be the MVP every single game?As a player, you expect yourself to have the perfect game every time you step on the court even though you know that's impossible.

Well... remember the depression I mentioned in my last post? It got so bad that I stopped even trying to shoot the ball in my basketball games. And not just as any player—I was the team captain with an exceptionally solid shot. But I couldn’t pull the trigger. And it drove everyone around me CRAZY. My coaches, teammates, my father - and me too if I'm being real.

You know that cliché line: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”? Guess what—it’s true.

Thanks a lot, depression.

You know that annoying little voice in your head? Well mine got so loud, so powerful, it started affecting my game in real, physical ways. That voice told me things like, "I'm going to miss it" and "theres's no way this ball is going in." It became so convincing that I accepted it as absolute truth. And because I adopted this all-or-nothing approach, I decided not to shoot.

I failed to see that by me not shooting the ball, even if it was a miss, I was really hurting my team. This sounds insane, right? Because EVERYONE misses shots, but I didn't care, I was still not shooting the rock. Not even Kobe—the king of shooting everything—could’ve convinced me otherwise.

If I could go back in time and help myself through that, I would. In a heartbeat. No, I probably wasn’t going pro, but I’ve always wondered what I could’ve done on the court if I’d had my mind right.

What I needed back then was something called CBT—Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

So, what is CBT? It’s this super effective form of therapy that helps you understand how negative thought patterns can seriously mess with your emotions and behaviors. And then—this is the good part—a CBT therapist (like me) can actually teach you how to challenge those thoughts… and even change them.

Let me break it down even more:

Before CBT? I’m passing up a wide-open shot.

After CBT? I’m knockin' down that 3-pointer, and I’m feeling freakin’ amazing.

I now understand that just because a thought enters my mind doesn't mean I have to believe it, I have the power to control if I want to act on my thoughts or not. And that right there is the real game changer.