Drinks with the Team

I’m writing this post on Labor day. About a game we had last Tuesday. To get in the Tuesday mindset (of a full week), I thought I would send it out today. On a Tuesday.

It was the rec league championship for our division at 9:15pm last Tuesday. A late and important game ended in overtime with us on the losing end of it. It was a tough loss. I went 0/2 at the line in the last minute in a tie game after swishing 2 early in the game.

One of the gentlemen on the other team, after I missed the first, spoke loudly and exclaimed “that’s fatigue man.” I nodded in acknowledgment and whispered back to myself and to him “it is.” Even with bending my legs and holding the follow-through, the second rimmed out, giving us a worse chance to win in regulation.

Before the game, and in the team text thread, I had said “Also before I forget, win or lose, we should go grab a drink afterwards. Send Noah off and also just some season ending socializing.”

Although the league recommends bars nearby gyms for postgame activities, the emails probably have a 30% read rate, and our team, which has played three consecutive seasons, has never gone out for drinks. It’s a grab bag of individuals who only see each other with a basketball in our hands (generally speaking and personally speaking).

As we analyzed the game and took our shoes off, it felt as if maybe drinks wouldn’t happen. But as the post-game huddle stayed a huddle, I asked a couple people I knew well, and they opted in, as did the rest of the team. The heavy rain (for New York) and light rain (for other parts of the country) could have stopped us, but the scaffolding was enough cover for 50% of the 15-minute walk. The rain felt refreshing after busting our asses for 48 minutes (and change) anyway.

We arrived at the bar, the other team from another division that played in the championship game before was there, and there were 4-5 other small tables in a setting that felt like a Tuesday bar winding down. Perfect for us. Exactly what a post-game drink would feel like. As a “veteran” on the team, and oldest person there, I ordered the team a bucket of Bud Lights. And then we just started talking.

About the US Open, about tennis, about people’s plans for the upcoming year (some were only there for the summer session), about maybe getting together outside of a game, and the list goes on and on. It was the first time we had done something like that, and it felt so important.

We love playing together. We love the pre-game talking and post-game goodbyes. But sitting around at a bar, truly unwinding and getting a deeper glimpse into your friends’ lives, was the right way to end the season.

There is something extra special about socializing with a group of people AFTER you have done the work with them. After grinding for a full season and 48 minutes in a championship loss. It adds more meaning. Because in the midst of all the discussion topics, you get a “shit, how did we not close that out!” or “god I just played bad tonight, my bad guys.” The natural blending of the work and socializing doesn’t have a scientific or textbook name. But it is an important distinction between only doing the “work” or only doing the socializing. It’s appreciating the people around you. In a different and new setting that welcomes that attitude.

Writing this 6 days after the 10:45 – 11:45 Tuesday beers with the team was risky as I have forgotten some of the feelings and thoughts I was feeling in the moment when I got home and wanted to write this. But I didn’t forget the theme.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a powerful punchy conclusion to this post – something I focus on and take pride in. The subject line is a suggestion, and the post expands on that suggestion.