1. You have the ability to withstand extremely high temperatures from all the summer days you spent in the gym with no AC.
2. Your basketball number is still your lucky number and will always a hold a special place in your heart.
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3. You're always looking for people to go shoot with you at the campus rec.
4. You're still getting used to being able to wear all of your cute summer shorts without having bruised and swelled knees cramping your style.
5. You have 6 pairs of hideous basketball shoes in your closet that you just can't bring yourself to throw away. I mean you never know when you're going to need those, right?
6. You have countless inside jokes from practices that still make you laugh all these years later.
7. Sometimes you find yourself missing those long trips on the cheese wagon to away games.
8. You might even find yourself in the gym running some suicides for fun. Okay, yeah probably not. Those were horrible.
9. You're probably a pretty awesome dancer from all the dance moves learned on the away game road trips.
10. You have countless stories to tell about fouling out and fighting.
11. On that note, you're probably pretty confident you could beat just about anyone in a fight after all the fighting practice your basketball career gave you.
12. You remember the days of having to wear the "banana" jerseys, or scrimmage jerseys, as an underclassmen.
13. And you also remember the glory days of making the underclassmen wear the practice jerseys when you finally gained seniority.
14. You know there is no greater pressure than being on the free throw line when the game is on the line.
15. You completely understand that wide open lay-ups are the hardest to make.
16. Your heart has never pounded as hard as it did when you would get a fast break off of a steal.
17. You and your teammates developed a chemistry where you basically knew where everyone was on the court, even with your eyes closed.
18. If you're a girl, you still remember all the aggressive yelling of the fourth quarter. (Who are we kidding, basically every second of the game.)
19. If you've ever gotten a CT done from a basketball-inflicted head injury right before heading out to the next away game. Just me? Okay.
20. If you ever had to sit a quarter out because your nose was bleeding profusely.
21. If you remember the agonizing feeling of fouling out and having to sit the bench and watch helplessly.
22. You remember the solidarity of the locker room right before a rivalry or championship game.
23. You dreaded car rides back with your parents after a loss. Yeah...everything looks easy when you're watching from the stands, Mom and Dad.
24. Your teammates eventually became your best friends. You did spent every second together at practice and at games. The friendship was destined.
25. You shed quite a few tears after your last career game. There's nothing like walking off that court for the last time.
26. You still love basketball for everything it gave you.
For all the the lessons and memories that we will cherish forever, thank you high school basketball.
