Finally, his turn came. The whistle blew for a two-shot foul on his team’s point guard. After the opposing guard made the first shot, the assistant coaching Derek’s team signaled for the offending point guard to come out. Then he pointed to Derek. “Go get ’em, kid,” he said, clapping twice.

Derek didn’t need a second invitation. He sprang off the bench like a coiled snake—all that pent-up energy coursing through him.

Calm down! he told himself. Relax! It’s just another game, remember? Don’t try to do too much!

The second foul shot was good, tying the game.

Derek ran all the right messages through his brain. But his body wanted to go, go, go! From the moment he took the inbounds pass, he was off and running.

Until now the pace of the game had been tortoise-like, and Derek had been going crazy on the bench. Now his boundless nervous energy took over. He raced right past two defenders and went airborne for the easy layup—

But the ball clanked off the rim! He’d given the shot too much energy, and blown it!

Derek felt the blood rush to his face as he ran back on defense. There was no time to think—his miss had given the other team a fast break. Derek flew down the court, leapt into the air, and with his fingertips outstretched, flicked the ball away from the unwary blueshirt who’d been just about to lay one up himself!

The assistant acting as referee blew his whistle and signaled that the ball belonged to the blue team. Still, Derek had managed to avert the worst—at least for the moment.

He scanned the court, watching the eyes of the kid throwing the ball in. Anticipating the pass, Derek moved in a flash, and stole it!

Again, he rushed upcourt, dribbling right past the surprised defenders. This time he pulled up for a quick jump shot.

But once again he’d put too much energy into it! The ball hit the backboard and bounced high off the rim.

Derek rushed to get the rebound, just as a blueshirt grabbed it. He wrapped his arms around the ball too, and the whistle blew.

“Jump ball!”

Derek now had to outjump a kid seven inches taller than he was. He tried to time it just right—and lo and behold, managed to tip it to one of his teammates!

So far, his play had been a mixed bag. He hadn’t scored any points, even though he’d had two golden opportunities. On the other hand, he’d made three good defensive plays and shown that he could jump with any of them.

But now that the other kids had been alerted to his presence on the court, his teammates seemed to silently conspire to keep the ball away from him.