I am a person who is interested in the game, but more entertained by the story behind the scenes.

So this is what really happens when you have a bad game.

I don’t like playing too many bad games, I always get my stats to a point where people really can’t say “He played awful tonight” because the numbers never lie. My senior season has been a great success so far. Multiple 30 point games, South Jersey Player of the Week, averaging big numbers, and to top it off the team is starting to turn around at 7-8. But my success on the year came with one price: the Williamstown game.

My brother was there, and a college coach came six hours to watch. It was a fairly big night for me. Sometimes, the ball doesn’t go in, simple as that. I had the worst shooting night of my career that night, shooting 5 for 20 and finishing with 13 points. And that’s going to happen when you’re in my spot; it’s basketball. The college coach was impressed with my floor game, and knew the shot was going to fall, so I wasn’t too concerned with that. I can’t have a good game every game, right? So I didn’t think much of it at first, that is until Twitter happened.

Someone I didn’t personally know tweets me, saying”@peytonmort finishes the game 5/35 YOU’RE NOT CHRISTIAN!” Christian, my older brother, who also plays ball.  Personally, I wasn’t bothered, I get those “You aren’t as good as Christian” comments on the regular, and I was just trying to forget about that game. I still Haven’t watched the film yet. People commented back supporting me, people tweeted me keep your head up, it got way out of proportion. And personally, I was the least concerned about it.

The next day in school people come up to me saying “I heard you played bad last night what happened?” and making the situation bigger than it was. That is truly what happens after you have an off night and usually play good, more people will be critics.

What they never hear about is the other nights: the nights I can’t miss.

I scored 32 points against GCIT and hit a record 9 three-pointers, then a week later had another high of 34 points against Clayton. Getting the win and playing great is the best feeling in the world for any athlete. Waking up in the morning and having your name as the headline of The Press couldn’t get any better. I got a lot less comments the next day in school from the critics as well.

All of the sudden, the kids who were commenting on the one bad game I had to start the season didn’t know about the 12 good games I had after that. But that doesn’t matter. When athletes have their best nights, nothing can really phase them. I’ve put that one game behind me now, and I’m excited to see what the team will do to finish off the season.