Close-up image of a basketball hoop in a game hall.
Standing in the layup line warming up against Brother Martin, I looked across the court at Rick Robey and had one thought:
What are we doing here?
My junior year at St. Louis High School in Lake Charles, we had about 125 students in my class, and that included the girls. Our coach, C.J. Scheufens, had a habit of scheduling us against schools with bigger enrollments, deeper benches, and more size than we had any business facing. At the time, I thought he was trying to get us killed. Looking back, he was getting us ready.
Rick Robey went on to play at Kentucky, win a national championship, and have an NBA career.
At the time, all I knew was that he was very tall, very good, and very much in our way.
They ran us off the floor.
When You’re Facing a Bigger Opponent
Then there was LaGrange. First time we played them, they beat us by more than 40 points. It was one of those games where you look up at the scoreboard and start doing spiritual math.
“Lord, if we can just get this under 30, I promise I’ll be a better person.”
We were outsized, outmanned, and outmatched. But we kept playing.
Later in the preseason, we played LaGrange again. Same school. Same athletes. Same size advantage.
But something was different.
We were different. We had gotten stronger. Not bigger. Nobody walked into the gym and confused us with a recruiting showcase. But we had seen speed. We had felt real pressure. We had been pushed around by teams that were better than us. And somewhere in all of that, we learned how to compete at a higher level.
What Those Losses Were Really Teaching Us
That second game against LaGrange, we were actually leading going into the fourth quarter. They eventually wore us down and won, so let’s not turn this into a Disney movie. Nobody carried me off the court on their shoulders.
But we were not the same team they had beaten by 40. That was the point. C.J. wasn’t waiting for us to feel ready. He was putting us in situations that would make us ready.
We finished second in our district that year. Those ugly preseason losses didn’t hold us back. They built the team we became.
Leadership Growth Doesn’t Happen in Comfortable Places
This week, I watched Jalen Brunson, a 6’2” guard who was never supposed to be the centerpiece of an NBA champion, drop 45 points to close out the NBA Finals. The Knicks came back from double-digit deficits in every single win. First championship in 53 years.
Nobody looked at that team and said, “Yeah, they’ve got this.”
Growth doesn’t come from staying comfortable. It doesn’t come from playing where you already know you can win.
It comes from stepping into a bigger game, a harder room, a tougher conversation. The kind where you look around and wonder,
What am I doing here?
The Real Question Isn’t “Am I Ready?”
That feeling is not a warning to back away.
It’s an invitation to grow.
So the next time you walk into a room and that voice shows up:
What am I doing here?
Remember: that may be exactly where you need to be.
