Kammys Musing

Due to his full time work as a high ranking police officer in Kuala Lumpur, we rarely see our basketball coach in 1992. Later I found out that he actually made frequent visit compared to 1991, but not to the junior court. During my short stay in Kuala Kangsar (Dec 91- Dec 96) I only saw him less than a handful of times.

But when he does come, its like a celebrity coming to town. Sometimes he’ll bring street food like satay for us to feast on. For growing teenagers eating Nasi Kawah* daily, this is definitely a blessing. *(Rice cooked in a large caudron, same style you would have in a British era prison).

Word was that in 1970s he gave this boy a lift back to the hostel from the Kuala Kangsar town, had a chat and eventually volunteered as a coach. Rest is history as they tell it here.

Occasionally all 5 teams (1 from each year) will gather at the main court behind the Big School where the senior team trains.
Kids would be eager to show off their skills, hoping to catch the coach attention, earn some praises maybe.

If it rains, the session will be held in the covered gymnasium.
As it was mainly for gymnastics, the side long wall is lined with sticks slabs – imagine the bed wooden slab. You can climb up to the top, about 2.5m of the ground. I did a quick search and managed to find a photo (photo taken from fund.mckk.edu.my).

The gym is small; if we are playing basketball; others have to climb up the stick walls and sit at the top to avoid getting trampled. Last I visited the gym was in 2016; quite shocked to realised how light we were to be able to sit on top of the racks; and more importantly how small our bums were that we could afford to sit at the top to the planks. Amazing.

I believe that God bestowed His bounties accordingly in His Wisdom. Some people have physical advantages like Azran. Imagine Akagi from the Slam Dunk anime.

Some are passionate, they keep sleeping with the ball. Asyaary aka Nanak came to mind – that and with an image of him drooling during Sunday naptime after lunch.

Some guys are born talented that even the way they do their stretching is a feast to the coach’s eyes. In our team this would be Shahir.

Tall, dark brown, lanky, long legs – we don’t wear short pants much but you could tell it’s there. There was a session where he was singled out to be doing a beautiful warm up run – you run full court, back and forth with your legs stretched as much as you can. Oooh how we envied him (at least I was); this guy was getting the coach’s attention even before touching the ball!

Honestly I really can’t tell the difference between him and an ostrich running from a predator. (I did mention the envy part earlier, right?) Tried emulating him; stretch as much as I could with my loyal Pallas Jazz, one stride at a time. No luck; still looks ordinary to the coach. Bye-bye delicious Satay.

Stay hungry, stay safe.