I’m anxious to meet with the San Quentin Warriors/Kings basketball team members as I haven’t been to prison in a few weeks. Stormy weather and then a bad cold kept me from my weekly visits which had me feeling antsy and a bit disconnected.
I sense the inmates need to come out of hibernation as well while the weather starts to turn and the men wait for practice to begin. I suppose waiting for your sport to come into season is like a skier waiting for a good snowfall, or a surfer anticipating big surf. But then that’s par for the prison course, time and wait. Wait and time.
Sports. It’s gotten out of hand, but no matter how you feel about outrageous salary’s, ridiculous marketing budgets and all the time and money spent chasing balls around; there are those who rise to the top whether you appreciate their skill or their contributions – a man like Kobe Bryant was a force that effected most people including the men at San Quentin.
Each of the basketball meetings begins with a “check-in” where the men talk about whatever has been on their mind the past couple of weeks. Their comments were not unlike much of what was being expressed on the outside. People were reminded that life is tenuous and to appreciate every day. That you can be the most fortunate man in the world and have it all, but no one is immune to death. One friend was more pragmatic and said, it just must have been his time.
Incarcerated men will tell you time is all they have. Every day is pretty much like the next. Upon meeting an inmate who has served, say five years, one shrugs and thinks – only five years.
Most of the men I know have served an average of about twenty or more years of a life sentence. One of the men who played with both the San Quentin Warriors and now the Kings (the Kings are for men over fifty) said he kept hearing people say that Bryant had it all. He was a role model, a sports hero with fame, money, a beautiful family and everything anyone could ever want. Everything except time. And here he was in prison, with nothing but time.
He said he was going to change his focus. Up until now, he spent his time thinking about all the time he had lost or about how much time he had left until he could get out. He felt things had shifted now. That he would be more present and pay more attention to what he did have.
You might wonder what a man who has spent thirty plus years of a life sentence can be grateful for. I can’t speak for him, but I do observe the men and know that they are appreciative of a few things; they are in San Quentin (as opposed to other prisons without advanced rehabilitation programs) and many have deepened bonds with their family and friends.
They work with volunteers that bring teams from the outside into the prison and have tournaments and a yearly game with members of the Golden State Warriors. Sports programs like these give them purpose and maintain their mental and physical health.
The weather is unseasonably warm. Tryouts for the teams begin in a week and the roster is being compiled. The men need shoes and mouth guards. The court needs paving. They wait.
Time is on their side.
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