I played a lot of basketball in high school.
I was not very good, but there was one thing I really enjoyed doing.
Working on my handles.
In non-basketball speak, handles are the different ways you dribble the ball.
I grew up in the era of Allen Iverson and AND1 mixtapes, so handles were all the rage.
Even though I don’t play basketball anymore, whenever I’m around a game or even a single person playing on their own, I can’t help but notice something.
I pay attention to their handles.
**
Henry “Hank” Aaron was one of the best hitters in baseball.
In one of the great biographies about him, there’s a small line that stood out to me about his hitting:
“In baseball, you could separate the good ones from the great with your eyes closed — literally, to the veteran baseball ear it was often that easy. Contact with the ball just sounded different — clearer, cleaner, sharper.”
**
In a conversation between two hall-of-fame tennis players, Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick talk about what it was like to face the backhand slice of a third hall-of-fame tennis player.
No doubt Andre and Andy have faced and delivered hundreds of thousands of backhand slices.
They both agreed, Roger Federer’s was just different.
Andre says, “Roger was the first guy I ever played against, where I could hit a ball exactly how I wanted and knew it, and I still didn’t feel safe.”
**
When on vacation with my family in Australia, I sign up for a month-long membership at a local boxing gym. I don’t box, but they have other things that I make use of.
The owner’s name is Dan. He’s a retired professional boxer, and he’s there every time I am.
The other day, on my way out, I decided to pound him. Pounding is the action of making a fist and simply touching the other person’s fist—a slightly cooler high-five.
Out of instinct (I think), Dan made a fist and lightly connected directly with my fist. Our knuckles made contact with each other.
In that very light touch with Dan’s fist, I felt like I was making contact with a concrete wall.
His pound was just different.
**
When paying attention to a basketball player’s handles, there’s just one thing to watch for.
Fluidity.
Once you become comfortable handling a basketball, your arms and the ball collectively take on the consistency of a single strand of well-cooked spaghetti.
Someone just learning to handle will have arms that look like uncooked spaghetti trying to swat the ball in a consistent spot.
If you’ve played enough ball, you can notice someone’s handles almost instantly. Even from a great distance.
Their handles just look different.
**
These signals of difference can be small—a touch, a sound, a sight.
And yet, in our noticing of them, we are instantly made aware of large stories they contain.
