Basketball Hurt My Marriage

Before I met my wife I was an avid basketball player. She use to come to my games and cheer me on. Why wouldn’t she? I was good a good player.

When we had arguments, I would deal with them differently then most husbands. I would leave the house and not answer my phone for a few hours. What my wife didn’t know was I had a mistress. It was round, orange and made me dribble.

This was my curse, the need to get better at playing basketball. Yea I could’ve gone to the bar or called another woman. But those things didn’t compare to draining a pull up jump shot.

I would return home and take a shower. This is a sign to a spouse that you might be having an affair. But I wasn’t. The sad thing is I couldn’t convince my wife of my whereabouts. Even after proof.

When you grow up in the same area, you’re probably going to know where all the places to hoop are. At any time. My wife could not figure this out.

Over the course of our 10 year marriage, I never once cheated on my wife. Tempted! But I held strong for 2 reasons: 1) I wanted to be a good ball player. 2) didn’t like using condoms.

My wife would follow me sometimes when I left after midnight after one of our heated spouts. To her surprise, she would always find me at a park putting up shots. For me this was a way to blow off steam. This went on for 10 years.

The extras practice on my game paid off tremendously in adult non pro basketball leagues. I know my teammates appreciated what I brought to the team. We won over 17 championships.

As time went on my marriage suffered because of my love for basketball. Everything else was fine. We got along & spent time together. Did things with our daughter. I had a great job. She just didn’t like me leaving when our arguments got out of hand. Regardless of my fidelity, my wife was unhappy with me.

Two years before our divorce I found out my wife was having an affair with a friend of mine. He didn’t play basketball. Fortunately we were able to get through it and keep our family together.

After a year of more championships, my wife informed me she was in love with another man and she wanted a divorce. Begrudgingly I complied and just like that we were divorced. No more arguments.

I was sad for a few months but there was one thing I could count on….playing basketball. Playing ball allowed me not to sit around and sulk. Eventually, I got over my divorce and my life became a lot easier.

Basketball did hurt my marriage but it also helped me get through the divorce. Of course there are things I wish I did differently. To me playing basketball probably kept me out of jail on domestic abuse charges.

I was never violent towards my ex-wife but the police usually favor the woman when there is a domestic dispute. I never wanted to take that chance so I did what I thought was right and played basketball.