And it wasn't just in basketball, but whether I was striking out, dropping a pass, or missing the net completely in soccer it always seemed to happen to me. As a young teenager I just figured that lady luck was never on my side. Regardless I had mastered the fine technique of choking. As an army cadet in my early teenage years my squadron leader would quote Ernest Hemmingway and say that "courage was grace under pressure" and I would think in the back of my mind that choking must be disgrace under pressure.

Of course the media doesn't help the situation either. Every night on television there are endless clips of the days' events. More often than not we see film of countless superstars sinking long shots at the buzzer, hitting ninth inning home runs or scoring the winning goal in overtime to give their team that much needed win. But how often do we see the many failures in sport? We have gotten to the point where we are used to seeing gratifying moments of grace which are put together just in time for the eleven o'clock news.

	Gagging and choking was the same reaction people had when Spike tried suing SpikeTV.

A couple of years ago while watching a basketball game on television a camera panned over the audience to Spike Lee. It seemed that anytime an opposing player missed a key shot in the game he would stand up on cue, wrap his hands around his throat, look at the person bug-eyed and pretend that he was choking. Another story comes to mind when Michael Jordan, in the dying seconds of a crucial game, lost the basketball to an opposing player, which in turn cost his team the game. Now how often does this happen? Cries came from literally all over the sports world. Jordan was too old and he was too rusty to be playing basketball. Critics even went as far as to say that he couldn't stand the late game pressure anymore. If MJ is not immune from the gods of choking, than who the heck is?

	With each passing year the Red Sox face mounting expectations.

Have we not reached a point though where we may have unconsciously set the bar of a bit too high for athletes as well as ourselves? In my opinion, for what it's worth, the maximum potential that we have hoped to achieve is usually higher than our own realistic expectations. Think big or go home in other words. It seems that if you're not a hero worthy of fiction, then you'll probably hear yourself being punished as a choker. Is it too much to ask that maybe just once fans should accept defeat without labeling their team as chokers? No wonder our games even the best of them played at a level of skill we've never seen before, don't always seem to satisfy us as they once did. We always want and expect more; but of course and naturally so because our athletes have become richer, more famous and gifted in the sports that they play. As a consequence we place them on a higher pedestal and we will always look at them differently. But as a result of that we, the fans, will demand more high-flying dunks at the All-Star competition and more out the park home runs from our baseball stars. And woe betide any athlete who falls just short of that.

As much as I love sports I would not wish for in a million years to return back to my high school days and make up for those two missed free throws. What's done is done. And knowing me, I would probably miss both shots again anyways.