Montgomery & Co. Episode 72: Keep Moving Forward

The latest episode of Montgomery & Co. was an Atlanta Dream-centric one. With the WNBA season in its final stretch before the postseason, Renee and the crew discussed the state of each of the 12 teams in the W.

Focusing on the seventh-seeded Dream, the team has been consistently inconsistent. As Renee pointed out, the Dream have had two separate 10-game stretches—one where the team went 8-2 earlier in the season and one now where they’ve gone 2-8. Injuries have played a major role in that rollercoaster of a season, but that is a part of sports. There are setbacks and tough periods of time where things just don’t seem to go your way almost if not more than they seem like they do. “It’s a season of runs,” Renee stated on the pod, and that is a fact.

Listen to this episode, where Renee talks to Atlanta rookie Laeticia Amihere and head coachTanisha Wright, as well as more of the Montgomery & Co. wherever you get your podcasts.

“I Feel Like LeBron James”

Allow me to peel back the curtain to go behind the scenes one time. I send writing ideas to Renee and the team to run by them to make sure they work for her and the blog. Renee is and has been incredibly supportive of me and my ability, vocally praising my talent. Those kind and motivating words have come at a time where, like most people these days, life is incredibly tough. I won’t go into many details here as this platform is not the place for it, but I do have a personal blog on Medium available for reading.

So after listening to Episode 69, I mentioned to the team that the title and tone of the episode ties into a thought I was having: I feel like LeBron James. After reading my reason why, hopefully you may find you feel similarly and reach a similar conclusion to mine.

As much as the title may imply, this is not an ego-driven essay. I do not feel like I’m in the conversation for “Greatest of…” anything, except maybe how to maintain some semblance of composure while I battle things like anxiety and worry on the daily. I know everyone has a similar battle, and I would never position myself as attempting to medal in three Struggle Olympics. But when it’s your struggle, it is personal to an extent.

Life, loss of job, anxiety around the preservation of livelihood are all things that can affect how someone lives. Setbacks happen. However, I believe the reason those mishaps impact us so deeply is because it feels like an imbalance of negative occurrences. We tend to feel like we “can’t catch a break” when it feels like tough outcome after tough outcome without something good to even out the weight. There was an old joke — so old, I remember it on BET ComicView — where the comedian said that if your day is good, a vending machine taking your dollar without giving product won’t break your stride. You can smile through that setback. But, when the day or days haven’t been going so well and that machine takes your dollar, it can move you to tears of confusion and sadness. “Why me? I’m not asking for much,” among other things we may say to ourselves when we’re faced with another moment of rejection.

At this point, one who reads this may wonder where arguably the best basketball player ever fits in my regular degular life. Well, when LeBron was at the height of his powers and making eight consecutive NBA Finals, teams began to formulate their rosters to defeat him — even as LeBron’s teams have changed players. Famously, the Golden State Warriors signed Kevin Durant after losing to LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 Finals. The Warriors, who had already beaten LeBron, decided to overwhelm him with so many problems that the good he can do is not enough. That’s what rough stretches in life feel like, to me. It feels like I can’t even celebrate small wins because there are so many waves of rejection and loss that I can barely see the positives.

The Warriors didn’t trick LeBron with a new strategy. The team just decided to oppose him with way more than he could conceivably handle. Life’s setbacks aren’t new. I’m not the first person to go through situations where it feels like I’m regressing just because. But when it comes after just getting out another dire situation, it’s difficult to celebrate just being here.

So how do we battle that? What do we take with us into the storm of struggle when it seems most perilous?

Just go forward. As Renee said towards the end of the episode, “control your controllables.” We must keep moving forward, because the other way most certainly is not the right direction.

Thank you for reading.
Peace.