Normal is not enough.

The normal basketball career goes like this:

Falls in love with the game.

Plays.

Starts to improve.

Moves up in levels.

Hits the level that they deserve to be at.

Think they are better than where they are.

Blame coaches.

Blame teammates.

Think they should play more.

Get injured.

Give up.

Stop playing.

Blame injury and coaches for why they never made it.

Tell their kids how good they were back in the day.

This is a normal career. 

I've seen this and heard this story thousands of times.

Ask yourself these very important questions.

What areas of life do you feel pressured to be normal? 

What are you doing differently to separate yourself from the competition? 

Who are you learning from that has made it professionally? 

What do they do differently than you?

Do you want to be normal?