Sometimes it just doesn’t work.
You labor long and hard. You modify and intensify your thought process and preparation. You try to sell others on your vision, and hew to your chosen path through better and worse. You feel worthy of success and ache to achieve it.
But the crosscourt pass goes just out of reach and your team turns over the ball in the decisive final seconds of a narrow loss at Duke. Crucial free throws are missed. The block-charge call goes against your team. The key recruit changes his mind and goes elsewhere.
You reach a certain point and you recognize it doesn’t work.