It’s the summer of 2001, I’m 13 years old, and we’re at the AAU national championships in Tennessee.

I was 5-foot-5, 5-6 tops — and maybe like 100 pounds soaking wet. We lost badly, and I played worse. I had finally gotten the chance that I’d been waiting for, all year, to measure myself up … and I fell short. Way short.

It really felt like a wake-up call. It felt like this moment of truth — where there was only one possible lesson to take away: that I just wasn’t good enough.