Taken for granted

You never know what you've got until it's gone.
When you have a good thing for a long time, it's human nature to grow too accustomed to having it. It's hard to not take it for granted.
Imagine playing beside a great player for your entire career. A player that draws all the attention from opposing defenses. A player who gets double teamed and triple teamed every night. A player who grabs every big rebound, makes big shots and erases defensive mistakes with their presence around the basket.
You've played beside this person your entire career. You don't remember what it's like to not play beside this person.
Now, try to play without this person at your side.
All of a sudden, the players guarding you are bigger and better. The players that used to be focusing on your teammate are now staring down at you. Rebounds are harder to get because instead of two or three opponents blocking out your teammate,now they've got their butt in your gut.
Open shots are hard to come by because defenses aren't sagging into the paint. Your defensive mistakes are magnified because opponents go all the way to the basket now.
Basketball isn't as much fun because it's more difficult than it's ever been.
It used to be fun when your team was winning big and celebrating nightly. Now, people expect you to do things you've never had to do before. All you wish is for things to be like they were before.
At some point, you have to trade in your pom-poms, lace up your sneakers, look in the mirror and say, "it's up to me." The teammate you leaned on so easily is gone. Yeah, you probably took that teammate for granted, didn't realize how much they did. Now that you know, you can either give up and quit or hulk up and put it on your shoulders.
Congratulations to El Dorado's girls. I can't remember any team graduating as much talent as the Lady Wildcats did last season. This year's team looked lost and defeated in an 0-3 start.
Tuesday, for the first time, some "other" girls appeared to say, "it's up to me."
A true championship program doesn't end on graduation day.