Pickup Basketball

Not persuading one of my many basketball playing fraternities brothers to 'run' with this afternoon, I flew solo to the gym, hoping to stumble into a pickup game. Upon walking through the doors, a well-built 5'9 man asked if I would play. I quickly counted and realized I would be the the critical 10th man, to allow a 5-on-5 game to happen. I took a few warm-shots, demanded we distinguish teams by shirts and skins and the game was on.

Going down 10-3 early (up to 15) was disheartening. My team (me included) was missing layups, turning the ball over and not playing adequate defense. That all turned around quickly though. Fast-forwarding, the game stood at 14-13 (win by two). I swooshed a 17 footer as I curled around the key to send the game to 16. They answered quickly. I then re-answered, hitting a 10 foot baseline jump shot.

Sadly, we lost 18-16 on a two pointer by a player with an ugly shot (that hurts). But I was ever grateful and lucky to have stumbled upon a competitive and fun pickup game.

Referring to my post from yesterday, here are two snippets about pick-up basketball from the SI article 'The Audacity of Hoops' by (*correction) Alexander Wolff. It is a wonderful article if you are a fan of basketball, O'bama or journalism. A link to the full article is below the quotes.

"Obama's experience with the organized game would total three high school seasons, only one of them on Punahou's top varsity, and that largely on the bench. Thus he's less a retired ballplayer looking to keep in shape than what's known as a baller -- a product of basketball's speakeasies, not its licensed establishments. "

"Organized basketball, particularly in high school, is an exercise in submission to social control. Pickup ball, by contrast, involves collective governance and constant conflict resolution."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/alexander_wolff/01/13/obama/index.html

APF