playing basketball

don't dribble unless you've got a plan about what you're going to do with it.

this is so key

yeah that should be on a banner hung across gyms across america

haha feelin everybody on the 'just relax' tip

seriously just ~playing smart~ is something everyone should work on

― kl0p's son (k3vin k.), Thursday, March 24, 2011 3:44 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

playing on a team thats collectively ~playing smart~ is so joyful and flowing, and usually winning

btw the worst ppl on the court are dudes who call for the ball every single time

the most vile savages are 'player coach' types imo

i love short guys who insist on playing point but can't pass at all

would you rather they played in the low post?

i'd prefer that they freakin get fucked!

lol

feelin the player coach comment unless the dude is really good and gives genuinely good advice. ive played with dudes who have said things that legit had an effect on me, but played with many more who were annoying/wrong. i save my "coaching" for trash talk to the other team lol

communication and occasional advice are fine, its just when guys are habitually babbling on every play and feel like theyre being meaningful - and lol i feel like the most effective/obnoxious form of trash talking is when you act like youre giving sincere advice abt what the guy youre guarding is doing atm like 'thats right protect the ball keep it low use your body' it really can throw a dude off - tho its not something i really do as it just comes off kind of lame and weird

haha last night this guy was checking me up top all game and pissing me off and i was letting him know - later he was one on one on a fast break and i block his layup and i let him know he should keep the ball high on those if he wanted to score

Good stuff all, ty. Must say I enjoy playing D -- there's something satisfying about realizing that your man is starting to get annoyed at the pressure you put on.

yah i really like defense

trash talk pointers:
"are you going to shut up when you lose?"
"i am going to beat you there [points]" [then does so]

what are some good places to play at in DC?

i used to play on p street between 15th & 16th

also o & 26th

one of my only happy memories from middle school was being forced to play in a 5 on 5 game w/ a buncha the jocks and bullies even though we were supposed to play two separate half court games according to the teacher.

I got picked near last, somehow due to either anger or having a chip on my shoulder, i scored 10 points in a very short game, and put back a tip-in right in my nemesis's face towards the very end (he was like way shorter than me).

the adams morgan courts at columbia and 19th get decent games too.

So, anyone want some Nike Air Max Turnaround Low 10.5 barely used for cheap?

lol wha happen?

so do people play either of the following games on the playground still

21
Knockout

21 def if there's not enough people for a game. good way to work on some skills you don't use that often in a real game.

knockout in gym class maybe

They turned out to not quite be the right fit and fucked up my feet pretty bad. I've had blisters and wounds that have not healed for over a week. Too narrow in front and pinched my toes together, but stiff on the sides so they wouldn't spread like most of my shoes have.

xpost I always liked 21 because I have no ballhandling skills but I have a competent jumper and am taller than most of my friends.

damn Hurting that sucks.

I wonder if there are enough NYC people for an eventual FA3o3 game

you, icey, me + erstwhile ilxor yanc3y play

sleep is pretty fucken tall

would pay some $ to see jw play

So in terms of more mildly lame liveblogging, I've seen a couple of big improvements in my game lately -- first a few days ago I realized my jumper was showing some consistency, and then yesterday I realized I had developed enough ball control to actually one-hand a layup straight off a dribble, i.e. bring the ball up with the dribbling hand only -- not the most impressive thing I know but it felt good

now do that w your opposite hand

i still can't do a layup w/ my left hand, but then again my left arm/hand is pretty pathetic

the one move I mastered was the running one-handed jumper. usually from about the free throw line. however, get me to do a hook shot and it probably winds up smashing someone in the face

so i was playing today at chelsea piers w/a friend and it was dead just us two playing one on one and some children then a bunch of employees of the place started showing up and shooting around on the other court so i was all to them hay we should get a game and they were like we have one set up just waiting for people and i was like whatre you playing maybe we could jump in and run full and they were all yeah maybe in a v non committal strage way - so then like 20 minutes later they let the singer for the strokes in the side door and he was not v good

i feel like there are at least two other thread i couldve put that amazing anecdote on but i chose to bless you the beloved contributors to ilh

Wait so did you run full court with Julian Casablancas or not?

And were you like "damn, that shot was a little HARD TO EXPLAIN"

did they let you run full? cause that's terrible if they didn't

also i hope you kicked that guy's ass

no they wouldnt let us play! it was 5 employees and the dude playing 3 on 3 per some celebrity arrangement - my friends did play v leonardo decaprio there once but i was not in attendance

the worst part was i just really wanted to get a game minor ny celebrity or no

although obvs if i did play v dude i would mention it everytime i heard the strokes until the end of time

Shame I was hoping u got skool that dude

hes tall like 6-4 or so but seemd p slow and not that skilled - he was dressed as you might image a stroke would dress to play basketball

haaa

headband?

one time when the real world dc was going on a couple cast members showed up to my gym and ran full court and were embarrassingly bad. one guy kept falling over bc he was wearing sketchers or some shit. two camera dudes were running around trying to film the whole thing.

that is like . . . america

More 3-on-3 today. It's interesting to learn a sport almost from scratch -- I feel like I'm Johnny 5. Like today I kept having all these basic realizations, like "Oh, if I stare straight at the guy I'm passing to for too long, someone is going to read my pass," or "Hey, if I move this way, I draw my defender out of the way so my teammate can drive to the hoop." I started to feel more the sense of the three as a unit. I was still pretty bad but I had some clutch rebounds, a few layups and putbacks, and I made a difference on D although my man was pretty fast and hard to stay in front of. My in-game jumper is still complete garbage.

YMCA pickup ball can be kind of hilarious too. The first game I played was with a couple of maybe college-age guys and a few maybe 12-15 year old kids who kept calling me "sir." An old-timer with a good fancy hook shot jumped in later too. There was this one wiry as fuck kid who was probably 12 or 13 and was by far the sickest shooter out of any of us -- just putting up threes like nothing to the point that you couldn't take the pressure off. At another point I had to guard this little runt kid with basically no skills, and I pretty much took all the pressure off him but they still wouldn't pass to him.

Class 1: managed to run the court for the full 30-minute scrimmage. Pulled my neck. Ow.

Been playing occasional one-on-one. Managed to beat a so-so teen who was slightly shorter than me. Have figured out a few things, e.g. starting to get the hang of "planning" what to do when you dribble, also in one-on-one how to vary your attack to throw off your opponent. E.g. I managed to get a couple of good right-side drive layups, so when the kid caught on I pulled a simple spin move. When he caught onto the spin move I used a spin fake and went back the other way.

Today I played one-on-one with two different guys who were clearly miles better than me and it was no contest at all, but it was good practice I guess, at least for trying to stay in front of someone bigger and faster than me.

ice craem have you found that indians always go to the right?