playing basketball

Havent played in forever. I cant dribble like I used to though. Need to get back out on the court.

so the city rents the middle school gym from the school district for open gym 7-9pm. some fucker from the school ratted us out for playing past 9pm last week. they had to take initiative to watch the surveillance footage of us to even know that happened. There was no damage or theft or other incident that would have prompted them to look into anything. Just y'know, god forbid anyone has some unsanctioned fun on public property in this country. what a prick.

Wow lame

i pulled off an absolutely textbook shammgod in a league game tonight against the other team's best player. top 5 moment of my recreational playing career

nice

did u yell SHAMGOD tho

haha no but my teammates went wild

nice

http://deadspin.com/heres-some-satisfying-video-of-lavar-ball-playing-baske-1793670098

lava looks like a pretty average rec league player lol

Haha

v jordan wld be close

been playing rondoball the last week or so - messed up a nerve in my arm playing water polo intramurals a week ago and bizarrely have lost some of the strength in my wrist - i can still dribble fine and shoot relatively normally within 15 ft but outside of that is pushing it and 3balls have been airball city in warmups. it's beginning to get better - i shot around just now & i'm able to shoot foul shots almost completely normally now and can hit rim consistently (lol) on 3s if i really get my legs into it. v strange. something v similar happened last year also right after water polo but was way more severe, lost grip strength in my right hand, couldn't palm a ball or play tennis for a few weeks

― kl0p's son (k3vin k.), Saturday, March 12, 2011 1:10 PM (six years ago)

guyon canal syndrome, thank you med school

i lifted yesterday then shot around and which is always kinda funny u shoot yr normal shot and it falls harmlessly a foot before the rim

ball is life

"If you can stand up and move your legs, you're welcome."

The "Splash Sisters" 80-year-old & up hoops squad plays to win. #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/QHX1kvVnfE

— espnW (@espnW) June 26, 2017

#noexcuses

nice

getting pretty sick of playing against guys who don't know anything about post play. like think a defender can't touch them, can't try to hold their position against being backed down. multiple incidents related to that recently. last night I'm just holding my position in the lane against guy agressively backing down. He gets mad, so elbows me in the chest 4 times.

I got shoved hard in the back twice cause guy was upset with being boxed out. He's a good guy, I want to be able to play with him w/o this being a constant issue. He also thinks I can't even put my hand on him when he's crossing the lane; that I can't hold my position as a post defender. He's never been coached, never been on organized team. I want to show him video of how to defensive rebound etc w/o coming off like "see?? I'm RIGHT". Like I said, just want to get along and play ball. Can't do that if he has total misconception of the physical/contact nature of the sport.

hard with dudes like that, will he listen to reason?

I think it's possible he would. We get along fine "off the court". He's smiley and mellow. I guess I could just keep doin what I do and deal with getting shoved. Cause that was his rationale, "I'm just doing what you're doing!". Then he demonstrated what I was doing & it was nothing more than a totally legal box out and I just couldn't comprehend how that equated in his mind to be shoved forcefully in the back.
Just looked up a vid of an camera-awkward Taj Gibson demonstrating his def rebounding technique and damn, I don't even go as hard as he does. If I did, I think this guy would've knifed me!

is he any good?

I do wonder if there's a generational divide wrt physicality in pickup bball. Guys only see Steph dancing around 3 pt line, there's virtually no low-post bangers anymore. You could watch a lot of NBA but if you never played for an organized team, you could have no idea what really goes on in the paint on just about every posession.
Or maybe geographic too? Playing around Chicago, getting a lil physical (I'm not talking about dirty play, just solid "put your ass" into your man when boxing out, denying post position thru any legal means, etc) was commonplace and commended by teammates. I try to play solid D (which includes box-out techniques) but don't think I'm "rough" by any measure, and would feel awful if I hurt anyone. Idk man.

eh he's one of those guys who thinks he's better than he is. Big on trying to do crossovers, bringing the ball around his back after picking up his dribble during a drive, no look passes for no reason, etc. But gambles on D, gets beat on backdoor cuts constantly, doesn't see the floor well. Typical game from someone who's watched pros play but never had any structure to their own game.

yeah prob just leave him be

there's another guy who freaked out when I put a bent arm out when he was backing me down. A minute before that he was telling me he wasn't camping in the lane because 1 foot was out of it occasionally (I won't call 3 seconds, but I will say something to a guy that's constantly parked there). So yeah some of these guys really shouldn't be thinking they're experts on the rules.

ive stopped playing in my local rec league partly because im tired of catching elbows/shoves when someone doesnt like me setting a screen, boxing out or pushing through their box out. at my level its the biggest guys who seem the most contact averse, for whatever reason

in high school there was this kid kevin lloyd who was a year older than me. fucking dirtiest player i've ever encountered anywhere -- i mean we were on the same team and he'd be spitting on me and kneeing me in the taint in *practice*

his dad was also kevin lloyd, nicknamed spanky. spanky was a large, florid man (who i think later became mayor?)

our colors were orange at home and black on the road. (this ultimately was a problem in the playoffs when we were the home team against a red visitor and our shooting guard was colorblind.)

it's been nearly thirty years and i can still hear spanky, on the road, bellowing 'D IT UP, BLACK'

there's this guy who lights people up on the reg. rarely misses a 3 even, off the dribble or the catch, quick release. but also really sure handles w/o being overly fancy so can get near the rim and is really adept at getting shots off there, using the glass at awkward angles. will easily find the open man if you try to double him. played high school ball and went to camps so also solid at def positioning, rebounding, etc.
but he's short and not that quick. so he goes out of his way to not be matched up with me. if he happens to be, I can practically shut him fully down but he's not tall enough to do the same to me. so it is SO FRUSTRATING to watch him dominate games and score relentlessly on nearly anyone else. I try not to scold any teammate for defensive lapses, but man... I'll say "whatever you do, DO NOT leave him" yet they will do just that over and over. like coming to help when a non-scorer makes a drive attempt or trying to gamble on stealing a pass.
when I do actively choose to guard him, he'll just tell a teammate to guard me on d so there's a crossmatch and he'll be open for a corner 3 or something as soon as possession changes.
anywayyyy basketball is fun as hell.

haha yeah man cant expect pickup dudes to understand the subtleties of playing defense. understanding and playing the percentages can get you a long way in hoops

box and one with you on him imo

(god I would love to see a pickup team actually do that)

(haha me too)

Met an early 20s dude at a local court and told him about the tue/thur open gyms I run. He's like 6'3" and beefy, obv well-coached, played in HS. Could overpower his man pretty much at will but is a very eager passer. Great hands too. So nice to have someone who is (a) big relative to avg local hooper and (b) skilled + disciplined + knowledgeable plus (c) unselfish. I've just been tossing it up to him at every opportunity. Telling him that even when he and everyone in gym thinks I'm about to shoot, I'm prob looking to do a sneaky pass over his defender (who's focused on rebounding my shot) to him for an easy bunny. I feel like I'm not a good passer in general, but do have a knack for getting it to the spot where only my big teammate can grab it near the rim. Hopefully dude stays in town longer than most!

Argument broke out tonight during bball after a guy said the N word. I didn't hear it or the context, but assumed it wasn't directed at anyone really. Per the guy who said it (child of Ecuadorian immigrants fwiw), it's ok to say it since they say it in rap. And we're all just ignorant and uptight to object. We don't know the real meaning of the word either. Happy Black History Month y'all!

fun

A bunch of the regulars from open gym formed a team for this league, had 1st game last night. Up by 15 at one point, but wound up winning by just 1 point in double OT. Other team nearly won it and end of regulation: got the ball w/4 seconds, went length of court, took a 3 and swished it but released it juuuuust after the buzzer, phew. I was 3 for 4 with a 3 pointer.
Guy who came off the bench for us was lighting it up in 1st half, so I let him stay out there in 2nd half basically giving him my minutes but he started missing some shots and he's not as good of a defender as me so his man got like 10 quick points on him to get them back in the game.
1st time I've played officiated ball since 1994!!!

jeez thats a long time. refs for city leagues are bad.

We had one young bad one and one old good one. Although the older one called totally BS travel call on me. Guy came over to double-team me and I just pivoted away from him, got whistle blown on me. I'm not arguing any calls tho cause it's $20 for 1st tech (paid on the spot to be allowed to continue playing), $40 for 2nd, and 3rd T gets you booted from the league.
Kinda cool to play on a hardwood court. Only done that once since I was a kid.

wow fines for Techs!

p hilarious u have to pay up right then

play continues as tech'd up player has to run out to the car to scrounge for the last bit of change to reach the $20

haha I know right. I want to see how that process plays out. Very good possibility this one guy on my team gets T'd up sooner than later.
I like my team tho! We all get along really well. Tomorrow night we go against team I've been told is the best, got a couple 6'6" guys who can dribble and shoot. I'm glad there's 3 guys on my team bigger than me to take those matchups, not gonna lie.

i can guard big guys who only post but if they can stroke it then i'm no good vs them.

most players at the rec level dont really know how to use height advantages, they just kinda do their thing regardless who theyre playing against

league sounds serious -- but is it so serious that someone will play zone d

lagoon speaks truth, but I'm worried cause I've heard at least 1 of their bigs played D1.

We got zoned up last night! After getting that big lead. It def threw us off our game. I haven't played against zone since last century, a few of the guys haven't ever. Ha the one time we broke it down and I spotted one of my bigs wide open under the hoop, I got so overeager to get it to him but my sweaty hands foiled my plans, ball squirted off in the wrong direction right to an opponent, d'oh.

against zones load up one side and put the other guy beyond the 3 point line on the other side, move and cut, dont screen and dont stop moving the ball. gotta get it in the high post or low post then everything else opens up. i love playing against zones in league ball most teams break down after 20 seconds and you can get something easy, problem arise if you have impatient hoisters

good advice. my more experienced teammates were saying to run the baseline against it too.

for sure

our best player got pulled over & searched on way to the game last night, missed the whole thing. other team had this really skilled 6'3" ~230 dude who we couldn't stop; our guy would've had a shot at frustrating him some on D. hung around for 1st half but they pulled away with about 5 mins left in the game. :(

Already licking my chops for 3/19 game vs these old dudes. I thought I might be oldest guy in the league but nope there's a whole team of guys well older than me.