playing basketball

4-on-4 is the worst

yeah it's fucking irritating. So much clumsiness with rebounds, cuts, etc.

the dreaded box-and-none

4-on-4 full court is great though but i like to run when i play

eight or nine years ago some of my former college im teammates and i went to iceland to play in a basketball tournament run by icelandair and this travel agent (lol at that site).

it was in mid-january so it was relatively cheap. we were in our early thirties, but mostly still in decent shape and we had a little size -- for a pickup team anyway.

i think there were 10 teams in the tournament? one other one was from the usa -- they were terrible. the rest were various icelandic teams. one team (we were told they were from some hillbilly fishing village) played as brutal a physical game as i've ever seen -- they had near-fights in almost every game they played.

we made it to the finals, which was pretty good considering how hung over we were. the team we played featured Petur Gudmundsson as my opposing big man. dude was in his mid-40s, his knees were shot, but it didn't really matter because he was 10 inches taller than me (i am 6'4"). plus he was a really nice guy so i wasn't going to headbutt him in the groin or something.

i was never a great back-to-the-basket player anyway, but he was so huge that i couldn't drive around him, or step back far enough, without getting apologetically swatted. the other guys on his team, we were told, were former iceland national team players, which may not be saying much in a country of 300,000, but they were v. good, let alone for guys in their 40s.

iirc our player with the least business doing so ended up heaving up wild threes, but it didn't really matter, we'd have lost anyway. i still have the runners-up t-shirts we got, somewhere.

anyone seen my jump shot?

xp thats a good story!

agreed!

found my jumpshot

Can someone explain to me the weird two-handed throw style of shooting I occasionally see in pick-up players who actually seem pretty good?

― mississippi delta law grad (Hurting 2), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 8:52 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Nothing to explain, just make sure YOU DONT DO IT.

ha no do it!!! the 'greg kite' like when youre in the low post holding the ball above your head like you're surveying the court and then oops still deadly! it's hard to get an arc on it, seen (old) dudes shoot outside this way sorta but i bet it makes you way more set-shot dependent over time

NO

OH

shoot correctly or be forever clowned upon iirc

i got shots that shit is funny tho teenagers don't even have a frame of reference. they just know they're watching a streetball technician in the flesh

Just got back from playing. Had one of those nights where things were flowing. There's something to be said for 'being in rhythm.' You hear announcers say it, but unless you experience that, its hard to understand what they're on about. It happens on occasion where the whole night is like this ethereal wet dream of basketball prowess. You can see it when NBA players have it, and its amazing how often they DO have it, and crazy how often we EXPECT it. When things just swing right, your body centered, in unison with what your hands are doing, youre bouncing, dipping, rolling left and right, catching an edge on your defender, getting your lead shoulder just inside his and driving at will, floaters, up and unders, baby hooks, the options are there, pass/shoot, either works cos its killing season, its rolling so well you dump a few no look passes, threading needles, slippin screens, ice grillin the competition, acting like its a normal thing, whispers in the corner "who is this kid," drive again, defenders off balance, its feeling so sexy in your hands you pull up from anywhere, arm in perfect position, body straight up, flip the wrist and its in before it even gets there.

I remember watching Arenas around November/December of 2006, he was on one of the greatest tears Ive ever witnessed, every night was like this for him, he was draining 35 foot game winners weekly and turning around before the ball even went in, he already knew it, thats some magical shit if you ask me. Tonight I felt that, a sliver of it, on a much smaller stage and nothing at stake, but I felt it, and it reminded me of why I still make time in my busy schedule for basketball.

blocked 2 jumpshots in one possession tonight

#dwyaneing

I never block shots, ever. Maybe 2 a year.

i don't normally block jumpshots either, i'm not that tall - i usually faceguard pretty well tho - but i'm pretty good at stripping/blocking layup attempts in transition

i havent played basketball in so long :(

I'm down to once a week now. NBA season usually gets me all pumped to play more but...

Since I moved and no longer have the YMCA, my playing is down drastically. The nearest court is a POS extremely uneven blacktop court with netless hoops, and there's almost never anyone there. There's one at McCarren that slightly better -- surfaced but still a little uneven and no nets/chains. As the weather turns cold I won't be playing much at all.

not sure where u r in willmsbrg but ive played at the courts on metropolitan and marcy right up against the bqe, was dece

i haven't played in a year ;_;

http://designyoutrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/monks.png

shaolin dunk

had a great day today at the Y, when i'm home from school sunday mornings there are the best runs i can get and i was the best player out there today

City league starts up this week for me. Excited, need some new kicks though.

this'll be my last semester at school full-time, i gotta find a league or regular game next year or i'll gain 20 lbs in a month for sure

City leagues are fun but you have to find some bros you love playing with or its a waste.

I broke my right hand middle finger 2 months back swiping at a ball (hit the dudes hip). Still hurts and is crooked but somehow its made my shot better.

Got a new TF-1000 for Christmas too.

i'm 22 but feel 40 - i jam fingers at least every other week, my ankles are sore as hell after every run, and i have some rotator cuff w/ my left shoulder where i go for a steal with my off hand and pop my shoulder outta my socket or something - excruciating pain for a few mins, then i can play again, but it'll linger & be sore for a few weeks, to the pt where it's hard to finish with my left. if it was my right my life might be over

i have to get in balling shape by the end of may -- and i *am* 40

Whats at the end of May?

an extremely wealthy friend from college has signed up our former intramural team for the school's fantasy camp.

i feel kind of weird about it, for a number of reasons, but still. it will probably mostly involve older dudes who were never that good to begin with, but i don't want to embarrass myself.

mookie's a dookie, spottie

Ahh cool, good luck with that!

Weather was nice enough a few times lately that I went out and shot around and did some drills and stuff. The court by my house is one of those uneven blacktop courts with no nets, which kind of sucks. I definitely feel way more sore after playing on blacktop. Miss the Y and miss the student schedule that let me play pretty much any day I wanted.

Also wish I could take another clinic - probably will hold off with the baby coming. By the end of the last one I was considerably improved.

whoa granny d i forgot you played with boatright!

i didn't think he'd be getting this much run as a freshman. really wanted to go to the game in south bend with a huge FREE RYAN BOATRIGHT sign.

ok so i just ran with @ndre drumm0nd for a hour and a half and played my best ball of the year by far, everything was falling, my passes were perfect, everything was working. he hit me for a contested fastbreak layup to end one of the games and we did a hip-bump thing!!* i felt so cool haha

*http://thechurchofbriantology.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/lsu-byrd-lafell-bump.jpg

i think for me the ultimate show of respect was he wanted me bringing the ball up after he saw i could play, cuz normally he'd just play all 5 positions

that's awesome.

any inside scoop about his draft status?

haha no. my hunch is he's gone though

Cool story. A jumping hip-bump with a pro is now on my bucket list.

Played on the same team with ik3 di0gu for a few games a couple years back. My whole purpose was to drop the ball off to him in the post and not get burnt on D, did alright but no hip bumps. Told him I was a Warriors fan and was sad he was traded (was right after he got dealt to the Kings), he gave me an awkward nod and sympathy laugh, probably cos I was a Warriors fan tbf.

haha nice. drummond's def the best player i've played with. i think i said this last time i played with him but his hands are SO HUGE. and he's deceptively quick and has a pretty decent handle

Yeah you can really tell the difference when playing with legit ballers. Even dudes that played like junior college ball are on another plain, let alone some D1 experience or higher. Much of it does have to do with height and mass, its such a major advantage. ik3's chest was like 2 cinder blocks jammed next to each other, massive man.

Just got through a stretch of 4 intense games in a 36 hour span for our regional single-elimination tourney. We lost by 8 in the finals but gave it a good run. 2nd place two years in a row. I averaged 8 points and 11 assists and maybe grabbed like 1 rebound for the whole tourney lol. Been feeling the itch to play a lot more these days, well that or golf.

a spottie is a point guard?

2 of my friends and i came in 2nd last weekend in uconn's annual 3-on-3 tournament - we played real well but ran into some serious size in the championship game. really wanted to win that title one of my years at school, tho, :/

Yeah man, pg through and through. Ive pretty much got the ball in my hands all game just dribbling around scanning the floor. 8 point average is pretty high for me tbh, not that I cant score, but we have some other high-efficiency scorers that are better to get going.

2nd at a big school like that is awesome, I bet they have some serious ballers. You graduate this year then?

i graduated with my 4-year last year - i'm in pharmacy school, so i've got another year and a half. i play point too - was more of a shooter in my earlier days but playing with better players (& therefore taller dudes) combined with a weird hand/nerve injury have made me into more of a pure point the last couple years

i also play golf, but not as often or as well as i used to