playing basketball

It's like the ONE major no no in pickup ball

hah one of my besties in high school didnt really understand how to play basketball but was super athletic and strong and had so much engery, my friends all understood what his deal was and could play with him but when wed get pick up games people were just aghast at his behavior lol

man, I already miss my brief, weird, obessive pick-up basketball run -- I had shittons of free time to work on my game and workout, so I went from being pretty much zero to being passable in a short time. Got in the best shape of my life too. I feel like some of the stuff I learned left me, like I can't remember how to make my body do some of the moves and cuts I could do when I was in better shape, but it'd probably come back if I worked on it again I guess.

it'd probably come back if I worked on it again I guess

i thought this too before i got old

haha, yeah you just have to adjust as you get older. learn new skills and rely on "bball IQ" and what not. Really on the fundamentals more. I love playing against high school hot shots cos you can school them a million different ways and use minimal energy doing it. There's a reason a prime age is like 26-29 cos even tho they may be faster and more spry/energetic at a younger age they generally just don't have the experience.

playing against/with high school kids is so tedious and the literal worst

^^^^^

these young bucks' game (or lack thereof) totally made sense to me when last week they told me how good an NBA player Nick Young is...

Yeah I don't recommend it on a reg basis but you know if you're shooting around on one side and a group of punks need another to make 10 then hell, I'll put in work.

do u talk shit on the court y/n

i'm a huge yapper

only to other shit talkers

lol xp

i never really did except for a handful of times when i got pissed off, which tended to improve my game

'are you going to shut up when you lose?'

hell, I'll put in work.

yeah I can't be choosy here like I could when I lived near Chicago. Here in AZ I'll take what I can get, have played with anyone from 12 yr old girl to 72 yr old dude.

my shit-talking M.O. is to shit talk prior to doing anything to my man...then when I do that 360 oop on him (for example), go mute and just give him a big shit-eating grin.

i just like to talk not necessarily shit just like about whatever

yeah i talk incessantly, ask people how theyre doing, talk to my teammates, and when i'm scoring a lot i'll let the guy guarding me know

good of you to give him a heads up

most of my games are with people i play with a lot so it's normally all in good fun but i do like getting under people's skin sometimes too

Im not much for talking trash, just generally an even guy on the court. get heated once in a while if someone acts up, mainly against a teammate tho. usually play with guys I know so it rarely turns to trash talk.

those moments where i do get heated a little I generally play way better so part of me wishes I could just be a KG out there and find something to be mad about

yeah I can't be choosy here like I could when I lived near Chicago. Here in AZ I'll take what I can get, have played with anyone from 12 yr old girl to 72 yr old dude.

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, January 15, 2014 7:38 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

I play well too when I get heated, but I always feel bad about being a jackass once the testosterone has dissipated. Try to tell myself chill, just a friendly game but competitive juices v hard to quell.

one cool thing about sports is its ok to get heated, i mean obvs you can take it too far but you know

yeah of course, sometimes you just have to, its good for the soul imo, like a good cry on occasion

a friend of a friend told me at a wedding that the way i played made him think i was psycho but he wasnt really abt that life so idk

i personally don't consider myself a v intense player, maybe occasionally

those moments where i do get heated a little I generally play way better

not quite the same thing, but as a little kid it was a revelation to me to see these two guys on an opposing high school team (they ended up playing at like rider or holy cross or something) just fucking sprint with the ball. no one wanted to get in their way, and no one wants to get in your way when you're pissed off either

yeah it has an affect for sure, some dudes can't control it tho and just get too blown out to be able to function or like do fundamentals and thats no good

haha one of the dudes i hated most in college I squared off with like every night for months ended up on the same team one random night and I asked how he was doing or something and then we were homies 4lyfe and ended up roommates and i introduced him to his future wife etc etc

lol

been talking a lot of trash with him of late since he's a seahawks fan and I'm a niners fan. just like old times

being able to fucking sprint with the ball is a skill, one of those things that you think nothing of seeing pros do it but can be tricky to pull off. I used to be able to do it as a kid but now idk I can't control my dribble for length of court full out sprinting.
ball handling skills are one of the things I noticed taking a quantum leap forward from my heyday to my world of young people today. Avg ballhandler of today would be elite 15-20 yrs ago. I have footage of me in 7th grade repeatedly breaking full court press just with dribbling and fuck man what happened to that kid??

V hard skill but also something that would rarely be used

Tonight the (by far) biggest ballhog I play with (idolizes Kobe and has modeled his game after the worst aspects of Kobe's...fallaway 25 footers when double-teamed etc) comes up to me after a game and says "2 shots isn't enough for me...you need to stop shooting so much and give me some passes" (I'm that type of baller who loves making a nice pass more than I do a nice shot). Thought I was in bizarro world. Day before, few of other guys and I were talking and saying we need to do an intervention on him cause no one wants to be on his team. Unbelievable how little self-awareness some people have.

ha, yeah if you play with him a lot you gotta let him know.

i hope you laughed in his face

I did!

ballhog and his associate semi-ballhog/terrible shot-selection 3pt jacker both came to play tonight but were sick and left after a few minutes. from then on GREAT ball, lots of movement, helping the helper defense, close back-in-forth games...ahhhhh

The cartoon editor of The New Yorker has game: http://youtu.be/lEQ8-yV76Kg

did something to my achilles tonight. made the exact same move as kobe when he did his. don't think its completely torn tho.

:(

that sucks bruz

damn yo

did you recover well Spottie??

My friend (who I met over a year ago, at an open gym) recently told me he actually had a D2 scholarship for ball, and what got him it in large part was a promo tape he sent out of him getting 20+-12+ when matched up against Rasual Butler in high school. Bit of a bombshell seeing as he's been my hoops sparring partner. Makes me feel good about my game cause he's clearly better than me and has 5 inches on me...but he's not THAT much better and 1 on 1 is pretty competitive.
His dad didn't really ball but apparently his gramps played vs Wilt a bunch in Philly.

thanks for asking, achilles took longer than i expected. went to the doc a couple weeks after and decided against surgery, it was 30-40% torn. So basically did nothing for 6 months and just started playing again a few weeks ago. feels tight but secure and naturally my third or fourth time back playing i rolled my right ankle (never really done that one) coming down on another guys foot :/ mild sprain, will be back probably next week but it's disheartening how injury prone I've become.

i truly hate playing with ankle braces but i just can't afford to not use them now i guess, anyway curry inspired me to buy this ankle brace for both sides
http://zamst.us/product/a2-dx.1.html
so they're in the mail

gah that sucks. that brace looks pretty hardcore. very supportive but prob uncomfortable eh. I have a chronic weak ankle due to repeated sprains/strains, and bought this guy awhile back:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005VEEGX2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As you can see, not as much hard plastic but does have plastic inserts in there. I actually emailed the seller to complain they were missing from the shipment, but they're just really small and flimsy, don't know how much good they do. But the brace itself is slim and supportive enough and after a couple times wearing it I don't notice it one iota while playing.

I have a nagging groin strain, hopefully not a tear. Can't really run, and I stupidly tried to play thru it and kept re-aggravating it. Been skipping the bi-weekly games I usually have the past few weeks, was gonna make my triumphant return tomorrow but it got cancelled. Another week to heal.

Tuesday night is open gym, Saturday is invite only, I got to know guys who have keys to the middle school gym. You get some assholes at open gym, but Saturday is a rotating group of really good-natured guys, love playing with them. One Saturday a couple months back, someone invited this major jackass who I played with few times at open gym and I didn't play well each time. He crossed me over good once, and was sure to say shit about it. Got "into it" a with him every time pretty much, as did several other guys. Non stop talker, and not in a funny or jocular way. So on the Saturday, I don't say much to him; I try to act like I don't hate his guts, even make a friendly comment to him. Then he flips on his a-hole switch. Starts yelling AT HIS OWN TEAMMATE for pointing out who was open on the break. "I've been playing PG my whole life, stfu old man, bald motherfucker" etc etc up and down the court for next 2 possessions. I tell him c'mon man, relax. So he blows up at me. Game ends and he wants to fight me. Next game starts and I'm KILLING him. Floaters, step back 3, stripped him and finished solo breakaway. He's still talking but now it's "wtf this guys is getting SOOOO lucky".
You could tell everyone besides dude who invited him can't stand the guy. I tell him "hope you enjoyed it, cause this was your first and last Saturday run". "Ooh you think I give a shit?? I'm moving out of state in a couple weeks". 1/2 the guys start applauding. Whole thing was AWESOME.

#weold

That brace looks good. I'll wait and see how rigid this new one is. Spozed to be comfy but I just hate how they restrict my already weak vertical.

Lmao at that story. Finding a good group of guys is key. One punk can ruin it all. At least you got some vindication