playing basketball

5x5 full>4x4half>3x3half>4x4full>>>2x2>>21. 2on2 is so draining.

I have a fairly limited group of guys I play with (no one has any D1 experience, most played for hs team, a couple played in D2) but there's nothing better than a guy 15 yrs younger than you saying he doesn't wanna guard you, loud enough so everyone else can hear it (a couple of them who've said that actually D me pretty well too!)

75 yr old dude who is a regular (tho he sits if we play full) is starting to have hip soreness, bone on bone sounds like...hope it's not the end for him :(

saddest thing I've ever seen on a court was a group of 6 guys playing 21

idk if i posted this in here before but 4x4 full court can work if you play that the ball has to be dribbled over half court, cuts down on fast breaks

i haven't played competitively in a loooong time but 5x5 full is good, i like playing defense and don't care to handle the ball beyond spotting up for a shot.

yeah as a big dude without great handles i always want to play in as close to a 5x5 as possible

Lol 6 man 21 f that why

you did kev and I tried it once. went ok I think, lil awkward. will have to remember to suggest it next time the situation happens. 1 open gym day we share other 1/2 of court with volleyball so full isn't possible :( they get better turnout!

i splurged and bought a nba official ball and 80% of people don't wanna use it. it's somewhat broken in now and i like it, f em. is better than synthetics post-beingsweatedon.

Man once those break in there's nothing like em. Crazy to me how people don't like to play with them and prefer balls with more padding/grip/softness. I think the Wilson evolution ball is the worst ball on the market and everyone loves those and that's all anyone wants to play w. Closest thing to the genuine nba ball was the Spaulding TF 1000 but they changed the outer material years back and it's not the same as it was. They would wear out fast but felt great.

I've prob said that before itt idk

yeah my other indoor ball is an Evo and you really notice how gushy it is comparing with the game ball

Yeah it's that time of year that whenever I touch the ball someone has to dry it off afterwards. Playing in a middle school gym with no AC and its 90 degrees doesn't suit my sweat glands very well

all the good balls at the gym are being slowly stolen

ugh i ran full yesterday and my legs are dead as fuck another strike against the dreaded 5x5

you get used to it tho

i showed up late and everyone was tired so i was running right by them them which was nice

my friends and i played 5x5 yesterday in an oven of a gym for about 2 hours nothing better than sweating so much it's like you jumped into a pool

i def like playing in a warm gym over a cold one

for sure, gotta be loose

played ball with my cousin and some of his friends last week.

cuz is only 16 and is 6'11" now. already got offers from all kinda D1 schools. this is him
http://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/kj-hymes/hAnGH3P9EeS00gAmVebEWg/default.htm
https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/maple/180569

ranked 55th on the class of 2018 list
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/playerrankings/_/class/2018

he played on a club team with M@rvin B@gley (before he moved out of AZ) so I've seen that dude play a few times too. MB is legit

wow

Nice, Spottie! How'd you do? I play with the high school kids here sometimes, but they're not on the same level of kids from Phoenix area. Actually made the leading scorer of 2015 hs squad throw a passive-aggressive tantrum last week, that was pretty sweet (he's a ballhog chucker, nobody likes playing with him)(if team's leading scorer is getting schooled by a 38 yr old who couldn't even make his own hs team, you know the talent pool is thin).

You know who has unfair advantage in pickup games? Wide dudes. Who can just barrel into you cause there's no charge calls.

I played ok, outsmarted dudes for the most part w my old man game but they were athletic and had tons of energy so lots of running. lots of one on one ball too which isn't my type of game. most high school kids I've played with over the years are compete garb

also w wide dudes they can just camp in the key w no 3 second rule

def generally avoid playing w kids if i can they r tedious

their stabs at trash talk is unbearable

just barrel into you cause there's no charge calls

this was a great revelation as a kid, that if you run hard at someone they'll usually get out of the way. doesn't help if you can't handle the ball tho

I'm stubborn enough to try to take charges from 6'4"/230lb ex-football players. Well, not like I think a charge will get charged, but I can't abide giving anyone free run to the hoop.

Re: 3 secs, yes this is annoying. I'll start counting "3...4...5..." so at least they're aware that I'm aware they're technically cheating.

IME like 1 out of 6 young guys are good to play with (will actually do something other than hang around 3 pt line begging for a pass or try to do fancy dribble moves for 15 seconds with their heads down while teammates are wide the fuck open)

1 out of 6 is probably about right yeah

I have no problem with Steph Curry et al "evolving" the NBA game but ugh I do not look forward to that influence on young people I'll have to play with/against. It's already bad enough. More than once, myself and a team of even older guys have beat teams of young guys simply cause we like pass and set picks and box out and all that boring shit.

basic fundamentals will get you very far in pickup ball.

tbh i'd rather you called a charge than counted out three seconds

unless you're significantly taller and/or heavier and are a habitual lane camper, you're not getting a count-out anyway

spottie so cool abt your cuz!

Yah it's been fun following him for the last few years. Been to a bunch of his games. He travels like crazy. Starting getting letters when he was 14. I know all the drama and ins and outs of club ball and why so and so player switched schools and what not, get the DL from him and his parents on a weekly/biweekly basis. His little bro is tracking to be the same size and might be better.

uhng ran 5s tonight and i was wet as fuc, scored 9 in one game to 15 and was just generally pouring

u know whats interesting i was rusty as fuck after not really playing for five years and ive been rounding into form the last few months of playing multiple times a week and my skills r p much back but my court vision still isnt there like i love to pass and cut but im just not seeing it, my rhythm is off

yeah rhythm is real man

I'm trying to improve my passing/vision. Doesn't help that good cutters are a rarity.
The dude who last week I made have the passive aggressive tantrum gave me a nice in n out dribble to a euro step tonight. Was mad at myself for allowing that. Thought I got revenge a few plays later by blocking his layup but juuuust grazed his eyebrow with my elbow on the follow thru so had to give him the foul :(

Been finding lately that my hands/forearms get really stiff and it makes it harder to shoot decently. May be a byproduct of my lifting regime, or maybe age, idk. Anyone have any suggestions?

Played two full court and a half court game at my office outing btw and made a decent showing -- scored a few times in the first game because I wasn't really adequately D'd. Later I relegated myself more to playing defense/roleplaying but got a surprising number of boards, even with much bigger players around. I have decent ups for my size and good timing on going up for rebounds.

Felt good to just be in good enough overall shape to run the whole time and not completely die.

just need to consistently stretch re stiffness prob, flexibility is great for lifting too!

Been finding lately that my hands/forearms get really stiff and it makes it harder to shoot decently. May be a byproduct of my lifting regime, or maybe age, idk. Anyone have any suggestions?

― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Friday, July 29, 2016 11:59 AM (54 minutes ago)

funny you mention this because i started lifting weights for the first time in my life about 4 or 5 weeks ago and something funky is going on with my forearms and wrists, i can't shoot 3s at all anymore, like literally have trouble reaching the basket. something similar happened years ago in college when i was playing inner-tube water polo intramurals and lost a lot of grip strength for a while for some reason. kind of pissed about this but then again i'm in better shape than i've ever been

r u lifting right before u play

not right before no, but i am lifting m/l every day

stretching probably a good idea, i've always hated stretching

oh man ive gotten so into stretching/yoga recently and i fn love it, i do it for ~30mins before any workout, also have been approaching lifting more from the pov of stretching, lifting lighter while getting more into the form, like a squat w a medium weight cant really help u get depth and open up yr hips in a way that u cant really do w/o the weight, but then if u go too heavy youre not gonna be able to control yr form as much

its crazy how much its helping me work out some chronic physical problems, neck tightness and so forth, and it feels so good