"GOD I LOVE THE NBA--IT'S SO GREAT."
"GOD THE NBA IS SO FREAKING BAD--I'M EMBARRASSED I LIKE IT SO MUCH."
These are normal everyday thoughts that go through my head, as I watch the first month of the NBA take shape. It pretty much changes every hour. It's a love/hate relationship. I have been watching a lot of Laker games. That's the love. Then I just look at every team in the eastern conference not named Celtics and Heat and Magic. That's the hate. Hornets are a love. T-Wolves are a hate. And so on.
THE LEBRON JAMES LOCKER ROOM WALK
There is really nothing better for me than watching LeBron walk into the locker room after a loss. It's just so fun to watch. I love when the TNT or the ESPN cameras move to him and he just puts his head down and does that fast putzy walk that he thinks shows confidence but everyone who knows knows it's an insecure walk. It's a get me into the locker room before anyone asks me how big of a fraud and loser I am walk. And it's becoming a tradition unlike any other. It's a May tradition. It's a June tradition. It's a almost every big game in the first 82 tradition. I love it. Looking forward to the Christmas Day LeBron James walk after another "tough" loss.
JAZZ CHANGE SEASON TEMPO
Had the privilege of watching the Utah Jazz go from absolute bums in the first 2 weeks back to a contending, great team in the matter of 2 days. And hats off to Paul Millsap. What a monster! He I think single-handedly got them back on track going into the winter months. The 48 and 14 clinic, 19-28 from the field, 3-3 from 3, and the amazing offensive rebound and stick back against the Heat was awesome. Anybody who can create not only a LeBron James walk off, but also a Dwayne Wade walk off is a beast in my book. They followed that up with a another sweet road win in Orlando on national TV. A game where Al Jeff, a guy who I think was on the fence, not really buying into the culture of hard work in Utah, DESTROYED D12 in front of an ESPN audience. He finally broke out, and Derron Williams has been strong to quite strong as well. Gordon Hayward--not quite there yet.
THUNDER
The OKC Thunder are done in my opinion. They are out of elite team and title contention. Kevin Durant is dead tired. And guys are gunning for him and teams are scheming for him. I don't care about his numbers. I know he's still playing great. I just think they need to scale back his minutes. Maybe even put him in street clothes sometimes. He's been going non-stop all spring, summer, fall and now winter. The problem with that is that the rest of their team is so horrible that they can't afford to not have him in. I touched on the Russel Westbrook dynamic a little bit after I saw him at the Clippers game. He's got a little more of an agenda folks. He's still getting assist numbers, but their different kind of assists if that makes sense. Jeff Greene is hurt, again. And James Harden. Wow. I forgot about Jimbo Slice at the Clipper game but here's a take: he's awful. If I was Sam Presti I would try to move him yesterday. But the team as a whole, a team that I thought was gonna be great and fun, is in that good team sophomore slump and its gonna take a couple more good players to get them out of it.
PAU
Pau Gasol has been the best player in the league through the first 3 weeks of the season. Had an off night last night in Denver, but that not withstanding. He's just a pure pure professional basketball player. And everything he's doing right now has been great. His game and feel have reached another level. The Lakers before last night were playing such beautiful hoops. I have been watching a lot of Lakers since being in LA. I am practically a fan. But going forward, staying healthy and getting rest will be important for Pau. Hopefully Bynum will get back in January and give Gasol a break in the second half. His most important trait is that he's a matchup nightmare for the Heat. I know CP3 is back, but it's Pau Gasol in the number 1 hole right now.
JO NOAH
I think I am going to brag about him in every writing that I do. It's my number one chess piece. My reigning favorite player in the league has been great. What a fantastic player. He keeps getting better and plays great in the big ones. Might be better than D12.
ROOKIES
John Wall and Blake Griffin have separated themselves from the field. I don't think that's a surprise. Those guys are great. Those guys belong in my little top 40 rankings if we're being honest. Eric Bledsoe is great and needs to play. He's lightning, he's tough and a pretty good passer. He's been great so far when he's gotten starts, albeit on a crappy team. Cousins and Favors are going to be great although I haven't seen much of either, only highlights. 2 guys that have been great that I watched in Portsmouth are Landry Field and Ishmael Smith. Wow, great stuff. Fields is a blender who can really play well in Dantoni's free flow. He's in great shape and is active everywhere. Ish Smith is another surprise. He's gotten some burn with the Aaron Brooks injury. Hopefully he takes advantage.
Until next week...
Willing to work harder,
JC
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
My Staples Center Debut (Clippers Version)
Kevin Durant was in town on Wednesday.....
And him and his sorry team got blown out by the freaking Clippers....
As luck had it, I checked out what the Clipper's upcoming games were on Tuesday morning. I was excited when I saw OKC on the docket for Wednesday night. Good catch by me. I made a couple calls and I was all set. I got a great set at center court four rows up. I was practically on the floor. It was money.
I thought Staples Center was nice. It's a little different than it appears on TV. Obviously it had a much different vibe than a Lakers game because the Clippers don't get the Laker lights. They keep all the lights on for the Clips. So I didn't get the full ambience. It has 3 levels of suites. They are a little higher up than the first level of suites at the Q. There is so much commerce inside the building. Restaurants. McDonalds. Tons of food stations. It's intense.
Notable Pseudo Celebrity Spots: Coco Crisp, Penny Marshall, Bill Simmons, Jeff Ross, Aaron Goodwin
Onto the game.
OKC Thunder: I am going to try to stay away from sweeping allegations of fraud. I know they are a good team, maybe the 2nd of 3rd team to beat in the West when they are clicking. But in brief, they looked like they were working on grasping some new offensive sets and trying to get on the same page with their defensive sets. But big picture, they are missing 2 guys. They are a couple guys away from really competing for a NBA title. They are missing a wing player who can get his own shot, get into the key, and make a 3 pointer when he's open. A Rip Hamilton type guy. I had another guard in mind that I can't think of. They are also missing a post defender and rebounder. A gritty guy whose been through battles. A communicator whose not afraid to stick his nose in the action. Think Marcus Camby type. Both these guy's that they are missing need to be boisterous and be veterans in my opinion. Mo Pete is gonna help when he comes off the injured list. But the 3 headed monster of Nenad Kristic, Serge Ibaka, and Cole Aldrich isn't enough. There are holes to fill. By the way there was a Cole Aldrich sighting in the game last night.
There is a good commraderie between the guys on the Thunder. They seem to enjoy each other. They have a lot of handshakes and pre-game stuff. Lot of smiles in warmups. Similar type stuff to what the Cavs did, which kind of gave them a bad rap. But it's more tame and understated though.
Kevin Durant, the first guy I went to see, if you didn't check played his worst game in probably his last 60 games. 6-24 from the field from a guy whose always around 50% from the field. Missed probably 7 3's off the front rim. Really had no energy. He had a play in the 2nd quarter--a miss that came high off the rim that he flew in and tip dunked with two hands that I thought might get him going but it never did. He lacked energy in his movement without the ball and in his runs down the wing on the break. He just got out of sorts really early in the game. He had a loose ball come to him underneath the basket that should have been an easy bunny to get him going and he missed it. It was bad from that point forward. He's still the man. I know it was a tough night. For me, this quiets the thoughts of KD35 as a top 3 player. He's solidly in the top 10. But that's as far as I'll go. Not to say that other guys, Bron, Dirk, etc. have off nights. It's more than that.
Blake Griffin, the second guy I went to see, was impressive to a point. The guy is just a PHENOMENAL athlete. He's freaky to see in person. He has so many fast twitch fibers in his legs it's scary. It's amazing that he doesnt just bounce 5 inches into the air just when he's walking. His second jump is so fast and he finds where the ball is going to go off rebounds and loose balls so fast that guys playing against him are just constantly in his way and they don't even know it. He goes and gets the ball where ever it is. He does a lot of this too: he catches the ball off like a roll to the basket and he just elevates as high as he can to the rim. He holds the ball and shoots the layup on the way down, misses a lot of them, and just lands of goes back up quicker than anyone to find his own miss then lays it in again. It's a little weird. He did it 4-5 times. But I think my main point is that he's kind of a weird player. He's a tweener. They never get him the ball in a good spot. He was reluctant to isolate and make a one on one move. He was much more apt to pick and roll and sit on the baseline waiting for a dish. He's a little shaky on the line. He had 2 monstrous dunks that were great. I left the game without a clear understanding of how he can play effectively aside from just being relentless on the offensive glass.
Jeff Green and Russ Westbrook, jury is still out on these guys. I dunno about them. They both had a tough night, I realize that. They are impressive guys standing alone, but when they were playing I felt like they weren't making the impact that they should be making. Russ is in constant attack mode. It was impressive. He goes all out to the rim, all day. Once he gets downhill, he's going. And he did plenty of that through the first quarter and a half. He had a little finishing problem. My biggest beef with his effort last night was just his refusal to throw the ball forward and take a risk. There were many instances in which he could have thrown the ball forward for what then would be easy buckets but failed to do so. Out of fear of a turnover, or maybe it just wasn't there, I dunno. But opportunities kept piling up in my eyes. For Greene, I just think he's limited offensively. He can't make NBA 3's. He's inconsistent with his jumper. He doesn't have a dominant go to move. He gets stuck. And he has to pick up his dribble and make a crappy bail out pass out to someone. He's only strong out on the break.
The Clips: For what it's worth: I am pro Vinny Del Negro. Yea, he's not in the upper echelon of his profession today. But I think he's much much better than people credit him for. I think he is good with players. Players play hard for him. He gets guys to play hard. His players like and respect him. He got a terrible deal in Chicago. Terrible deal. His bad coaching decisions were a small part of the equation that drove him out of Chicago. DON'T GET ME WRONG, he's not a modern day Greg Popovich. I just think he's gotten a bad rap. Bottom line, he was a great professional player, guys like him, guys play hard for him. Him and his assistants had a great game plan defensively last night. You can tell they were grinding to get their first win. They bracketed Durant well and made him settle for non rhythm 3's. It was a nice win for Vin and his staff.
Eric Bledsoe: Coming out party last night for EBled. Somewhere his agent Rich Paul was smiling. Bledsoe is gonna be a pretty good player. He's speedy. He took the matchup with Russ West seriously, and to be honest he won the matchup handily. He made some unbelievable passes, some were too good because guys weren't ready for them. He went rim to rim a couple times. He had a good night against guys who all had a bad night. So take it with a grain of salt. He's a little careful with the ball, afraid of getting pulled for turnovers. Wasn't as active in passing lanes defensively as I thought he would be.
Other Guys: Ryan Gomes and Craig Smith are fan favorites. Both are professional players that come to play each night. They do their job. Gomes, checked Durant very well. They had a good plan for Durant, but I thought Gomes was above average. Craig Smith, the Rhino, is a fan favorite. He finishes the plays he should and rebounds the ball everywhere. Guys are afraid of him out there. Fans openly boo'd Chris Kaman. Al Farouq Aminu played an encouraging game.
Willing to work harder,
JC
And him and his sorry team got blown out by the freaking Clippers....
As luck had it, I checked out what the Clipper's upcoming games were on Tuesday morning. I was excited when I saw OKC on the docket for Wednesday night. Good catch by me. I made a couple calls and I was all set. I got a great set at center court four rows up. I was practically on the floor. It was money.
I thought Staples Center was nice. It's a little different than it appears on TV. Obviously it had a much different vibe than a Lakers game because the Clippers don't get the Laker lights. They keep all the lights on for the Clips. So I didn't get the full ambience. It has 3 levels of suites. They are a little higher up than the first level of suites at the Q. There is so much commerce inside the building. Restaurants. McDonalds. Tons of food stations. It's intense.
Notable Pseudo Celebrity Spots: Coco Crisp, Penny Marshall, Bill Simmons, Jeff Ross, Aaron Goodwin
Onto the game.
OKC Thunder: I am going to try to stay away from sweeping allegations of fraud. I know they are a good team, maybe the 2nd of 3rd team to beat in the West when they are clicking. But in brief, they looked like they were working on grasping some new offensive sets and trying to get on the same page with their defensive sets. But big picture, they are missing 2 guys. They are a couple guys away from really competing for a NBA title. They are missing a wing player who can get his own shot, get into the key, and make a 3 pointer when he's open. A Rip Hamilton type guy. I had another guard in mind that I can't think of. They are also missing a post defender and rebounder. A gritty guy whose been through battles. A communicator whose not afraid to stick his nose in the action. Think Marcus Camby type. Both these guy's that they are missing need to be boisterous and be veterans in my opinion. Mo Pete is gonna help when he comes off the injured list. But the 3 headed monster of Nenad Kristic, Serge Ibaka, and Cole Aldrich isn't enough. There are holes to fill. By the way there was a Cole Aldrich sighting in the game last night.
There is a good commraderie between the guys on the Thunder. They seem to enjoy each other. They have a lot of handshakes and pre-game stuff. Lot of smiles in warmups. Similar type stuff to what the Cavs did, which kind of gave them a bad rap. But it's more tame and understated though.
Kevin Durant, the first guy I went to see, if you didn't check played his worst game in probably his last 60 games. 6-24 from the field from a guy whose always around 50% from the field. Missed probably 7 3's off the front rim. Really had no energy. He had a play in the 2nd quarter--a miss that came high off the rim that he flew in and tip dunked with two hands that I thought might get him going but it never did. He lacked energy in his movement without the ball and in his runs down the wing on the break. He just got out of sorts really early in the game. He had a loose ball come to him underneath the basket that should have been an easy bunny to get him going and he missed it. It was bad from that point forward. He's still the man. I know it was a tough night. For me, this quiets the thoughts of KD35 as a top 3 player. He's solidly in the top 10. But that's as far as I'll go. Not to say that other guys, Bron, Dirk, etc. have off nights. It's more than that.
Blake Griffin, the second guy I went to see, was impressive to a point. The guy is just a PHENOMENAL athlete. He's freaky to see in person. He has so many fast twitch fibers in his legs it's scary. It's amazing that he doesnt just bounce 5 inches into the air just when he's walking. His second jump is so fast and he finds where the ball is going to go off rebounds and loose balls so fast that guys playing against him are just constantly in his way and they don't even know it. He goes and gets the ball where ever it is. He does a lot of this too: he catches the ball off like a roll to the basket and he just elevates as high as he can to the rim. He holds the ball and shoots the layup on the way down, misses a lot of them, and just lands of goes back up quicker than anyone to find his own miss then lays it in again. It's a little weird. He did it 4-5 times. But I think my main point is that he's kind of a weird player. He's a tweener. They never get him the ball in a good spot. He was reluctant to isolate and make a one on one move. He was much more apt to pick and roll and sit on the baseline waiting for a dish. He's a little shaky on the line. He had 2 monstrous dunks that were great. I left the game without a clear understanding of how he can play effectively aside from just being relentless on the offensive glass.
Jeff Green and Russ Westbrook, jury is still out on these guys. I dunno about them. They both had a tough night, I realize that. They are impressive guys standing alone, but when they were playing I felt like they weren't making the impact that they should be making. Russ is in constant attack mode. It was impressive. He goes all out to the rim, all day. Once he gets downhill, he's going. And he did plenty of that through the first quarter and a half. He had a little finishing problem. My biggest beef with his effort last night was just his refusal to throw the ball forward and take a risk. There were many instances in which he could have thrown the ball forward for what then would be easy buckets but failed to do so. Out of fear of a turnover, or maybe it just wasn't there, I dunno. But opportunities kept piling up in my eyes. For Greene, I just think he's limited offensively. He can't make NBA 3's. He's inconsistent with his jumper. He doesn't have a dominant go to move. He gets stuck. And he has to pick up his dribble and make a crappy bail out pass out to someone. He's only strong out on the break.
The Clips: For what it's worth: I am pro Vinny Del Negro. Yea, he's not in the upper echelon of his profession today. But I think he's much much better than people credit him for. I think he is good with players. Players play hard for him. He gets guys to play hard. His players like and respect him. He got a terrible deal in Chicago. Terrible deal. His bad coaching decisions were a small part of the equation that drove him out of Chicago. DON'T GET ME WRONG, he's not a modern day Greg Popovich. I just think he's gotten a bad rap. Bottom line, he was a great professional player, guys like him, guys play hard for him. Him and his assistants had a great game plan defensively last night. You can tell they were grinding to get their first win. They bracketed Durant well and made him settle for non rhythm 3's. It was a nice win for Vin and his staff.
Eric Bledsoe: Coming out party last night for EBled. Somewhere his agent Rich Paul was smiling. Bledsoe is gonna be a pretty good player. He's speedy. He took the matchup with Russ West seriously, and to be honest he won the matchup handily. He made some unbelievable passes, some were too good because guys weren't ready for them. He went rim to rim a couple times. He had a good night against guys who all had a bad night. So take it with a grain of salt. He's a little careful with the ball, afraid of getting pulled for turnovers. Wasn't as active in passing lanes defensively as I thought he would be.
Other Guys: Ryan Gomes and Craig Smith are fan favorites. Both are professional players that come to play each night. They do their job. Gomes, checked Durant very well. They had a good plan for Durant, but I thought Gomes was above average. Craig Smith, the Rhino, is a fan favorite. He finishes the plays he should and rebounds the ball everywhere. Guys are afraid of him out there. Fans openly boo'd Chris Kaman. Al Farouq Aminu played an encouraging game.
Willing to work harder,
JC
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
STREETBALL: MANHATTAN BEACH
I was gonna go into a whole thing about the debacle that was the Mike Conley Jr. contract extension. But I just read that it's a little more reasonable. It's not 9 million a year. It's about 7.5 at its maximum and there are many incentives that can get it to 9. In order for it to get to 9, he's gotta put up elite level stats and the team has to go deep in the playoffs. So, it's a little easier to stomach now that I have read that. Had he not been extended, he probably would have got at least 6 per on the open market. He's right about a 4 per type guy for me. 4 year 16million would have been my ceiling as a GM.
Last night I walked up to the local outdoor courts in MB. I had no expectations. I just wanted to shoot and practice for a half hour and then move along to my crossfit workout. Luckily for me though, the courts quickly filled up and I was suddenly in the middle of a 2.5 hour 5 on 5 pickup session, with a cast of characters that made the night entertaining.
I think this was a pretty regular game. Guys showed up at 5:30. Most of them knew each other. I laid low and shot on the other court until they called me over. I made 9, and then some scrub showed up and we were on.
The captain of my team was a guy named Don. This was the classic, almost 60 year old guy, recspex who for some reason is still convinced that he can play. I hate to kill him because I have no doubt in my mind that I might be him someday. But I hope when I do it I can do some things to help a team win. All this guy was doing was getting murdered defensively and throwing up shots off the backboard with his foot on the 3 point line. We lost the first game 11-5. I had 5.
But let's go through the rosters here. That's what I enjoyed the most. Having not played in about a month and a half, it was very refreshing to be running with 9 other guys. It was nice not to be playing against the same Lakewood Y guys that I play against every session.
Caesar: 6'4, 215--Good player, I could tell he was probably a so so high school player who thought he was screwed by the coach so he's been playing serious pickup ever since. Caesar was the guy who gets to the court and isn't on the court ready to play for another 20 minutes. He had to change into his shorts, take off his jewelry, put 2 pairs of socks on, ankle braces, shoes, puts the wifebeater on, then the cutoff over the wifebeater. Check. But now he's ready to play and he means business. He's out there and he's out there to get his numbers. He's the guy who would post hard, catch in the midpost area, square up and jab 5 times then shoot a shot thats short 80 percent of the time. Expletives on every miss. He goes hard to the offensive glass and runs the floor. And he'll express disgust if he's not rewarded for running. He says And 1 after every layup. I checked him pretty much the whole time. He was a little out of sorts. He's used to being able to get his offense. Not tonight.
Skinny Tattoo'd Guy: 6'1, 180--also good player, Tats all over. Ran the point for Caesar's team. Always calling for the pick and roll. Very painful and annoying to be around. To give some color to this guy: this is the skinny kid on the public school high school team who hates the catholic school kids. And he immediately starts talking shit 2 minutes into the game and throughout the game. This is the kid who didn't lift weights with his high school team because he thought it would mess up his game and he had better things to do like try to convince the ugliest girl on his block to give him a handjob after school. He gets into the game and he's shocked that he's missing 3's, he's shocked that the guy he's guarding is scoring on him. He's always got the explanation that he "thought you were rolling or cutting on that" when he throws a no look onto the other court. BUT, like many of the skinny public high school guys, he has the ability to make a good play every once in a while. And this guy did so twice with a huge game winner one game and a coast to coast layup.
Jose: 5'7, 180--role player, shooter. It was very clear that Jose watches his fair share of NBA. Because every time he made a basketball action he would refer to an NBA player known for those actions. Every steal or strip (brutal hacks for the most part) would be followed with RONDO! Pullups would be KOBE midrange! Passes on the break would be followed with CP3. You all know the guy. I love guys who love the NBA, but it was a little over the top. Combine that with his coach on the floor lectures every possession and it quickly became a tired act. He was a good pickup game player though. He could stick the jumper. In good games and bad games. He wasn't afraid to shoot it.
Carl Winslow look alike 5'8 225--Perhaps the nicest guy on the floor. Yet you can tell everyone was SO tired of him. Tired of his awful shots, his poor defense, his most of the time not making it past half court. He was the classic 45 year old pickup player. The guy you don't want making his first shot. And guess what, he made his first 3--off the glass. He convinced himself that he was hot and what followed was an hour and a half of bricks and awful plays. But bottom line, nice guy. Out there for the right reasons. Didn't help that he went with the Boston Celtics shorts and T-shirt. But in his defense I think he travels a lot. So that might be a destination of his.
Chuck--6' 200 real good player--Chuck was good. We never played with each other. But if we did we would have ran Caesar Tat guy and Jose out of the gym. Chuck had a good game, made 3s, passed the ball and finished layups. He like myself, willed his team of misfits to a couple wins. He was a good guy. Definitely a Cali guy tho. Not real friendly. Little full of himself and his game.
Don--5'9--58 years old, sweats and sweatshirt while playing--Don was a good guy. Basketball purist. Pass first in the half court. Made a couple shots. When he was off he changed into a diffrerent sweatshirt and shot free throws on the other court. He was a coach on the floor.
SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS:
We lost a game when I was playing with Carl Winslow, Don and a couple bums. The next team needed 1. I shot a 3 and made. Carl banked. Don swished. I miss the next one and then Carl and Don went on with a 8 minute shoot a thon to see who would be the 5th. This is my number 1 pet peeve of pickup mens hoops. It's always the biggest bums in the gym who make the free throws or in this case the 3s. These are the last guys who would be picked if the next team could just pick. It drives me crazy. And on top of that it killed like 8 minutes because they both made and both missed. Ridiculous.
Caesar double dribbles at 8-7 their lead. I call it during the play and mayhem breaks loose. Expletives. I think he may even have thrown the ball. Jose gets into it. Tattoo is throwing his two cents in. But I stand my ground. My voice is loud and authoritative as I argue. I demonstrate it 2 times. I build concensus with the rest of the players. One rational 38 year old dad on the other team accepts my case and we move to the other end of the court. We win the game. They go nuts after the fact.
I call 4 fouls in a row during 1 half court possession. 3 were fouls. The 4th one was tic tac where I messed up and bailed myself out cause I got some contact from Jose. It was a critical part of the game. I had a team of guys I was playing hard for I didn't want to let them down. I called it on Jose, and he goes into this heated debate about how all the fouls have been bullshit. I stand my ground again. We end up winning the game but I forced a 3 on that ensuing restart of the possession.
I throw a heat of the moment tantrum at Carl Winslow for giving up a walk in game winning layup to the 5th best offensive player on the other team. It was no coincidence that CW was guarding the 5th best guy. I made it a point to get that matchup set. We were going for 4 wins in a row. I was invested in the game. 10-10 game. I repeat 10 to fricking 10. Guy walks in for the layup. The other team celebrates. I scream at Carl "You let that walk in like that on game point are you frickin serious?" He stares at me blankly. He goes: what? I say again "You gotta make that bucket a little harder man! Geese." He embarrassingly goes, "Naw man, I'm 41 years old, I don't run through picks. I mumbled a couple other things and then dropped it. I picked up my ball and went home, embarassed that I laid a guy out for a 2 minutes in front of people. It was not my finest moment of the day.
But all things considered it was a fun run. I quickly established myself as a guy. I was focused. I got buckets. I made NBA 3s. I cleaned the glass. I offensive rebounded. I didn't get hurt. It was a win win. Until next week...
Willing to work harder,
JC
Last night I walked up to the local outdoor courts in MB. I had no expectations. I just wanted to shoot and practice for a half hour and then move along to my crossfit workout. Luckily for me though, the courts quickly filled up and I was suddenly in the middle of a 2.5 hour 5 on 5 pickup session, with a cast of characters that made the night entertaining.
I think this was a pretty regular game. Guys showed up at 5:30. Most of them knew each other. I laid low and shot on the other court until they called me over. I made 9, and then some scrub showed up and we were on.
The captain of my team was a guy named Don. This was the classic, almost 60 year old guy, recspex who for some reason is still convinced that he can play. I hate to kill him because I have no doubt in my mind that I might be him someday. But I hope when I do it I can do some things to help a team win. All this guy was doing was getting murdered defensively and throwing up shots off the backboard with his foot on the 3 point line. We lost the first game 11-5. I had 5.
But let's go through the rosters here. That's what I enjoyed the most. Having not played in about a month and a half, it was very refreshing to be running with 9 other guys. It was nice not to be playing against the same Lakewood Y guys that I play against every session.
Caesar: 6'4, 215--Good player, I could tell he was probably a so so high school player who thought he was screwed by the coach so he's been playing serious pickup ever since. Caesar was the guy who gets to the court and isn't on the court ready to play for another 20 minutes. He had to change into his shorts, take off his jewelry, put 2 pairs of socks on, ankle braces, shoes, puts the wifebeater on, then the cutoff over the wifebeater. Check. But now he's ready to play and he means business. He's out there and he's out there to get his numbers. He's the guy who would post hard, catch in the midpost area, square up and jab 5 times then shoot a shot thats short 80 percent of the time. Expletives on every miss. He goes hard to the offensive glass and runs the floor. And he'll express disgust if he's not rewarded for running. He says And 1 after every layup. I checked him pretty much the whole time. He was a little out of sorts. He's used to being able to get his offense. Not tonight.
Skinny Tattoo'd Guy: 6'1, 180--also good player, Tats all over. Ran the point for Caesar's team. Always calling for the pick and roll. Very painful and annoying to be around. To give some color to this guy: this is the skinny kid on the public school high school team who hates the catholic school kids. And he immediately starts talking shit 2 minutes into the game and throughout the game. This is the kid who didn't lift weights with his high school team because he thought it would mess up his game and he had better things to do like try to convince the ugliest girl on his block to give him a handjob after school. He gets into the game and he's shocked that he's missing 3's, he's shocked that the guy he's guarding is scoring on him. He's always got the explanation that he "thought you were rolling or cutting on that" when he throws a no look onto the other court. BUT, like many of the skinny public high school guys, he has the ability to make a good play every once in a while. And this guy did so twice with a huge game winner one game and a coast to coast layup.
Jose: 5'7, 180--role player, shooter. It was very clear that Jose watches his fair share of NBA. Because every time he made a basketball action he would refer to an NBA player known for those actions. Every steal or strip (brutal hacks for the most part) would be followed with RONDO! Pullups would be KOBE midrange! Passes on the break would be followed with CP3. You all know the guy. I love guys who love the NBA, but it was a little over the top. Combine that with his coach on the floor lectures every possession and it quickly became a tired act. He was a good pickup game player though. He could stick the jumper. In good games and bad games. He wasn't afraid to shoot it.
Carl Winslow look alike 5'8 225--Perhaps the nicest guy on the floor. Yet you can tell everyone was SO tired of him. Tired of his awful shots, his poor defense, his most of the time not making it past half court. He was the classic 45 year old pickup player. The guy you don't want making his first shot. And guess what, he made his first 3--off the glass. He convinced himself that he was hot and what followed was an hour and a half of bricks and awful plays. But bottom line, nice guy. Out there for the right reasons. Didn't help that he went with the Boston Celtics shorts and T-shirt. But in his defense I think he travels a lot. So that might be a destination of his.
Chuck--6' 200 real good player--Chuck was good. We never played with each other. But if we did we would have ran Caesar Tat guy and Jose out of the gym. Chuck had a good game, made 3s, passed the ball and finished layups. He like myself, willed his team of misfits to a couple wins. He was a good guy. Definitely a Cali guy tho. Not real friendly. Little full of himself and his game.
Don--5'9--58 years old, sweats and sweatshirt while playing--Don was a good guy. Basketball purist. Pass first in the half court. Made a couple shots. When he was off he changed into a diffrerent sweatshirt and shot free throws on the other court. He was a coach on the floor.
SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS:
We lost a game when I was playing with Carl Winslow, Don and a couple bums. The next team needed 1. I shot a 3 and made. Carl banked. Don swished. I miss the next one and then Carl and Don went on with a 8 minute shoot a thon to see who would be the 5th. This is my number 1 pet peeve of pickup mens hoops. It's always the biggest bums in the gym who make the free throws or in this case the 3s. These are the last guys who would be picked if the next team could just pick. It drives me crazy. And on top of that it killed like 8 minutes because they both made and both missed. Ridiculous.
Caesar double dribbles at 8-7 their lead. I call it during the play and mayhem breaks loose. Expletives. I think he may even have thrown the ball. Jose gets into it. Tattoo is throwing his two cents in. But I stand my ground. My voice is loud and authoritative as I argue. I demonstrate it 2 times. I build concensus with the rest of the players. One rational 38 year old dad on the other team accepts my case and we move to the other end of the court. We win the game. They go nuts after the fact.
I call 4 fouls in a row during 1 half court possession. 3 were fouls. The 4th one was tic tac where I messed up and bailed myself out cause I got some contact from Jose. It was a critical part of the game. I had a team of guys I was playing hard for I didn't want to let them down. I called it on Jose, and he goes into this heated debate about how all the fouls have been bullshit. I stand my ground again. We end up winning the game but I forced a 3 on that ensuing restart of the possession.
I throw a heat of the moment tantrum at Carl Winslow for giving up a walk in game winning layup to the 5th best offensive player on the other team. It was no coincidence that CW was guarding the 5th best guy. I made it a point to get that matchup set. We were going for 4 wins in a row. I was invested in the game. 10-10 game. I repeat 10 to fricking 10. Guy walks in for the layup. The other team celebrates. I scream at Carl "You let that walk in like that on game point are you frickin serious?" He stares at me blankly. He goes: what? I say again "You gotta make that bucket a little harder man! Geese." He embarrassingly goes, "Naw man, I'm 41 years old, I don't run through picks. I mumbled a couple other things and then dropped it. I picked up my ball and went home, embarassed that I laid a guy out for a 2 minutes in front of people. It was not my finest moment of the day.
But all things considered it was a fun run. I quickly established myself as a guy. I was focused. I got buckets. I made NBA 3s. I cleaned the glass. I offensive rebounded. I didn't get hurt. It was a win win. Until next week...
Willing to work harder,
JC
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