playing basketball

Ha. I saw the end of one of their games. At least 2 guys didn't make it down the other end of the court for any one possession. They got beat like 50-18 by a team that looked worse than mine.

hhaah oh. some old man skills are real. and they are def better in the half court lmao

yeah and they were late-50s/60s old not 40s/early 50s. their "leader" has 2 artificial knees, looked like the tin man out there. really tough for guys that age to hang with guys in their 20s in full court.

yeah they really need a walk it up league

At end of a night out drinking, 4 of us regular hoopers dished out honest opinions of each others' games. Which led to 2 guys challenging me and another guy to 2on2 the next day, losers buy the winners a meal. We had to win 3 straight, they had to just win 1 game. They're both decent players but when we get matched up in games (which happens a lot, since the one guy is my size and the other guy is the size of my teammate here) generally wind up with them getting shat on by us. My matchup was surprisingly hitting 3's in my face and we barely squeaked out a win in 1st game; I think they even had a shot that would've won it had it gone in. Next 2 games weren't close. Best thing is nobody took either the leadup shit-talking nor the actual game personally. If same thing had happen w/type of people I hooped with around Chicago, it'd get ugly.

Day before that I had 5 1on1 games of 21 vs my D2 scholarship buddy. I won 1st and last games (last game only cause he missed FT when he had 20 so he went down to 13). Still tho that's the 1st time I've beaten him twice in a day. I have to play perfect. Every single 3 he took was a swish for the 1st 3 games til legs got tired. I got 1 layup the whole time cause he's quick and tall enough to recover on a blow-by. He knows when my spin-to-fadeaway is coming so he'll swat the ball away as I bring it up to shoot. If I'm not super locked-in on D he can get a half step on me and I'm not big enough to recover and really challenge his shot. Just a major challenge for me.

At end of a night out drinking, 4 of us regular hoopers dished out honest opinions of each others' games.

this is a fun idea. might do it with some guys ive been hooping w for years.

I took 1 whole shot in last night's game. Airballed corner 3. Now I'm shook haha.

basketball leads to some wild swings in self esteem lol

for real. sports are so much about mental fortitude. respect to players that can bring it every night

No doubt. That was always my downfall as a kid: great in practice, shit the bed in games. Oh well gonna try to shake it off.

On the plus side, I've had just a single basket scored on my in 3 games. Guy last night who was like 5 inches taller than me got a lil curl screen to get open 6 feet from the hoop, caught it, shot and scored over my outstretched arms.

scored on *me

No doubt. That was always my downfall as a kid: great in practice, shit the bed in games. Oh well gonna try to shake it off.

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, March 15, 2018 1:00 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this was me in golf growing up. played in a TON of tournaments and could never really shake the yips when it mattered.

I think that's, uh, par for the course for introverts huh. Overthinking, self-doubt.

I can utilize that nervous energy on D, but something like shooting...you really need a level of relaxed confidence to do it well.

The season for team of lil kids that had practice before our open gym time Tues/Thurs is over, so I'm gonna get there early tonight and get some shots up. Just a lonely dude trying to unshook himself.

nothing that some intense hoisting wont fix

Hope so. I've improved so much from deep these past couple years (from guys sagging off me and lil shits calling me "No Shot Andy" to guys cursing themselves just for leaving me an open look), don't wanna regress.

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.

We had really good win last night vs this team last night. Our guy completely shut down their big guy who killed us last time. But our guy just cannot control himself w/the refs. Finally got T'd up. Have to pay $20 on the spot to get back in the game. I loaned him the money, over his objection to taking my $. So he comes back in for the 2nd half. Then gets another T and just will not shut up after getting ejected. Guys on our team are even telling him to just shut the f up already. Then after the game he politely asks the ref (a gray-haired, short lady) what he could've done to get the call he wanted. She admits she prob missed the call of him getting hacked on a reach-in, and he still won't let it go! I have to step in and say look man she's just trying to do her best out there blah blah. After the ref walks off in exasperation, I tell him it's just like dealing with police: they're gonna do some dumb shit, totally unfair, but complaining about it just makes it worse for you. "Ohhh ok now I get it haha." But yeah doubt he does get it yet still.

been playing really badly for the past week. nothing crushes the spirit like having a bad day at ball

:( Yeah it puts me in a funk, and then I feel stupid for letting a game have that affect on me.

otm

After years of getting called Dirk, I've been called Korver the last two times I've played at my court in Bedstuy.

lol

turned my ankle pretty good last night. first real basketball injury of my life, which is fortunate considering how often I play

korver is a good looking guy, congrats on being good looking

sorry kev ankle rolls are the worst, is it black and blue and swollen?

ha i remember when i went from stockon to nash, big day

sorry kev ankle rolls are the worst, is it black and blue and swollen?

― they call me melo gelo (Spottie), Monday, May 21, 2018 5:02 PM (eleven minutes ago)

yeah, I've been icing and elevating and taking advil, I'm able to walk on it without much problem now thankfully

once you get the ligaments all nice and stretched out your recovery time will improve dramatically

Ask me if I’ve played against the greats pic.twitter.com/up55aUYidQ

— Zak Toscani (@zaktoscani) May 27, 2018

hah

When I'm tired in a hoop session I yell out a wrong score. That's a 3min break by time they done fussing I'm good to go

— Blake Jones (@CoachJonesblake) August 9, 2018

lol
I generally have a pretty good memory but always forget the score. One young guy I play with is the only one who always has it correct even if he's sitting out that game. Can usually recall the summary of all the scoring even, it's pretty impressive.

yeah there is usually one guy that is the score guy.

sometimes u give the other team a point or two because theyre sad about losing

ha totally. is it 19-6 or 19-8? fuck it y'all can have 10 as my squad would all have to literally forget how to play ball in order to lose to you sad sacks.

I moved to the next town over and there's actually pickup games at the main public courts yesssss. Sedona gets more pickup pickleball and ultimate frisbee games than bball, it's a sad state of affairs.

lol

pickleball is my new shit btw great game

never played, heard good things about it tho.

first im hearing

Kavanaugh played a lot of basketball. I’ll bet he was the guy who never committed a foul in a pickup game.

— Jim Barnett (@uograd66) September 27, 2018

Jim!

My mom sent me (unsolicited) a box of old crap of mine. Including a Jordan Team USA Olympic jersey. Gonna wear it to bball tonight and then put it away for safe keeping.

I changed my shot from more overhead to a "thru the nose" curry type release. Def helps with the consistency for me.

^lol that's me in 2016. I just changed it back to more of an overhead release cause I wanted more consistency lmao.

lol

changing yr shot is irresistible, remember playing one on one with a guy who just lit me up hit every shot then after the game he started talking about how he wanted to change his shot lol

hahaha
other week I asked best shooter I play with what he thinks about when he gets in a slump and he goes "uh nothing...just know that I'm a good shooter and keep shooting". Thanks that doesn't help me!

Rules question: I was driving towards hoop, and to avoid help defender's swiping hand, I dribbled the ball way higher than normal (like eye level) but DIDN'T put my hand under the ball ever, then resumed a normal-height dribble and made a layup. Everyone immediately called me for carrying/travel, but I contended that it was legal because I never had my hand underneath the ball, while admitting it def looked sketchy. I gave up on pleading my case cause everyone was convinced it was illegal move and I wasn't positive it was legal.
I can't find anything in rulebook that would make it illegal though? Nothing about dribble height in itself being illegal...
What y'all think?

There is no restriction as to how high a player may bounce the ball, provided the ball does not come to rest in the player's hand (palming or carrying violation).

Look at Rondo's tip off dribbles for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=990YyO6WXAg

it's legal and long been an annoyance of mine that it's called in open gym and like city league games as a travel/carry. Trying to explain it always falls on deaf ears.