Last night was Game One of my basketball league. It went - okay. Here’s the deal, my buddy Justin, myself, and another friend Jamie managed around 36 points as a combined total. We lost the game 60 to 52. Now I’m not saying that I am a basketball superstar, far from it in fact, but I still managed 8 points. The other 8 players on my team managed 24.
It’s supposed to be a recreation league, so there are rules in place saying that everyone will get equal play time. With that in mind we split the team into shifts. Justin, Jamie and I all knew each other, so we all went on the same line. This proved to be a mistake. Our line probably went 36 to 20. We played one third of the game. The other two lines went 24 to 40. I’m thinking that next game we’re going to have to even off our lines a tad.
It’s not that the rest of our team is less talented per se, it’s just that they’re all small. Really small. I’m 6′8″, Justin is about 6′ and Jamie is maybe a hair taller than Justin. I’m pretty sure that the next tallest guy on our team is 5′8″, and then it’s downhill from there. One dude is about 5′6″ and 100lbs. This a basketball superstar does not make. It would be fine if he could dribble or shoot, but neither of those skills seem to be his forte. Basically he’s a tiny little dude who can’t play basketball - not exactly what I would consider an asset to the team.
But therein lies the rub. You see, this is all ‘for fun’. The games are supposed to be fairly laid back and everyone is supposed to have fun. One of the league rules is to “play at the same level as everyone else”. Basically they ask great players to tone it down a tad so that everyone has fun, and that is my problem. I won’t have fun if I’m not winning. I don’t know where this competetive nature came from, when I played in high school I honestly did not care one way or the other, but now - I want to win. I’ll blame video games because they seem to be a convenient scape goat these days.
The other huge problem I’m having is that the league is co-ed. I’m a big guy, and I like to play a fairly physical game. This is not an option when there are girls on the court. I can’t just go running into the frey to grab a rebound because there is a good chance I will kill a girl. I can’t count how many times I could have stuffed the hell out of a girl but instead just stood there with my hands up in the air like a complete goof. I’m going to hurt a girl, I just know it. The one time I go running into the key at full steam for a rebound I’m going to launch some 80lb asian girl into orbit. This fear nearly cripples me on the court.
Complaints aside, basketball league is fun. I’m sure that my team can take the championship too. Last night we played the reigning champs from last season and lost by 8 with almost no b-line help. Once we sort out the roster we’ll hand those chumps their asses. We play every Thursday, so for the next few weeks expect Friday to offer some sweet play by play.
