The Basketball Diaries Episode 2

Game 3 v The Generals

So it was time to take to the court again, for more wacky adventures of the Muy Buena kind.

This week, Asics had come to the party in terms of a quasi sponsorship. I say 'quasi' as it wasn't actually a sponsorship, but I was wearing some of their stuff and I had a new Asics drink bottle. But if anyone from Asics is reading this, and you want to sponsor me,then I'm happy to talk turkey!

Our starting 5 of Troy 'Fat Kid' Ridgley, Cpt Shazam, Podge, Senor Gris and myself stepped up for the tip off, and has become the tradition (two times is a tradition right?) Podge took the jump. He gets up for a Hobbit, but he lost it again in our other Tuesday night tradition. And the game was on!

Now its probably about the time that I should explain who we were playing against. There were 5 guys all sporting jerseys of their favourite NBA players. And as someone who has played a little bit of basketball, you come to realise that there are two types of people who play basketball wearing NBA jerseys. NBA players, and people who have no clue. I'll give you the hot tip, none of these guys have a trading card in distribution. Throw in the fact that their tallest player was 5'8 and I was quietly confident.

After 4.7 seconds of game time my theory was confirmed, as the guy that caught the tip dribbled off his leg, lost control and tipped the ball straight to me. I will say this, the basketball that was used in tonights game was part super ball. I've never played an organised game of basketball with a bouncier ball thats for sure.

But thats pretty much where the contest stopped. For every point they scored in the first half, we scored 6.2. So if I tell you that they scored 5 points in the first, you can do the maths.

At this point, as they only had 5 players, they went searching for some subs. And this is where things got interesting. One of the guys that stepped on the court to help, was under the impression that he was the best player on the court. advertised this by wearing his rep shorts and training singlet. Unfortnately for him, we're all quite aware that unless you're playing ABA, then the Rep scene is pretty much open to anyone who turns up to trials and then games. So his choice of attire did not impress me one bit. But he was pretty impressed with himself.

This guy threw out some gems like:
'That was a travel!' when Troy posted him up and hit an uncontested layup.   
'And 1!' when he put up a shot (that missed) and no one fouled him.
'Bank' when putting up a shot from the side of the key, that hit the backboard AFTER touching the ring first.

So yeah, its clear to say that this dude was awful. Anyway, after being scored on about 10 times and not contributing much at all to the other team, he took off to 'warm up' for his next game.

The final score ended up something like 61-27. And there were some impressive moments of basketball displayed in the game. Our passing was A LOT better than last week and some quality shots were dropping. There was one rule that was introduced tonight that I'm hoping to not have to be punished by again. The rule is, when a 3 point  shot is made, the player that hits the shot has to keep his arm up, Wesley Snipes style until the next shot is made. In my case, it was up quite a while as there was a foul on the next possession and 'Dwight Howard' did not make either of his free throws. I will say one thing, it is surprising how tired your shoulder gets holding your arm up for a while.

So 'Muy Buena' are now 2-1 and building towards a big rematch with the Lakers in round 2! And uniforms should be arriving tomorrow. Once I have one in my possession, I will post a pic so you can see ho awesome we're going to look!