On Basketball

Lately i have been playing basketball at a community gym in Menlo Park on Mondays and Wednesdays. This is great because it gets me in shape (i hope), gets me outside (and inside), and it's fun!

Most of the guys i play with work for SRI International, which is a local research institute. Lots of...science? At least one of the guys is a security guard there. So maybe for him working for SRI is the science of safety. Or maybe ass-kicking.

I like basketball because it reminds me of my childhood. And it connects me with my roots. My dad used to play the sport, and perhaps other forebearers of mine, too. When i was growing up, we had a basketball hoop out on the front driveway and we'd play games after school or work and sometimes on weekends. Of course the "cooler" sport of skateboarding at some point took over these play times at least in part, but i have come to realize that while skateboarding is, in fact, cool, the reasons i thought that it was cool were largely affected by Swill Merchants. Still, i have memories of playing into the evening hours and having to constantly try to get the sensor light to stay on after it got dark. We would mostly play one-on-one or two-on-one (Travis and Aaron vs. Dad OR Travis vs. Aaron OR Dad vs. Aaron OR Brian and Travis vs. Aaron) or some other combination of players, usually neighbors and friends. We would sometimes play HORSE (a game i was recently reminded of while playing darts with Mr. Kyle Warner in his abode), but usually it was just first to X amount of points, you have to win by two. And, whenever possible, always end on a swish.

I also like basketball because, as i have recently realized, it is very American. Whether my degree of patriotism be high or low, i am proud of this North American creation. Peach baskets. James Naismith.

According to Wikipedia:
"Basketball, netball, dodgeball, volleyball, and lacrosse are the only ball games which have been identified as being invented by North Americans. Other ball games, such as baseball and Canadian football, have Commonwealth of Nations, European, Asian or African connections."

Did you read that?! Baseball! Ha! Some "great American pastime"! (all you baseball fans: this is not a jab!)

Of course there are sides to basketball which i don't like so much, but i guess they're inherent in any sport and life in general: trash talking and excessive cursing; headaches (for me if i exercise too hard for too long); exclusion or humiliation of players; fights, usually about pointless stuff like, "FOUL!!" "What?!". I suppose i disdained these aspects of Ultimate Frisbee with the Frisbee Takes a Weekend crowd as well.

In college i also played basketball from time to time, mostly on the one-night-a-week intervarsity teams. These were less like intervarsity teams and more like, "lets all go to open gym basketball and play some games...and maybe have a tournament at the end". This was great when it was on, but unfortunately only for part of the year. The rest of the year was overtaken by volleyball, which i guess i like ok, but not as much. Basketball drove me to show up, not volleyball.

And what's more, Basketball drew me to watch the games, not the NBA. Basketball drove me to watch the playoffs, not the hype nor the oft-drug-popping professional babies. In short, i love the game, not the spectacle. I could be totally absorbed in the game and not notice one bit what's going on around me, but sit me in front of a television set to watch a game and i will inevitably get bored. A live game will certainly keep my attention and excitement much better, but ultimately i want to play.












Comic Bonus!