This is mad random. Especially considering our lack of posts recently, this one isn't especially important or anything, but I have a few free minutes and an idea (Tremendous cream. Fuck a dollar and a dream). I was just thinking about playing basketball in various people's driveways when we were younger.
It's interesting how basketball games develop out of necessity. For example, if you had 3 people or 5 people then you would play 21. This is an interesting game in that it was basically just every man for himself. Every player had their own score and the first one to 21 was the winner. Even though it was basically 1 on 4 every time, there was very little defense ever really played up until someone got to like 16 or 17 points. And you had to decide on specific rules for each game like if there were 3 point shots and if there were foul shots. The foul shot rule was super important because once someone got to 17 you could just hack them every time if there were no foul shots. It made the game last much longer. I played a countless number of games of 21 in the driveway of a guy who I'm sure we all know with a preternatural math ability and an MIT degree. I'm not sure why we always had an odd number of people over there. I guess you could play with an even number, too, but I'm not sure why you would.
What really tickled me when I was thinking about it, though, were the games we used to play in Diesal's backyard. Diesal's court was like the perfect size. My driveway, for example, was fine for 2 on 2, but beyond that there really wasn't enough room. Diesal's driveway expanded out to be wide enough for 2 cars and it made for a perfect 3 on 3 court. What really made me write this post was how I was thinking about the number of occasions where we would show up at Diesal's house about noon, start a game of 2 on 2 between, say Diesal, Open Bar, myself, and maybe Ian Ziering or Scooter (why, Diesal?), and play until it was dark with very little interruption. Like I can remember at least a few times where we would count by ones and the final score would be like 192 to 185 or some such thing. I wonder if Diesal still has that video of us playing 3 on 3 in his backyard when we were 12 or 13. That is a very funny video.
I don't really have a point, except for that Diesal's driveway was perfect for basketball. You know, I'll bet Side Bar's driveway would have been really good for basketball if they would have had a hoop.
10 comments:
Great games over at D's driveway, my driveway was too narrow. Hey guys....do you remember that time....
well one time D and I were playing with scooter, Jiggidy and some of Jiddidy's friends. Well one of Jiggidy's friends blocked Scooters shot (big surprise) but he slapped it to the side and it went over the one story porch next store. It was known as the "over the house block" and we laughed all afternoon.
-winit
Don't forget about Taps, Chuck. No idea who invented that game, but they managed to create a strain of 21 that could literally take hours to complete.
Oh shit, I totally forgot about taps. If I remember it right it was just 21 except if you tapped in someone's rebound by jumping and catching and shooting all in one motion then that guy's score would be reduced by two. Is that right?
Very funny topic…
At my mom’s house, there was a giant root/stump, from a huge bush we cut down, which, for people who didn’t play at the house often, would always trip over. Talk about home field advantage! LOL. That is actually how Andy B. got the nickname of “Ami the root.” Andrew was running full steam for a loose ball and Max yelled “Ami the root” to remind him of the stump. Andrew was going way too fast to stop and busted his ass and yelled “Wow shit!” LMFAO! It was probably the funniest backyard basketball moment at my mom’s house.
My dad’s house was almost too small (and also had some uneven pavement) to play any real game. So me, my bro, and my pop would have free throw shooting contests. This really sucked for me because the advantage that I had over my pop and brother was speed. I was (and am) by far the worst free throw shooter out of the Steel men and would constantly loose. It was almost always something like, if we were going up to ten, the score: Pop-9, Max-8, Other-guy (me) 5. Often, my bro and pop and tie at a perfect 10 and would play a playoff. My job in this situation was to rebound. LOL!
Nah, if your shot got tapped, you went back to zero. (I'm pretty sure. Damn, my 15-year-old self would hate me for forgetting that.) If your score was 19 and you were at the free throw line, you'd usually miss badly on purpose, just to avoid getting tapped.
Ev, you laughed out loud during that comment three separate times.
P.S.: If my 15-year-old self did actually get mad at me, I'd just be like, "Yeah, well, I've had sex."
Argument over.
Oh shit, you're totally right. The score would go back to zero.
Ev, I remember the one time we were playing full contact basketball in your backyard and Side Bar was winning by like a million points despite his lack of basketball prowess. And everyone thought that was pretty funny.
I think no one played defense until the score got high, bc they were all preoccupied with grabbing a rebound instead, so they could put points on the board.
If you "D up" on someone and they miss their shot, it's some lazy cherry-picker who's gonna get possession.
I'd pay money for the video of you guys playing 3 on 3 when you were 12 or 13.
It's worth at least a full price movie ticket. It's that good. Or bad, as it were.
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