Ball Hogs

Stuck my hand in somewhere it didn't belong last night, which has me worried that I'll be down to typing with one finger if I don't keep the ice on it. Can't even remember the details of how it happened, but I sure knew that I'd done SOMETHING at the time...and even though I made the deflection, I think they recovered the ball for an easy score anyway...stupid, stupid....

Was playing in a new game yesterday too, although there were more familiar faces than not: a few guys I play with pretty regularly during the week, and some others I haven't played with for years. The first few times playing in a new pick-up game are always both a challenge and an opportunity: no one really knows how much game you have, but you don't really know what you're up against either...so there's the opportunity to surprise some people along with the challenge of figuring out what both your teammates and your opponents can and cannot do themselves. I'm lucky, since most folks tend to underestimate me when they first set eyes on me. Then they tend to OVER-estimate me, which has advantages as well.

The rules and customs of a new game are always a little different too. These guys like to play to seven by ones...no three point line, winners keep the ball and the court. Of course, with only eleven players (one of whom left after the first half-hour), figuring out who had "next" wasn't really much of an issue. Teams weren't very evenly matched either, but still the games were pretty competitive...in part I think because of my presence as the "X factor." Without the three point line in play, I decided to step a little closer to the basket, and it's surprising how much easier it is to drain a "J" from fifteen feet rather than twenty. Knocked down two of those early, then made a driving lay-up, then another, a little curl at the elbow, and finally a wide-open jumper from the right corner (after a loose ball rolled my way out of the scrum under the basket). Legs started to go after that, and my shots started to go up flat and fall a little short...rimming out rather than going down gracefully they way the did in the beginning. Not that it really mattered, since I didn't get that many looks to begin with, and there were plenty of guys on my team perfectly willing to create shots for themselves off the dribble, and not at all shy about taking them.

My biggest contributions had to do with creating better ball movement: running the give-and-go with a fellow I play with all the time, and distributing the pumpkin to my teammates in places where they could actually do something with it. Did some pretty strong rebounding early on too (again before my legs started to fade). My best personal accomplishment though was staying calm about all the wild, leaning, off-balance off-the-dribble shots in traffic a couple of my teammates seemed to live for, almost to the exclusion of everything else (like passing, rebounding, and defense for example).

Here's the math. There are five players on a team, which means (all things being equal) that each player should touch the ball 20% of the time, take 20% of the shots and score 20% of the points. Of course, things never are truly equal -- we all have different skills and levels of talent, and truly good teams learn how to maximize those opportunities for everyone as well. But some guys just don't seem to get it, and their...well, self-absorbed, self-important, self-obsessed, selfishness makes everyone around them less effective too.

Last night I shot six times in perhaps the first sixty minutes (clock time not game time), made everything I took, and probably had close to twice as many assists. I did eventually start to miss, but I still continued to take the open looks when they came my way, since not shooting good shots when they present themselves is almost as big a sin as forcing up bad ones.

One of my teammates, on the other hand, probably threw up at least half a dozen wild shots a game, giving up the ball only when he absolutely HAD to, and was doing really well if two of those shots went in. The difference is mostly just a matter of judgement and attitude: I know what a good shot looks like for me, I know what one looks like for each of my teammates, and I'm always looking to help create the best shot possible for SOMEONE out of the natural flow and rhythm of the offense. Move the ball and move your feet: Balance the floor, Attack the basket, Fill back to the ball, Fake out your opponent, Look for the open man, Execute the extra pass to earn an easy basket. BAFFLE. It's really just that simple.

Yet some folks apparently find this concept a little confusing. Call loudly for the ball, put your head down, dribble hard to your right (unless, of course, you're left-handed), draw as many defenders to you as you can, jump in the air, twist, turn, close your eyes, throw the ball in the direction of the basket, and celebrate wildly when it actually goes it. I'm not sure there's even a name for that. Or at least not one I would repeat anywhere my mother might read it.

Even at my age, I can probably create a better shot than that for myself off the dribble any time I want it. But I don't, because that's not the point. If I want to pretend I'm Michael Jordon, I can go out in the driveway and shoot those leaning off-balance circus-shots to my heart's content, all the while providing my own Marv Albert play-by-play commentary for every little juke and pump-fake. But I'm not going to waste the time (and earn the resentment) of nine other grown-ups by bringing that shit to a pick-up game. I just wish there were a few more folks out there who feel the way that I do.