Post your personal hooping exploits, your game results, injuries, rehab, experiences, advice, insights/views on our team… whatever. As long as it can somehow be tied to being from a basketball player’s point of view! Even if you never hooped, feel free to join in on any discussions.
I’ll start off… Won my men’s league game last night. 11 points, 2/3 from 3, 2/4 from two point range. Three blocks maybe 2 steals, no turnovers, 3-4 assists. Terrible 2/5 from the FT line. Played 34 out of 40 minutes. Best part is my self-guided back and knee rehab seem to be working. Trying to avoid knee surgery for a bad meniscus tear. I’m basically doing the opposite of taking it easy. Hitting the weight room hard. Squats, deadlifts, you name it. Normally I’d be hobbling the day after, but each week I feel less and less pain after a game.
I'll start right off with the big highlight: Age 8, location some random elementary school gym in Moline, IL. Practice ending with a scrimmage. I had the ball on the baseline with the clock ticking down. Coach: "Shoot it!" Me: . . . (swish). Buzzer. Pretty much retired after that, though there were some good years as trumpet section leader in the Gator hoops band. I'll save my F# "Charge" story for another post.
Playing with the Gators team over the summer. Vernon Maxwell, who told the security my buddy and I were “with them.” Got us in the game after the Lawrence Bros. left for class (my buddy and I are not tall like them). For some reason, I’m told to guard Vernon, and I take my defensive role quite seriously. I take him at mid court, and he dares to make a move around me ( to wit, he was just dribbling). I step in front and try and simultaneously try to tap the ball out (I do have long arms). He runs into me and I flip him literally over me and he lands square in his back. He stays down, and I’m thinking I just crushed the greatest Gator bball player who had ever played for the Orange and Blue (I was not the historian back then). After several seconds, he opens his eyes, points up at me (and I’m thinking they’re all gonna rightfully jump me), and he says, “That’s a foul, man,” as he reaches his hand up for me to help him to his feet. Needless to say, he scored more points than me.
I was in the tunnel at the Richmond game and stuck my hand out for Tyrese and Micah to give them high fives. They both had to jump to reach me and both almost landed badly. I was thinking to myself damn what if one of them had slipped. I’d be the all time most hated fan in UF history.
I am sure that I told this story before. Funniest exploit was during a noontime pick up game at Florida Gym. 5 on 5 full court as it always was. The play before I think that I stole the ball and passed down court for an easy deuce and just stayed back. Then the ball comes back to me full court and I get it near the low block on the left side of the lane, back to the basket with two defenders. I make a fake pass to a cutter down the lane (there was no cutter), both defenders bite and I spin to the basket for an easy lay-up. Then there were seven guys laughing their asses off at the other end of the court.
In addition to my great 8yr old hoops prowess, I played some pickup hoops in Denton, TX during my Master's degree. One night I got paired with a guy & his girl, both who were pretty good, and a dude who was built about like Charles Barkley. He was good too. The three of them were our team and I, otoh, pretty much dribbled the ball off my feet every time I got it. Well at game pt, Barkley goes up for an off-balance leaner to win it, I ran in anticipating the rebound, caught it mid air and laid it in for the win. That was my only point that night. Barkley almost fell over laughing.
My signature picture is Marshall Henderson taken when UF beat UCLA in the sweet 16 in Memphis the last time we went to the final four. My 15 year old son is standing next to him. We had nosebleed seats for the game initially, but I saw a row of seats about 4 rows off of the floor that were not occupied prior to start of the game. I told my wife and son to follow me and we walked straight down to the row like they were our seats and sat down. No one came and we were set to watch the game. Shortly thereafter, two young guys came and sat next to us. My son soon nudged me and said one was Marshall. We started talking and he said he was good friends with Michael Frazier and there to cheer the Gators on(and SEC). I asked him his future plans and he said he was going to play in Europe. I told him my son was playing JV basketball and did he have any pointers? He laughed and said “just shoot it!” He was very personable and not the dickhead he personified on the court. We saw him in the crowd two days later when we beat Dayton and he waved and said “hello.”
Basketball is by far the best sport....love the game. I built a legit half court in my yard during early covid era. I shoot nearly every day, and have friends over 2-4 times per month to play. I hit 22 FT's in a row last week....and 12-15 from 3 (HS distance) in a 3pt shoot-out, which is a record for me! I am an OK shooter - just got hot actually, and the wind speed was down. lol Sharing this incase anyone has guidance for this: Does anyone on this board have filmmaking/documentary experience? Working on a passion project....basketball related, of course. : )
I only played playground ball. I was ok, never great. In graduate school at UC Santa Barbara, some of the biology dudes got a weekly pickup game going. Compared to the rest of the biology grad students, I was pretty good. Eventually someone invited the geology grad students. Three dudes show up all 6’2”+ and even more athletic than me. One of them, Chris, played DII ball. I was not good compared to them. Eventually, people got bored of the game, so it would just me and Chris playing one on one every week. One day he was messing around shooting throws left handed. He hit like five in a row and said he couldn’t understand how some people can’t hit that shot. Anyway, I don’t think I ever won one of these 1-on-1 games against him, but they were not totally uncompetitive. One game, I am guarding him from the top of the key. I’m trying really hard to slow him down. He makes a move to my right, I barely stay with him, then he instantly rises up for what feels like a wide open midrange jumper while I’m almost horizontal unable to change stop my momentum. Swish. I am thinking, man, he can shoot wide open shots all day on me. And then he says, with a touch of exasperation, “Damn you are good defender!” And I thought, is that really how that play felt from your perspective??? Anyway, that was probably the highlight of my career, getting destroyed by a DII player, but at least making him settle for wide open 15 footers.
Played on a traveling all star team with Phil Weber in HS who later went to NC State and then became an Assistant Coach at UF during Sloan era. Another kid on this team was Todd Jamison who became the QB for St John’s U. Todd was short but could out jump 6’8” kids. Incredible athlete. Also played with Brett Bearup who went on to KY. Played some pickup games at UF with Phil, some UF players and had many a beer at CJs together back in the Ville.
I had the privilege to play on an intramural team at UF in the mid 80's that made it all the way to the Championship game where we lost to a team that had UF WR Dwayne Dixon on it. Their point guard was taller than our tallest player. We were winning at halftime but refs fouled out our leading 3 scorers in the second half so we could not keep up. One of the highlights that year for me was we got to play one of our games in the O'Dome and I scored 16 points that night which was a good game for me coming off the bench.
1977 or 78 - fraternity basketball -playing the frat that was loaded with football players. We played zone, they played man. The guy who defended me was Wes Chandler. He played 5 feet off me daring my team to pass me the ball. I never touched the ball. Superior athletes are from another planet.
I can’t think of any one game ( played tons of pickup), but in the early 80’s, those Friday games in Alligator Alley were epic. Fun to play in and if your team lost, still fun watching. There were a lot good players coming through there.
He was just a football player. I think you would have faked him right out of his socks and thrown it down.
Before I start, if I had to do it all over again, I probably would have but things worked out fine. Was recruited in high school, but since I graduated before 17.5 (unfortunate birthday and was a nerd) I should have transferred to the US and played in prep school to get recruited into a US school, but alas. Played a year of “university” CIAU in Canada, but at 18 thought after a childhood of sports it was time to focus on school and potential career. Apparently I was more mature at 18 than I am at 53, but I digress. Came to UF for my sophomore year at 18 in ‘89 and played intramural, eventually won the UF slam dunk 3 times, but before that some people told me I should try out for the Gators. So in the fall of ‘90, as a 19-year Junior 6’3 SG I thought I had a good chance, but back then it was a 3-hour open tryout with about 30 guys and only 1 spot. The first half of the tryout I played great, and all of Lon Kruger’s staff were talking to me and I thought I was a lock. Then when scrimmaged started it was a frantic pace, guys were dry-heaving. When the rest of our guys were subbed out they asked me to stay on and run the point. I was gassed and that wasn’t my position and it showed. My friends who attended said it was the worst they’d seen me play, but i got down to the final two - and they went with a 6’7 small forward. At 19 I said ok that’s my basketball career. I graduated at 21, went back to Vancouver and decided to play some semi-pro ball to pass the time while looking for work. I then got a job offer with an investment bank in Tokyo a little later and promised myself when I started work I would still play ball religiously. What a naive young man I was. I was working 14-hours a day, Tokyo style, but I was asked to play in the Nike 3 on 3 tournament. It was me and two Div-1 guys. We played against Japanese professionals, and won. Since they couldn’t have a white guy (me) and two black guys represent Japan, they didn’t send us to the Asian Games. So, at 24 and now deep into the unhealthy corporate lifestyle, that was the end of my basketball career as it were and the start of my nonstop work schedule and deteriorating hops. If I could have done it again like I said I might have, but for me sports were supposed to be fun, not a job…and the opportunities and path for a Canadian basketball player were a HELL of a lot different (see: virtually non-existent) than it is now. Anyway, that’s my story
