Korner Talk

Starting May 12th, yours truly will be balling it up with the best of the best bball players NOC has to offer. Correction, I will be getting trampled by the best of the best bball players NOC has to offer. When my coworker asked me to play bball in the NOC league, little did I know that he would sign us up for the A league, which is supposed to be the top dog league. If A league is stacked with any of those guys that destroyed us last year in the 3 v 3 tourney,  I’m guaranteeing that I’ll be retiring from bball shortly after our first game.

That being said, I’m still getting myself ready for the season so I can avoid posterization. I’ve started doing some light bball workouts and endurance training. Just for kicks, I went onto youtube to look for bball drills and I came across these videos by Jason Otter. He runs a clinic for pt guards where he teaches fundamentals of good pt guarding, as well as flashier things like killer cross overs. Here’s a clip of him teaching the cross over.

1-2-3 boom boom! haha, too funny….

This reminded me of how I use to practice bball when I was a kid. Without the benefit of Jason Otter and youtube back in the day, my dad was the only bball “tutor” I had. I remember throwing my Kevin McHale basketball against the house this one summer afternoon because I was bored and my dad came outside to yell at me. After a good 15 minutes of hearing him say, “Stop throwing the ball against the house unless you’re going to paint the entire house”, he told me to go practice dribbling out on the driveway. He’d come out every couple of minutes to make sure that I wasn’t destroying the walls and then he’d start preaching about how great basketball players such as Magic were great dribblers and that I should learn to dribble just like them. I thought that my dad was just being annoying, but his insistence on having me practice dribbling has made me a better ball handler…… OK at least I don’t carry over or travel.

Otter’s videos also reminded me of how I use to practice shooting as a kid. The park at the time didn’t have bball hoops so I improvised a recycle bin setup in the driveway. I’d stack the patio chairs together and put the blue aluminum recycle bin container on top. I tried to get Tiff to play but she was grossed out by how sticky the basketball was after every shot. My mom eventually felt sorry for me and made my dad buy a mini bball court. That mini bball court was the best thing ever because everything was scaled down just perfectly so that I could dunk. Sadly, I eventually outgrew that setup and had to play on a real court where I could only dunk in my dreams.

My hopes aren’t high for playing well in the bball league, but I’m excited to get out on the court. At least I’ll get some excercise in, even if it means getting a size 14 imprinted on my back. Wish me luck.