Anytime, anywhere… basketball. This is how I was as a kid; this is how my kid is now. This makes me smile.
I remember as a kid, every time I passed under a doorway in my house, I jumped up to smack it; my brother did the same. We would go around all day long, every day, doing the same thing… like we were dunking a basketball. I remember when we would have balloons for a party or something; we would use those balloons for a basketball, trying to get them to settle on top of the lamp shade in my front room; you had to have good touch. Of course, the real basketball battles began once we put the Nerf hoop upstairs where my grandmother lived. Ooohh man… those were some good, good times. Sometimes my sister would join in, but mostly my brother and I back and forth… playing with different NBA guys & teams, college teams during the Madness… a whole lot of fun. During the summer, we would setup a crate in the backyard against our fence, and use that as a basket; just in case we didn’t want to walk over to the park, and just stay in the backyard for our basketball fix. Growing up in the late 80s/90s in Chicago certainly couldn’t have hurt. We also had this VCR tape, NBA Superstars… man, that was some good stuff. We’d watch that, then go play; we’d be all pumped up. We played and played and played… even when we got older, whether it was in a work basketball league, or on the new Nerf court, in our apartment. Hell yeah we setup another hoop; those games would get crazy. Since we gathered there for pre-gaming before we’d go out, all the guys would get into it; I remember once, my buddy scratched me across the face… I had to go out with a big old scratch on my face that evening. It would get intense. And now, I’m going back through it all…
Now, it’s basement basketball. My son and I… could play all day long on our basketball hoop in the basement. Our games of 1 on 1 (which have technically been banned by my wife since our injuries…) and our games of H.O.R.S.E. are super fun. Sometimes we’ll just shoot around, trying to make so many in a row. Lately, we’ve picked up on the NBA playoff matchups, choosing two guys from each team to be; we just kind of flow with it… playing on the same team, switching to against each other… keeping score, all the way until the end of the 4th quarter and/or OT. Of course, we did get something for when it’s nice out. Yeah, it was worth the investment, to be able to roll out a full size hoop and set it up in the alley to get our hoops in. We’ve been out once so far this year… many more times to come. And yes, as my son walks through the house, he too jumps up, hitting the doorways at each turn; he ghost dribbles the basketball, making his moves. I see in him, exactly how my brother and I were growing up. Like I said, it makes me smile.
It’s the little things like this that I’m really cherishing; it’s these things that are helping me right now… I’ll take any and all the support/help I can right now. For someone who hates to ask for help… Anyways, yeah, looking forward to the next matchup; we already did Knicks Pacers and Thunder Mavs. Game on!
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