April 25th - Withdrawal; Crashin' Courts

What's up everyone? I've been deprived for awhile for ballin', but I finally got some time in today.

There's a park less than a half mile away, and there's a full basketball court that my crew and I found out had lowerable goals. So we walked there, eight of us, and saw two other people there that we knew.

It was me (MaTrix), Dubz, Zack Attack, Birdie, Phenom, Scarecrow, Prince James, and Reign Man. The other two that were already there were our friends Logan AKA The Punisher and Paul AKA Paul Wall (I might have mentioned him before). Five-on-five on a real court, complete with three-point lines, glass backboards, and enough room for all of us? Word.

So we shot up for captains. Punisher and I won and I got first pick.

Team Revolution
MaTrix
Phenom
Zack Attack
Reign Man
Prince James

Team DR
The Punisher
Dubz
Birdie
Scarecrow
Paul Wall

This was probably THE MOST official game our crew had run. We had a tip-off, we called some of our flagrant fouls, and it was just too cool. Hell, we called some people, and they called some people, and I think some of them even called some fuckin' people, and we had an audience. Somewhat. There were probably two dozen people standing around the court, which was all black-top and was just that: a court. There were no asphalt sidelines, just grass. So, they're standing just outside of our reach, while we're right in front of them, doing moves and stuff, trying to focus, and hearing cheers and applause right next to us, let alone the words flowing from the defense's mouth. It was awesome.

So, at tip-off, it was Reign Man and Scarecrow. Reign Man jumped WAY over 'Crow, and I got the ball. Keep in mind this is the VERY FIRST play of the game, okay? I approached the three-point line, and before anyone else even got set in their positions, I looked to my left, at Attack, and passed the ball up to the rim. Everyone, well, eight people, looked, and Phenom elevated to the rim and tomahawk dunked the ball right on top of Paul Wall.

A few possessions later, Scarecrow, who I've known for years, and has never really done anything too crazy on the rim, even 8-foot, stole the ball from Zack Attack while attack was trying to pull off the "Zack Attack of the Day", and ran up to the rim as fast as he could. Okay, he's about 5'10" or MAYBE even 6-foot, skinny, somewhat athletic, and kind of a goofy-looking body... tall and gangly, you might say... but LOOONG arms. So, off this fast break, he comes running up to the goal on the right side, jumps off two feet once he gets into the lane, does a 360 and dunks it with one hand, slamming on the rim, and pulling it a bit for effect. The crowd flipped. Hell, for a minute, a few people he was really good friends with ran onto the court and were congratulating him.

But some of the stuff done on that court the other day was completely insane. Like, off a fast break, I passed to someone (Mitch Coleman) standing behind the goal, and he passed it over the glass, and I jumped, did a 360, caught it, and slammed it with both hands. That was probably the single most crazy thing I've ever done in a game. EVERYONE rushed the court then.

Phenom had some nice moments, too. Okay, "nice" is an understatement. He did a between-the-legs off one fast break, a two-handed 360 IN TRAFFIC (again), and last, but certainly not least, he pulled off a 360 between-the-legs. Yes, my children, off a fast break, instead of just being aware of the ONE person on defense down there, he approached, jumped off both legs, spun, put it between his legs, and dunked it. Explosion. Like, you have never heard this much hometown love before. My GOD, it was insane. We had asked everyone to stay off the court for a bit, so we could keep the game going, but Reign Man damn near threw that out the window on that dunk. Everyone from Revolution AND Team DR picked him up and were like jumpin' around him.

So, we called 5 minutes so because it was about to become dark, so someone actually had a clock set and we used it as an official game clock. We were losing by one point, of course, with like fifteen seconds left. Zack Attack was guarding Birdie, and he got picked by Reign Man, so I took Birdie over. He's pretty short, and therefore, he's pretty fast, so I was trying to focus on his movements because fast, sporadic movements meant crossover. But he tried going behind my back, so I punched the ball out of his hands, and it flew out of his hands, behind him, and I approached. The crowd was counting down from 5, following Mitch Coleman's twin, Nick's, clock-watching. I heard them scream as I approached.

THREE
I bounced the ball off the glass when I reached the free-throw line.
TWO
I jumped as high as I could and grabbed the ball with one hand.
ONE
After I felt I had a comfortable grip on the ball, I slammed my arm down, and held on to the rim from my elbow.
ZERO
I dropped to the ground, and screamed, and EVERYONE, EVERY SINGLE DAMN PERSON, left the grass from where they were and ran up and were jumping all around me. The layers of the circle consisted of me, then my team immediately around me, then my friends, and everyone else... It was the greatest feeling in the world. Nobody noticed my arm was a bit bloody around the elbow from where I had broken a scab I had received from doing the exact same thing, but it was all good.

We had ended up winning 101-100. I scored 23 points, had 14 rebounds, 12 assists, 3 blocks, and 11 steals. For once, I did better than Phenom in statistics. He had 21 points, 10 rebounds, 16 dimes, 9 blocks, and 5 steals. I was "baller of the game" according to everyone else, but I tried to assure them that I couldn't have done it without everyone else.

So yeah, we plan on doing this more often, maybe even starting an impromptu "league".

THE REVOLUTION WILL RULE!!