Confessions of a Basketball Junkie: Escape to Hoop Land

I was introduced to basketball in elementary school during recesses where just shooting the ball was a challenge. There were no rules. Everyone was out for themselves, and it was literally a free-for-all.

Then one year, I think it was my sixth, the school started having free throw contests and handing out 1st through 3rd ribbons which instantly became a status symbol at our school.

When I made 9 out of 10 free throws and won 1st Place, I knew that I'd be playing in the NBA someday. Flash forward... I didn't and never even came close. But I digress.

I didn't play basketball for my high school team. However, I played countless pickup games with friends at available outside basketball courts. My best friend Larry and I played a lot of 2 on 2 pickup games with total strangers.

Once, after dropping LSD (this is a true story), we played a pickup game in an inside basketball court open to the public in La Mirada, California. Our opponents (which we discovered part way into the competition) were off duty cops. They came out like two honey badgers clawing at the ball with a scary intensity which was magnified by tripping on LSD.

Afterwards we agreed that we won at least one game out of the half dozen we played. I think the reason the cops didn't bust us (have you ever seen anyone high on LSD? It's OBVIOUS) is that we provided them with good competition... and laughs. They sure smiled a lot.

Just before I got out of the Army in 1971, I played with the 5th Army 101st MPs, at Ft. MacArthur, California. 

The only other organized team I played with was in 1972 with a city league team (when I worked at Ford Motor Company) in Cleveland, Ohio. At six-feet, two-inches, I was the shortest guy on the team and the only white boy. I think they considered me a good luck mascot.

Fast forward through the decades as my body slowed down from countless pickup games, injuries, and other age related (can you say arthritis?) causes.

I was 67-years old (I'm going on 72) when I took my last shot (a ten-foot jumper) in my last pickup game at the Medford, Oregon YMCA.

What gets me through after being unable to actually play the game I love is I've been a LA Lakers fan for over 60 years. They still take me to a good place in Hoop Land... stirring old memories with the sheer exhilaration and appreciation for the game.