My parents didn’t allow extracurricular sports, so my only league was the driveway. I played every day though, and all day long on game days. I was big in middle school for my age (but never grew after that. The facial hair thing definitely applies) and that, plus my natural strength made my game best suited for power forward.

I played mostly a back to the basket, post up game. Lots of hooks, reverses and put backs. I was also good draining the three. I was a horrible ball handler though, and had no idea how to properly defend other than playing the passing lanes.

So I had to play PG. I couldn’t shoot but I could get into the lane and also defend pretty well. Then came about 10 years of nonstop soccer. Now 6’4 and lanky and have no skills, so I just flare out on the fast break and try and get dunks or alley-hoops. On defense I try and block everything. I’d liken my fast break game to Monta Ellis, my halfcourt offense to Tyson Chandler, and my defense to a way less quick Kirilenko.

but i have a knack at finding the ball. i rarely play in a pickup game at the gym, but i was proud to get 7 rebs once against some MHCC guys. granted i’m not skilled at all.

But guarded the other teams best player regardless of their position. Unless they were tiny uber fast guys.

You were the only girl in your middle school class? It all makes sense now….

i was a 4/3 i was(and still am) pretty average height so for my size i should have been a 3 but i am not skilled enough to play the 3(terrible handles, slow and literally a knuckleball shot until recently) so i had to play more 4. which was fine for me because i preferred to play defense and just kinda get scrap shots and for my size a was a pretty solid rebounder and i had no trouble guarding bigger players(because once again i was slow for my size).

Until 8th grade when my team was so collectively bad and short that i had to play point-center and my coach was young so he let us do anything and i got about 11pts, 8rbs, 4 assists, and about .8 blocks(some would call that my contract year) while shooting about 35% from the field and probably 20% from three, but we finished 4-3 all thanks to my lucky underwear and sock(we went 4-0 when i started wearing them).

so i started out as matt harpring and turned into a brad miller/sebastian telfair hybrid(i know sounds terrible and for the most part it was)

Always point guard. Even playing today in pickup games, I like having my team run offensive sets and organized defense.

Essentially, I was a poor man’s Ben Gordon that played PG for some reason when I probably should have been off the ball.

Center. Everytime. My HS point guard and I used to run the UI courts at U of O in three-on-three, regularly beating the football players. The key was our third guy, a rich jewish pot dealer with deceptive range. No one saw us coming. Ben, Bo, and Barz aka The Killer Bee’s.

In pickup games I alternate between point-forward and post. In more organized tournaments with taller/skilled players I would be a small forward.

I got cut as a freshman & then grew 7 inches before my sophmore year. Never went back out for the team, but started playing city league at age 20.

Now that I’m 30 I am developing my “old man” game and basically becoming a mean, efficient player.

So i was a versatile player playing G/F/C—everything except the point. I was the 6th man for my high school team for two consecutive years. I averaged 2 points a game while shooting 50% from the floor (i was not part of the offense at all in case you haven’t noticed). I was roughly a 75-80% free throw shooter over the two years. I was the defensive specialist against any of the opposing 5—quick enough to guard small players and heavy enough to hold my ground in the post. Averaged 6 assists, 8 rebounds, 7 steals, and a block a game in about 20 minutes of action. I was also the designated half-court chucker to end the quarters. Won defensive player of the year for 2 years in a row. Fun stuff playing basketball in China where being 5’10 is considered decently tall…

Does anyone else find hypocrisy hilarious?

Via SS&R:

2nd half was hard fought, and the final quarter was defined by missed Laker free throws and referees playing a PROMINENT role in the final outcome. Neither side of the coin can argue with that statement. I’m sure you know my opinions on the matter.

Just weeks ago, Josh, the head honcho over there, claimed that Laker fans were superior to all other fans because they refuse to ever blame officiating.

For OCHS girls team back in 1988-89. Had do do it with really low quality video tapes, and on paper—our Atari 800 didn’t have adequate software for that sort of stuff, and my programming skills weren’t yet up to part to write it.

And no—it didn’t get me any dates. :)

Under 6 foot with handles so I get pigeon holed into a PG. I like distributing the ball and breaking down the defense so I’m not complaining. I’m a gametime shooter meaning I tend to miss my shots during warm ups, but when its time to play, I make them when it counts. I have a quick release so I can shoot off the dribble, step back, or fadeaway, but I’m most accurate as a set shooter.

I don’t have a big build so I don’t drive all the way in. I do have a decent runner and teardrop. I like to focus on mismatches and getting the ball to my teammates in the right spots. Sometimes I lose my mental focus when the game isn’t going my way and I start to play nonchalantly.

My man-to-man defense is pretty shaky as I’m usually flat footed and don’t play physical. I have long arms so I get my hands on the ball quite a bit. Love my long arms. People often describe my playing style as cagey.

If my defender starts to play physical against then that’s the start of my colossal failure. =(

but in high school i played city league with a bunch of friends and we had seven point guards, one forward and one center, so at times we had five people waiting for an inbounds pass and no one to throw it in. so i moved myself to more of a forward. at 5’2’’ or 5’’2’. i think the first one is correct.
i gotted good at tipping the rebounds from their other fools. also, i am not really that short.

I can’t remember what position I played.

6’10" if you count the ’fro.

talk trash
one game i got a kid to just loose it and get ejected in grade school just by sayin’ like a yo momma joke.
Anyone got some awesome trash talkin’ stories?

but I only played soccer.

Organized basketball: shooting guard even though I’m probably not tall enough (6’1") because I don’t have the handles to play point.

Pick up (which is what I play now): A little bit of everything. The talent level where I play both varies wildly but also doesn’t get that good. I suppose the best way to describe me is a jack of all trades, but master of none. I shoot, pass, hustle, defend and rebound pretty well, but I don’t do any one thing great. I suppose I’m a glue guy.

I coached one year of 6th grade basketball . My players were considered the “C” team. As in “c” if you can teach these kids how to dribble and shoot. A couple of kids didn’t have the strength to toss the ball near the hoop outside of 5 feet.

My team went 0-11, 1-10….the other team didn’t show up one game resulting in a automatic forfeit win. The proudest moment for me as a coach was when our team was getting our butt kicked by another school about 50x the size of my players. The opposing coach offered to transfer a couple of the 12 players on their roster to our team at halftime to keep it competitive. Seeing as how our team had only 5 players dressed, I took the idea to my players. They adamantly refused to concede the game and wanted to play together as a team.

Riding this camaraderie spirit, we made up the 25 point halftime deficit and won the game on a last second rebound put back. At least, that’s how it plays in my mind. Unfortunately, what really happened was that my team lost the game by 30 points. But hey, I’m proud of the fact my team came together and didn’t quit.

I really shouldn’t have ran that flex offense. It was way too complicated for the kids to execute. Don’t look at me that way, it was my first time coaching. Next time, I’ll do better!

on my first high school team, when i played varsity my frosh and soph years, i was just a sniper. I was James jones. Shooting guard.

Junior year i didn’t play…too busy with other stuff.

Senior year i was iverson in philly without eric snow….I brought the ball up most of the time and shot it like nobody’s business. It wasn’t that fun, honestly, but we had NO other players. I was on a sucktastic team with clueless frosh. My best game was 35 points in 32 minutes, but I probably took 50 or 60 percent of the shots that game.

Now a days, i scrimmage with the college team girls. I’m a steve blake kind of guy. I bring it up and pass it off….occasionally take it to the hole but usually settle for open threes or a pass.

wait… what kind of position do you mean?

Posting up shorter players and driving around or shooting in front of bigger players. My strength on the court is defense and rebounding though. I am a terror on the blacktop in a bigger team game, but can’t handle worth a crap and get schooled in 1 one 1, or even 2 on 2 sometimes, depending on how much I’ve been practicing my handles lately.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=watch-out-hawaii-veggies-may-harbor-2009-01-08

Mmm rat lungworm.

For a dude who sits at his laptop all day, I used to be pretty athletic.

I could dunk in 8th grade. I had a 37 inch vertical as a 13 year old, and could dunk two handed back then. You weren’t allowed to dunk in games in 8th grade, but I had two rebound dunks which were cool but got us technicals.

My dad was the coach in middle school, but he didn’t take it serious, and unlike the other coaches he followed the rules of having to play everyone their required quarter. He also didn’t play favoritism for me, which was good. I hate when coaches do that. He yelled at me when I took jumpers, so I didn’t.

I played SF, but I was stronger than most kids my age naturally, so I guarded post players. I also posted up a lot, because I love posting up. I got big legs, so I could put my butt into ’em and pump fake. I mainly slashed along the baseline and used my hangtime to put the ball in from either side of the hoop.

I wasn’t a SELFISH player, but I was a dumb player who really, really, really cared about stats. I’d take the stat pages home and obssessively keep track of everyone’s stats. I can’t remember what our W-L record was in 8th grade, but I averaged 17.3 points and 15.6 rebounds a game.

I played throughout high school, and my basketball coach hated me for various dumb reasons. I started and played enough, but it wasn’t a good situation. I focused more on football (runnin’ back) and baseball (centerfield), and had a scholarship to play both at a horrible school. I didn’t take it, much to my parent’s chagrine, and focused on what I wanted to do for a career at school instead (I wouldn’t have played football if I went since I hated playing football, and while I was a good high school baseball player I wasn’t anywhere close to being good enough or dedicated enough to go anywhere with it, and practicing 4 hours a day for something I was bored with and didn’t have a real future in didn’t appeal to me).

Nowadays, I am way out of shape, but can still hang on the rim. I can’t dunk last time I tried. A few injuries have slowed me down laterally. My back is in bad shape. I’m a much smarter player now who relies more on tricks and veteran guile over athleticism. I also have athletic asthma that bugged me even when I was in perfect shape, and really bugs me now since I am a fat cow.

I post up everyone and Kevin McHale ‘em, though I’m only 6’1". I got a nice jumper from all over. Everything always feels off compared to how it used to be, but that’s part of getting old and fat.

I haven’t played a super competitive game in a looooooong time though, and I bet I’d be pretty awful in a real game against people who play regularly.

Sports was a big part of growing up, though I didn’t start playing anything aside from soccer until 6th grade, and I only started playing sports to make friends. It didn’t make me any friends (everyone hated me), but I was good and it made me wish I was pushed into it at an earlier age (something a lot of kids feel the opposite of). I will sign my own kids up early, but if they don’t like it I won’t force it on ’em.

I plan on coaching baseball and basketball for my kids, but I will discourage them from playing football. My hip, back, and leg still hurt from it, and it did me no good. If they really wanna, fine… I got an uncle who was an NFL All Pro tight end in the 70’s, and my wife’s dad had a football scholarship to a real football school (also a running back), so the kids will likely have the body for it. I’ll steer ’em more towards baseball if they wanna play past high school though…

Or hope they can be smarter than I was as a kid with basketball, and be a PG.

I will push the boys and girls into the sports of their choice equally. The lovely Mortimer ladies will be good volleyball and tennis players. I wish I had access to men’s volleyball back in the day; I would have greatly preferred that to football.

Mortimer

i give you Norks, Morty, and Prez.

Give me just TiH and we can school you folks.

and when we win, we gonna shout “men rules!”

not a good shooter, but relentlessly attacking the hoop

Luckily my car is not outside, and I could protect most windows

Its one of those issues I can’t get over. I was point guard at the time because I was short with bird legs. So during this one game, the opposing team starts their offense at the high corner post with a pass to the SF. I wasn’t too concerned about my guy so I went and double teamed the ball. The guy would panic and start rotating looking for someone to jettison the ball too, and in doing so would turn into me as I clamped down. Three straight times this happened, he elbowed me while turning and the last time knocking me down with a shoulder blow. Three straight times the ref called the foul on me. After the third call, I lost it. The ref told me to calm down, and said I was setting a blind screen. When I told him he shouldn’t be reffing the game if he didn’t know what a double-team was I got T’d and coach sat me most of the game. When I did get in late, the same thing happened as before, and the ref called a foul on the other guy for elbowing me. I clapped and said good call or somthing as smart alecky and the ref warned me quite sternly. Coach took me out and questioned my attitude. I still feel justified.

on FD/DoC podcast around 54:00-55:00

I was a PF/C. When I play with good ball handlers I’m a Pachulia type player, scrappy, don’t shoot that much, just try to clean the glass and set solid picks for the best players. My favorite is getting the ball in the high post when I’m playing with a bunch of good cutters, I love making assists out of the high post. When I’m the best ball handler on my team, I’m a Turkalu wannabe—-Drive and dish, often with my head down too much—-but with more mid range attempts. I’ve gotten better in the last year at shooting, my form is pretty good, I’m getting better at coming off screens and not hesitating to take mid range shots, still not very accurate. I have long arms which work better for steals than blocks for some reason, generally though, I don’t gamble that much on D and just try to play good Joel-the-red-ass-strait-up-D as much as possible.

http://slamonline.com/online/nba/2009/05/rest-in-peace-wayman-tisdale/

Dude, we could have Etan as a bad contract from Washington in a deal for their #5 pick according to Hollinger? Where do I sign?

In high school I blossomed to a whopping 6’3 by my Sophomore year but only weighed 135! Obviously I earned my nickname of “stickman”. By my senior year, same height and had ballooned to 160. I wish they had PED’s when I was that age………

Best memory was getting slammed on by AC Green but the next trip getting an offensive rebound and sticking it back in the bucket while he was in the general area (I don’t want to say over him, because I couldn’t have got over him!).

Mail bag

Q: My friends and I were tossing some of these around and we wondered where you would put your cash and if you had some other interesting ones for us.

6. Greg Oden … Over/Under 2.5 All-Star Games

BS

6. Greg Oden … Over/Under 2.5 All-Star Games

Under. You could have given me 0.5 and I would have gone under. In the 2009 playoffs, he finished with 96 minutes, 30 points, 26 rebounds and 27 fouls. Under. Six feet under.

 2005/2006
 Age: 14/15
 League: U16 National League South
 Position: 4/5

 2006/2007
 Age: 15/16
 League: Under 16 National League South, Under 18 National Premier League South
 Position: 1/3/4/5
 Extra: My team went to a European Tournament in Belgium playing against Belgian, French, Czech and German teams. Won MVP in our finals game playing Point Guard.

 2007/2008
 Age: 16/17
 League: U18 National Premier League South
 Position: 1/3/4

 2008/2009
 Age: 17/18
 League: U18 National Premier League South
 Position: 1/3/4/5
 Extra: Current season, cut incredibly short by major knee injury. Played one game as captain at the 5 and 3 spot but my role this season was also going to be main ball handler. Sad times. Started out great too, 16 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block.
 

I played hoops for the school program through 6th grade. Then was the last player cut for the 7th grade team. So, it was intramurals and city league for me from then on.

My proudest moment on the court? I had the chance to visit the Soviet Union in the summer of 1987 (the summer after I graduated from college) along with a dozen other college students. While in Kiev, we met some young soldiers who invited they guys from our touring group to play them and the other members of their military team in a game of basketball. We played in their gym and their coach was the referee. The US beat the Soviets – in overtime, no less – by a score of 101 to 99.

I have never shot the ball so well in my life. I was 11 of 13 from the field and 2 for 2 from the line. It’s good to know that when my country needed me most, I didn’t choke.

Growth spurt in elementary school, so in organized ball I played PF, learned the low block, focused on defense and my hook shot (and my swag).

Stopped growing, though. Bad news. I had no range and no handle. An awesome combination for a short player.

Coaches kept me in the starting lineup through HS because I generated steals, blocks, and messed-up faces, but I can’t help but feel that having a SG who couldn’t dribble or shoot (except to try and post up defenders from about twenty-five feet out and back them into the lane—ridiculous) probably cost my team a few games.

Now in pick-up I focus hard on improving my shooting. Playing with guys it’s always nice to let them think they can not guard you and punish them with threes and incessant emasculating trash talk.

On top

I was taller than most of the kids, especially in eighth and ninth grade. I had a devastating turnaround jumper at the baseline that the other kids could not block. I liked defending close to the hoop better than out on the perimeter – my footwork was not that good. I got to where I could hit some pretty long jumpers. My handles were never really good enough.

By tenth grade, hoops was getting in the way of playing music and singing, plus I developed a bad habit that affected my wind. I tried out for junior varsity but couldn’t keep up – I was too slow and too winded. – Not Elgin

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/237/story/738988.html

I am 6’4" (6’7" wing span) and I was a good leaper, but I never had quick feet. I had a good mid range game, and was good when I could spot up. I could shoot the three, but the coach always wanted me under the basket so the 5’7" guards could plink away. I had a hard time driving around people, so I did a lot of stop n’ pop. I rebounded well by using good positioning, and I also have pretty large hands (helped with rebounding and ball handling). I was also a cross country runner, so I had good stamina for casing people around for full court pressure. I’m left handed so I used to get called for traveling once in a while, I think because I would take off from the opposite leg that the ref was used to seeing people take off from. I could hit free throws well. I was a good shot blocker. I really enjoyed playing street ball the best because you could do a little more fouling (that went both ways, I think I only called one foul, because my mouth was bleeding). I used to get taller players very angry because I had a pretty nice hook shot. They don’t like the old school stuff.

think sub 5’ till a junior in HS… then I started growing… 6’ by my second year of college, so either coordination or height was lacking during those major play for the school years. I stepped up my game in college, played alot of pick-up, got good enough to run with some of the scholarship kids…

My late blooming status means I play the 1/2

And my sister hooked up with a guy who was 5 inchs taller,5 tears older and had played a year at UCLA.A year later I was a pretty good rebounder and defender and since both my brothers were good jump shooters I was a low post guy.I would have played on a city championship team in HS but I quit organized sports in the 11th grade because it was cuting into my surfing, I played city leagues and pick up into my 40’s

I just remember running around after the ball all the time kinda lika a rugby scrum!

I was a C/F on the C-squad for my first 2 years in high school. Tall and skinny with only a jump hook from the post, no dribbling skills. I could rebound and block shots but was easily shoved around.

Then I grew 5 inches over the summer to 6’ 6" to my junior year but still weighed about a buck-fifty soaking wet (the notorious late bloomer). Now I was even more uncoordinated with better height. Senior season was the same except the coach cut all the rest of the seniors except me and another dude who was 6’8". He broke his hand a month into the season and I was stuck back at C. My offense was still pretty pathetic given my lack of coordination and dribbling. I once had a 21 pt 17 rbd game but I was also know for dribbling the ball off my foot on wide open dunking opportunities on fast breaks.

I sort of bloomed in college. Finally had some coordination but still no body mass. Since I was a 7’+ high jumper through college my forte was really just that…Athletic freak with little skill. I red-shirted my freshmen year but ended up competing only in high jump. Played most rec ball and city league as a C/PF cuz of my height but really shined when I could play SF. I had a wicked quick and long 1st step and could jump out the gym. Still hard to finish sometimes when you only weigh 180 lbs. though. Fast breaks, mid range jumpers, rebounds, and blocked shots.

I can remember playing against Duckworth and his crew up a Clark Community College once in a while. Also played against Damon Stoudemire down at Sports Nation before it became Club Sport and everyone left.

The Blazers actually sparked my interest in the sport. I played a little city league in Bend but mostly just pickup games. No real position, since most of the guys I played with were all about the same skill level and height. There was one guy in my church crowd who was 6’10". We were always trying to get him to dunk, but he wouldn’t do it.

My best moment was one game where I was totally in The Zone. I was channeling Steve Nash before he was even born. It was like everyone else was in slow-mo. I hit every shot, made incredible passes, stole the ball… What was really cool was how my teammates responded intuitively to what I was doing, as if we were reading each other’s mind.

I’m 6’2, which is tall enough in most rec leagues and I’m also long and lanky, so people aren’t ready for the extra reach.

Not terribly athletic, but high basketball IQ allowed me to rack up the blocks and rebounds.

Career moment was getting 12 points, 16 rebounds, and 11 blocks in a rec league game. The other team had this like 5’4 PG who just lowered his head and went to the hoop to toss it up. After getting one foul called on me I told the ref I was going to let him go by me and block him from behind. The ref paid attention to this and I spent most of the game blocking the moron. (What’s awesome is that this was the only rec team I played on the kept stats, so I got to know for sure that I got my TD.)

yeesh im soo tired

I met my now-wife 6 years ago today, over in Paris, France.

Haha, I remembered it before she did. I get to hold it over her.

MEFTW.

Mortimer