Back on the Court

If you have been following the blog, you would remember the recent post concerning the particular shoes in the photo to the left.  Yep, those are the Nike Hyperdunks using Flywire material.  Nice.

So what are they doing on the blog again?  Well if you take a closer look, you will notice that they are on a basketball court.  In that is the story.

I used to be on the hardwood every Sunday morning and Wednesday as well. That was in the early ’90’s.  Then it became only on Sunday.  The Sunday league disbanded a few years ago.  I joined up for the local men’s league last year, but it did not get off the ground.

When Mark Turgeon (Maryland’s new basketball coach) was introduced at a press conference in May, I ran into a sportswriter for the Baltimore Sun who was in the Sunday league. He remembered me and said he had a game going on Mondays.  I thought that would be a good idea.

Then, in August I ran into a point guard that also played in the Sunday league and he now was in a game on Thursdays.

My kids are excited for me, they know I love to play.  In fact, they want to come watch.  Unfortunately, 8pm or 9pm pickup basketball games are tough to get to and always end to late.

I know it is silly, but I need to play.  I hate the running, my knees are terribly bad.  But I love to get out there.  I don’t need to compete like I was 25 years old, I just want to be able to play.

Even I am worried that I could get hurt, again.  Sure I have had a few ACL operations and a chip fracture of an ankle and broken nose and some other assorted basketball related injuries.

But what could go wrong?

So on Thursday evening, in the midst of a downpour, I headed to the local gym to restart my waning basketball life.  It is apparent to me that sooner or later it will be the last time I head to the court.  I think that everyone out there, all at least 40 years old (if not 50+) knows that we are on borrowed time.

I saw some guys that I had played with over 20 years ago. It was great to be back.  In fact, for the first 10 or 15 minutes I was effective.  But I am not in game shape. By the third round of games, I was dying.  I just did not have the endurance to be engaged in every time up and down the full court.

Tipping the scales at 235 lbs I was told that I “still had it” by my friend Alan, I just need to lose 20 lbs.  It is time to get going again.  Lose some weight and stretch out during the week.  I even called Don and confirmed the Monday night league.  So thanks to my friend Richard the attorney, Don the writer and Alan the chiropractor for getting me back into the game.

It was cute, the only thing the kids wanted to know is, did I get hurt?  Nope, not yet.