Taking the boys to school

I LOVE playing pickup basketball with boys at the gym. This is how it goes down (based on my experience last Friday which is exemplary): I'm shooting hoops by myself, working on some moves, shooting, dribbling it up and down the court, and then some guys come in and start shooting around on the other side. More guys keep trickling in until there's 7 or 9 and they realize they need another player. A couple of them will start to casually watch me shoot around, draining threes and pull-up jumpers of course, and then they decide that I seem to be able to play and they ask if I'd like to join. I used to decline and continue on with my shooting, but lately I've been saying yes and it's been a lot of fun. We shoot for teams and everyone is amazed when I make the shot and get on the team with the "good guys" and heckle their friends a little bit because a girl beat them out. Oh guys, this is only the beginning.

Then we start to play and I kind of just run along, play some defense, run the floor and make some good passes to start. My defender always sags off of me at the beginning because they think there's absolutely no way I will shoot it. Little do they know. About the third time down the court I catch the ball on the wing, pull through, and notice my defender is yet again three feet off of me. I pretend to look for an open man, square up and let her fly. Swish. My teammates are all AMAZED that a girl can make a shot (with a guy's ball mind you) and congratulate me a little too much. As the game went on I ended up stealing the ball from the guy I was guarding (same guy that was guarding me) in the open court and taking it down for a layup, BLOCKING HIM when he drove to the basket (man did he get heckled for that one), posting him up and hitting a right-hand hook, and shooting a couple more threes in his eye. Poor guy.

Afterward when we were getting water, everyone was introducing themselves and one guy asked if I was on the women's basketball team. Then the guy who guarded me responded: Yeah you crushed my hopes of ever playing division 1 women's basketball! It was so funny and he was such a good sport about it. Although I enjoy schooling boys on the court, I would enjoy it even more if pickup led to some off-court hanging out...basketball players are cute! Hopefully my mad skills won't drive them away. Maybe I should take it easy on them...