Monday, May 27, 2013
Spring 2013 - week 1
I got a big break in starting this league from East coach Roy Sackmaster. Roy was coming off neck surgery and not in shape, but he always wants to play, and he saw this as a chance to raise some money for his basketball program.
So we charged players $5 a week to play, with part of it going to Roy's basketball program, part going to running the league and the rest into a pot that players could win back by winning games. That's why you'll see a money amount next to each player's name.
So we charged players $5 a week to play, with part of it going to Roy's basketball program, part going to running the league and the rest into a pot that players could win back by winning games. That's why you'll see a money amount next to each player's name.
The idea behind the league
I have played pickup basketball for years, much of it at Loves Park City Hall. A few years ago, a new group of guys started playing including one who had been a 15 points-plus scorer in high school.
He carried himself with confidence and he talked a good game. But it seemed like whenever I was on his team we would lose. He'd come back to the sideline complaining about other players on the team not rebounding, or turning the ball over, or not playing defense ... or not getting him the ball enough.
Yet, it seemed like whenever I played against him my teams invariably won. He was easy to beat. All he really liked to do was shoot 25 foot 3-pointers. It didn't matter if it was a good shot or guarded or whether his team had a better matchup elsewhere. If he had the ball he was going to let it fly.
Every once in a while he'd get hot and his team would win. Usually, his lack of effort on the defensive end, his failure to move without the ball and his refusal to look for a better shot would be enough to cost his team the game if the teams were at all even.
In short, he was a loser. He was a losing basketball player.
In 2013, I started talking to some of my friends where I work about running a league. The major costs of a league are the gym and the refs. I thought of a league without refs -- sorry refs. We would handpick guys of an equal level of talent -- better than myself -- and play pickup ball each week. The difference is that I would keep track of who played on each team and which team won.
The idea was to figure which individual player -- not a team -- was the biggest winner.
He carried himself with confidence and he talked a good game. But it seemed like whenever I was on his team we would lose. He'd come back to the sideline complaining about other players on the team not rebounding, or turning the ball over, or not playing defense ... or not getting him the ball enough.
Yet, it seemed like whenever I played against him my teams invariably won. He was easy to beat. All he really liked to do was shoot 25 foot 3-pointers. It didn't matter if it was a good shot or guarded or whether his team had a better matchup elsewhere. If he had the ball he was going to let it fly.
Every once in a while he'd get hot and his team would win. Usually, his lack of effort on the defensive end, his failure to move without the ball and his refusal to look for a better shot would be enough to cost his team the game if the teams were at all even.
In short, he was a loser. He was a losing basketball player.
In 2013, I started talking to some of my friends where I work about running a league. The major costs of a league are the gym and the refs. I thought of a league without refs -- sorry refs. We would handpick guys of an equal level of talent -- better than myself -- and play pickup ball each week. The difference is that I would keep track of who played on each team and which team won.
The idea was to figure which individual player -- not a team -- was the biggest winner.
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