Friday Friday Friday or Things That Drive me Crazy

This is pretty long, so sorry in advance, hope its at least worth your read....

Intro

So I should start by apologizing about the lateness of this post, I had it all planned out since friday, but because of a hectic week with little sleep, I am only now getting the chance to blog about a very enjoyable series of games played last friday within my family involving my cousins and my step(??) Cousins (??).

First lest me talk a little about the awesome park that was pretty ideal for anything you would ever want to do. There were two full courts, both courts looked newly set up and were sort of off by their lonesome to the side. There are lights that surround the park with one light pole containing a switch that activates the lights (free of charge) and the lights then run for about I want to say 45 minutes before they shut down. After they shut down they remain off for about 15 minutes before they can be turned on again (but as zohaib showed us, by pressing the button while the lights are counting down to shut off you can restart the timer hence no shut off time).

The courts are pretty nice with decent sized rims (its always hard to gauge if they are official ten feet, and id say they were definetly shorter, but still above the 9 foot range) the only drawback to the rims might be the revered double rims, but it wasnt as bad as some other double rims ive played with in the past (the ones that shake so hard after every hit that the vibration forces all shots out) The court seemed about regulation size, which is always kind of large looking when you are at one of these outdoor parks. Despite the nice design and the obvious attraction (there are two softball fields, a very large soccer/football field and a skatepark within this park area) the basketball hoops were left alone.

Overall its a nice park, and I'm sorta dissapointed that we just discovered it now, since it would have been an awesome place to play every friday. Oh well, always next year i guess.

The Teams:

This was a game played in schaumburg and it was pretty much inter-family i suppose. It featured my rarely seen Step(??) Cousins (??)** and my immediate family sans my brother. Really not knowing each others talents, we made teams via the classic "shoot for teams" for a 4 on 4 game, first 4 to make a shot are on a team

For future reference, i am never a fan of this way of choosing teams, mainly since doing this often pits the 4 best players against the 4 worst players and turns matches into a david vs goliath match. Usually.... In terms of shooting for teams, its always better to alternate after shots (so the first person to make is on one team, the second person to make a shot is on another, the third person to make a shot joins the 1st player...etc.)

After the shootout the teams were this

Niyaab B*
Sharim B*
Naveel
Shonnie*

(apologies for the mispelling of any and all names)

vs

Myself
Mustafa (i believe that was his name)
Shazil
Atiq b.

*New Players added to the scouting report page...check it out!

The Games:

Usually I like to give play by plays of what went on in the games, but its sort of hard to do here for several reasons. The main being the ammount of time that has passed has already altered my memory of exact moments of the game. Sure i remember certain plays, but I couldnt tell you which game alot of them happened in, nor could i tell you what happened before and after those plays. So instead I will remark on my observations and my top 5 memorable plays from the game.

The games were fun though, even if i cant remember all of the happenings, i do know that i enjoyed the games and the teams. We played 5 games, in which my team won the first, third, and fourth. I think this was a pretty big deal for me, because it really did start off looking like the teams were onesided and that a change in team would eventually be in order. I think this observation also is what indirectly triggered the results, I will get into this a bit later.

I do remember a few things about the games so here they are

Game 1
-We were down huge to start the game, something to the tune of down 3-11
-Shazil had our first 3 points, and then went on to have pretty much every other point after that. Especially when the score was 3-11..he just seemed to snap.
-Shazil also had the most rebounds...for EITHER team. Even if the other team got a rebound, it was after shazil at least got his hand on the ball.
-Niyaab started the game with a jumper and a bunch of good looks, and then delagated to just passing and not moving on either end of the court. Im definetly gonna get into this later.
-I hit the game winner...and it was pretty nice, since it left people shaking their heads.

Game 2
-Shazil started off hot in the begining, and was just as unstoppable as he was in game 1....until he got injured.
-It was essentially the opposite of game 1, we got the early lead, and then lost the game with it.
-Niyaab played in this game. He hit some jumpers, some key 3s. Actually a lot of their players hit some jumpers, naveel, and niyaab being the main culprits, but shonnie had one as well and sharim b had some midrange jumpers.

Game 3
-This was probably the most competetive of the games, and closest.
-Shazil played hard in this game, and was a big factor, but was severely limited by his injury (which eventually became a reinjury since he twisted his ankle a second time).
-I started this game a bit more aggressive scoring, i scored 7 points total, a layup off a nice screen by shazil, two turnarounds in the left baseline post. A walk up 2pt shot mid game, and a game winning 2 off a litle give n go from Mustafa.

Game 4
-I dont remember much about this game, it started off competetive, but zohaib showed up in the middle of the game, he played for shannie and that team got so lax near the end that they gave away the game.
-Key moment was atiq hitting a step back jumper over shannie before he sat out.

Game 5
-They gave us naveel and took mustafa back
-They beat us pretty handidly in this game.
-I felt Niyaab played his most in this game, he actually jumped on some of his jumpers
-Sharim b. did what the most damage in this game i thought. He got rebounds, made drives and passes, and set tons of screens.

David tried vs Goliath

As I stated, the games really started off with a preconcieved notion of it being one sided. I think had Niyaab played like he did in the last game in all the games they would have dominated us every time. On a personal level, that sort of bothers me...but only on a personal level. On a team level, all i can say is...we won the series!

I guess thats the way it should always be looked at...in the playoffs lebron cant walk away from the mavs and say "well yea i wasnt trying in this pivotal game 5" cuz if he did everyone on the mavericks would be like "yea? whatever loser" because in the end of the game, it doesnt matter where the best player is, it doesnt matter who the best team on paper is, it comes down to who won. Even though these are only pickup games, they still leave a horrid taste in ones mouth when you lose (ask naveel) and a feeling of electricity when you win. So while i do get that Niyaab was seriously holding back, and that he might easily be the second best player I have ever had the opportunity to play against, in the end I cant let that idea, from a team standpoint get in the way of the team victories we had. On a personal note however....

MY RANT

So atiq b compared me to an anime character in this regard...and i wouldnt be surprised if at some point of my life I gained this personality flaw from an Anime. But I was bothered by Niyaab b. holding back. It might have been 10 years ago when i had learned that Niyaab b. played basketball in high school, supposedly even had trophies. We met a couple times around basketball courts, but they were always brief and we never actually had a chance to play. I always figured he was better than me, simply because he was on a team, but I always wanted to know how much. Maybe its just I have a competetive spirit in that regard, or maybe because most of this last decade of mine has been devoted to getting better in the game of basketball. So when naveel told me that Sharim B. might invite Niyaab B. as well to play basketball, i kinda got pumped up.

And then he held back...

This of course isnt the first time he has, we once played against each other (team games) at a lifteime, however that day was just so lax that I never tried to read into how much he was trying against me. Even further, i dont think i was half the player i am now, at that time.

This time however i felt should have been different. There were no little kids, no time periods, and furthermore alot of the strangeness of us all playing together (its never been a normal occurance for us to meet so much as play basketball)so i expected a bit of a serious game.

And he held back...

Maybe it did make the games more fun, more competetive, because him playing his best might have made everything all one sided...maybe...

It bothered me though, since his first no jump jump-shot I was bothered. When he switched off of me to guard shazil (and then proceeded to not jump or move then) it bothered me. I can get his motives, it makes sense to me...really. Still...it bothered me.

I pride myself on my defense, I love testing my mind and my abilities to pick up player tendencies and weaknesses. Maybe I couldnt keep up with Niyaabs B's best, but Id like to see how far that gap between skills truly was...and I wasnt able to.

Sure i know hes way better than me, more than i had expected, but I still dont know where he stacks up in terms of all the people ive played, especially Jesus, who is still the best basketball player I have ever had the pleasure of playing with and against (and im speaking in terms of skill alone)

To me Niyaab B holding back was like me being babied, insulted even. Like i wasnt good enough to keep up with his best so he had to handicap me, it sort of felt pitiful. The worst part about all this might have been it made it even harder for me to keep my head in the game. I couldnt get excited by any of my own shots or scores, or any of his misses or passing blunders because i kept wondering how much he was still holding back.

While i always stress the accomplishment of team over individual, this was one of those instances where, despite being happy for winning the series and especially shazils play, i felt empty regarding my own.

Im a weird guy in that regard, but still Id like to make this statement if Niyaab B. is reading.... PLAY YOUR BEST FROM NOW ON, even if you are rusty and your best isnt your prime best, at least Jump when you shoot a jumpshot!
End Rant....


The Player of the Day:

Shazil

Let me start by calling out who was the player of the day, Shazil. I always have wanted to find a way to keep stats of games, but obviously I cant, still...i have no question that shazil had a double double in our first game. Think about that...a double double...in a half court pickup game until 15....thats insane! And insane is exactly how i would describe shazils game, especially in the first game.

Shazil always shows flashes of having real good natural skills, but he never seems to sustain or work on it much. As a constant joke I often call shazil Bosh, and Friday he reminded me of Bosh (the good one, not the one that goes 1/18)

Shazil got every rebound (this is almost literal) and especially in the first game, had almost every point. He even hit some bosh like mid range jumpers which was pretty awesome.

If shazil could learn to sustain that level of play it would be awesome, he would be a beast. He should also eat tons of saturated fat and get some cushion on those thin bones, or else I'll have to take away bosh and call him boozer instead.

Everybody Else

Mustafa- He was a smart and team friendly player, so I had no regrets that he was at first on my team. He seemed like he didnt play half as much as the rest of us, but aside from that knew the game and still helped do the nitty gritty stuff and took and made shots for our team when no one else would.

Atiq. B- I felt Atiq b was a bit out of his element at times, he usually likes to play a bit 'undercover' on offense, and sneak in close range shots and uncontested 3pt shots, but shannie, who guarded him for most of the games, gave him no room to breath. Defensively, this half court game featured a lot more passing than usual, so atiq b wasnt able to go after the steals and pressure the ball like he normally does. Despite this, he seemed to adapt better as the games progressed.

Niyaab b- He held back a lot of the games, but still was a bit like the anchor for his team.

Sharim b- I felt for the other team Sharim b was the best player. He did the most damage on offense, especially off the ball. I kept considering if i should just guard him instead, but it seemed everytime i thought about it Niyaab would make a jumpshot, so it never happened.

Naveel- I felt a bit sorry for naveel, he had a bad week of basketball in terms of actually winning. He played well though, aside from a few defensive lapses. Offensively he was a recipiant of many inside passes, and he hit a good chunk of his jumpshots, i believe all of his open ones. His defense on me was pesky, and i was glad when he wasnt on me.

Shannie- Shannie played hard, probably harder than anybody else. He was constantly moving and trying to contribute. I think ultimately he has to learn to conserve energy during games, he is deceptively physical, and if he wanted he couldve exploited his matchup with atiq b all day.

Top 5 Plays

5. In game 4, before Shonnie sat out, Atiq b had a step back wade-like jumper, that went swish. It was a nice looking shot. He attempted it twice before on naveel, but missed both times. I was glad he got that one.

4. In Game 1 shazil did everything, literally. But i personally loved watching his first jumper, a 3 pt shot no one expected with the exact same form as chris bosh! It was a true indication that he was on fire like nba Jam.

3. Early in the first game, niyaab banked in a shot just within the 2pt line from the left elbow. It was tim duncan-ish. It was pretty and pretty remarkable, especially since i had been trying to get a good feel of the backboard since i got on the court during 'shootaround' and he found it after his first layup.
2. Niyaab's block on me. I kinda dont want to talk about it, but it was nice, if only it wasnt me...

1. In game 1, we were up 14-13, we had the ball, i threw it in to shazil, naveel was guarding me, niyaab on shazil. Niyaab played him well and shazil had to force up a shot. I saw right away that shazil was gonna throw it higher off the glass than normal, i had a guess of where it would miss. Naveel didnt bother boxing me out and went closer to shazil for possible help defense. I took off in an uncontested lane, reading shazils shot correctly, it was more luck than anything, but it was all perfect. before anyone else had time to react i had already jumped and caught the ball in mid air, uncontested i was easily able to tip the ball back into the rim. The best part...everyones reaction to the act. A mix of joy (my team) and groans (the other team)...perfect.

Closing thoughts

.

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed basketball last friday. Its a shame we probably wont be able to play at that park again, but I am changing my schedule around so I should have saturday mornings and early afternoons free starting in late october. Maybe we can start playing in the mornings on saturday at the tennis plus, or possibly regain our usual time and day (fridays 8-11). Either way, i look forward to a fall and winter of hopefully lots of good basketball games (CMON NBA)




**regarding the question marks, I dont exactly know what family category people fall in. In terms of how my family tree is branched, im pretty uneducated...mainly cuz i dont care to listen when people explain my relation to others with. Its hectic and annoying.