fade-away

I have a band. It doesn't always seem like that. But I really do.

I'm starting shooting some hoops in a rec league -- which is actually my first organized basketball situation since grade 8. I've played hundreds and hundreds of street ball games, and I've shot about a million practice fade-aways -- and just for the record, it's the best shot, the only shot. If you watch and old bulls games, when Jordan ran into 4 or 5 defenders, 14-22 feet from the net, he would just jump backwards, wait for the arms to rise and fall, and then use his arms to muscle the ball up on a perfect arc and into the basket. And you know what? 10 years later with the Wizards, when he was 40, that move still worked -- he didn't jump as far back, but it didn't matter, you can't block a well timed fade-away.

Uh. . . But maybe you don't care as much about basketball as I do. . .

Too bad. . .

We watched the documentary The Heart of the Game, which follows a high school varsity basketball coach for 7 years, and it was the first time I saw basketball footage and could picture myself somewhere other than on the team (might've helped that it was a girls team), and I started thinking about being involved with coaching. Now, I know my way around a streetball game, but I don't know a lot about being a good team player ("duh" says anyone who's ever played with me), so I'm going to start by trying to be a team player in a rec league, and I've started reading up on the x's and o's, and then maybe I'll try and volunteer for a local team.

Yes, the band, I'll get it going. No, really.

Take care,

Jay.