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Holding court
Masters basketball players refuse to give up an American Institution: the pickup game It's every sunday at 10 a.m., but it's not a prayer service. For some men, though, it's almost as sacred. "For a lot of guys it's like that," agrees Richard Williams, a 60-year-old mathematics professor, who has been playing in a regular Masters pickup basketball game in Chicago for almost 20 years. Pickup basketball is an American institution, which has inspired movies such as "White Men Can't Jump" and books such as Rick Telander's "Heaven is a Playground." Telander, now a Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist, no longer plays pickup basketball due to his knee injuries. He misses the game. "Sadly, my knees have rebelled entirely…My detox from pickup hoops continues...breaks my heart," he said. Pickup basketball tends to be a young man's game, played with bravado on concrete that can pound an older athlete's knees. Jobs and family obligations also conspire to make pickup games that are exclusively for Masters players difficult to find. But in many towns across the country, pickup basketball games organized for Masters hoopsters do exist. Men in their 50s, 60s, and 70s are still playing ball together. They do it for the obvious reasons -- for the love of the game, for their health, for time spent with friends. "There's no question that it's a bonding force among men," said Neal Miller, 73, who plays in a regular game in Eugene, Ore. Beyond that, many players assign a value to pickup hoops that has an almost mystical aspect to it. They see a Darwin-like game that rewards skill and hard work. In most pickup games, the winning team stays on the court and gets to keep playing. And because there are usually no referees, the game demands a certain morality and honesty from its players. Participants must call their own fouls and must democratically come to an agreement on judgment calls such as traveling and out-of-bounds. On the playground, cheaters and win-at-all-cost attitudes are not tolerated for long. Robert Marder, 43, runs the Still Hoopin' 3-on-3 Classic and regularly plays pickup hoops at the Reebok Sports Club in Manhattan. He described a situation in which an opposing player blatantly lied about a turnover in a recent close game at the gym. For Marder, the man's behavior in this casual pickup game unmasked him as a liar. When play resumed, Marder said he whispered to the player in question, "So which is it: Do you cheat on your wife or steal from your business partner?" In spite of moments like that, or maybe because of them, many Masters players find that their pickup hoops game remains sacrosanct. Here's a cross-section of Masters-oriented pickup games around the country: Amherst, N.Y. During its inception 15 or 20 years ago, this full court, 5-on-5 pickup game near Buffalo started out as an off-season workout. "We all used to play in different leagues and would use these pickup games to get ready for the season," said regular Jim Slayton. "As we got older, it became more difficult to commit to different leagues with all our time commitments." Slayton, 52, who played college ball at the University of Buffalo, is one of several players with a strong hoop pedigree who drives to Deamen College every Wednesday and Sunday for pickup games. Willie Jones, a 6-foot-8 forward who played at Vanderbilt and was drafted in the third round by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1982, is another regular. Jim Silveri, Deamen's athletic director, also plays when he can. He has an open invitation since he is in charge of opening the doors. Bergen, N.Y. Tom Fodge, a 50-year-old homebuilder from Bergen, N.Y., outside Rochester, built a barn behind his house to store his equipment. To practice for a 3-on-3 tournament, he moved the equipment out, hung a hoop in the barn and laid a 40 square foot SportCourt on the floor. "Nobody let me put the equipment back in," Fodge said. Now every Tuesday night, Fodge hosts a 3-on-3 pickup game in his barn for about a dozen guys. The ceiling is 16 feet high, so sometimes a rainbow-arced shot will hit the roof. Spotlights mounted inside the barn provide light for night games. And a wood burning stove ensures that the guys waiting on the sidelines don't get cold. Chicago The downside to pickup basketball is the arguing -- disputes over the score, complaining about foul calls. This pickup game has taken the remarkable step of using referees and a scorekeeper to limit the bellyaching. The game started as a practice session around 1986 for Chicago Police Department teams. John Richardson, a former deputy chief of police, still plays and he remains proud of once holding the court for seven straight games, which remains a record. Gradually, men from other professions were invited to participate, and the players now include lawyers, executives and professors. Most of the players are over 40, and the floor is full of former Chicago Public League high school players, so the level of play is high. At a recent Sunday, Williams presented "Bug" Carter with a certificate recognizing his scoring of 17 points in a single game (which generally go to 20). "We recognize achievement," Williams said. Dallas To play in the Tom Teague League, a Thursday night pickup game in Dallas, players need an invitation. On occasion in the 20-year history of the game, such invitees have included Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer Roger Staubach. Even when former NFL stars are not on the court, however, the action in the 4-on-4 full court games, which is reserved mainly for players in their 50s and 60s, can be pretty intense. "It can get a little heated at times, it all depends on the mental attitude you bring to the game," said frequent participant Sam Cohn. "The thing is, afterwards, we shake hands and go have a margarita." Detroit Pickup ball for players over 50 in Detroit began almost by accident, according to Cal Dilworth, 70. Back around 1990, the older players who competed in open gym against men half their age wanted a night for themselves. "I asked the park supervisor for one night a week for guys 50 and older to play basketball and he gave it to us. That's basically how we started," Dilworth said. After his retirement from Wayne State University, Dilworth found that his role running the over-50 hoops night turned into a full time job running several basketball programs for players over 50 as well as overseeing a senior athletics program in Detroit. "It's created a job for me by accident," Dilworth said. "That was great. It put a few dollars in my pocket, and it gave me an opportunity to continue playing with people my own age. That made it fun." Eugene, Ore. Filmmaker Neal Miller, 73, started playing at the DAC, as Eugene's Downtown Athletic Club is known, when he moved to town in 1988. The Tuesday night game at the DAC is reserved for players 40 and older. Most of the players played in high school or college, so Miller says the skill level is high. Miller himself played on the Chicago city championship team at Roosevelt High School in 1952, and he later played at the University of Illinois. The game is a social event, too. "Some nights, there's a whole group of us and our wives, we go up to the dining room after the game and share dinner together," Miller said. Basketball is an important theme in Miller's life. He's currently writing a screenplay about his high school team at a predominantly Jewish school and the enduring friendships he and his teammates have formed with the players from DuSable, an African American high school in Chicago. The movie is tentatively titled "Team Colors." Fayetteville, Ga. Darryl Reshaw, 46, is a sports agent who used to play professional basketball in Europe. He recently moved to Fayetteville, Ga., where he held a Labor Day weekend pickup game on the SnapSport court in his backyard. The Masters legend James Payne, a 6 feet, 1 inch player who can still dunk even though he's pushing 60, helped christen the court. So did a number of other over-40 ballplayers. Reshaw hopes to make his court a destination for pickup basketball. Even though he's only lived in the area a few months, guys have begun to come over regularly to play on weekends and after 6 p.m. on weeknights. Narberth, Pa. These outdoor games in Narberth, Pa., outside of Philadelphia have taken place since before World War II, according to Bill Kanehann, who runs a wholesale insurance brokerage and describes himself as a relative newcomer to the game. "I'm a youngster in this pickup game," he said. "I've only been playing in it 20 years." Players have to be at least 18 to get in the game, and a good portion of the mainstays are well over 40. The game is about basketball not socializing. "My wife thinks it's hysterical that I know everybody's first name and nobody's last name," he said. Many players have nicknames. There's a Crazy Eddie, and Kanehann is known as Bronco Billy. "Nobody else has called me Billy in years except for maybe my sisters," he said. Orange County, Calif. Held in an undisclosed location, this Orange County hoop get-together is the Dick Cheney of pickup games. Rich Freeman, a 70-year-old personnel recruiter, is so protective of the game that he declined to name either the high school gym where the group plays or the night the game is held. A few new guys can ruin the chemistry of a pickup game, which is a delicate balance of skill levels and temperaments. "We keep it pretty select," Freeman said. "We've had guys come in some instances still 'trying to make the team' as I describe them." Unlike most pickup games, fouls mean foul shots in this version of pickup ball. "It cleans the game up considerably," Freeman said. "Plus at our age, it gives us a little break here and there in the game." Venice Beach, Calif. Venice Beach's iconic outdoor courts stand near the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by palm trees. The games on the concrete are often dominated by younger players. But on weekday mornings, while those players sleep off hangovers, the Masters players come out to play half court or full court games. Steve Fiske, a 63-year-old musician and former college player, is a regular at these games. He has written a song that demonstrates his love of the game called "Basketball Scene." "My two favorite occupations are playing basketball and playing music," he said. "The two are alike. In both case what you really strive to do is lose your mind and just be in the moment. If you've developed a level of still you don't even want to think about the technical aspect of anything you're doing." TELL US ABOUT YOUR PICKUP GAME! |