Morning basketball...

[Paulpate]

I'm going to use this thread as a journal that chronicles the events that unfold on the basketball court I frequent every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning at 6 or 6:30 AM. Yes, that's right 6 AM! There are often 9 other people there at the same time and I am able to enjoy a pleasant game of 5 on 5. Nothing better in the world!

Anyway, I look forward to facing one of my favorite nemisis tomorrow morning, Norm! On Monday Norm didn't fare so well, losing at least 3 games, possibly 4. I intend to extend his streak, even if this means intentionally missing my free throws so I don't have to be on his team. Oh, I can't wait!

Paul

[Paulpate]

Teamed up with Norm this morning and we dominated! 3 wins, 1 loss.

I still don't have a turn around jump shot. When I master that, I will be unstoppable! Yeah right.

[Paulpate]

Last night my team lost. No, we got smoked by about 15 points.

This game goes directly against my theory that the old guys will always beat the young guys. My team consisted of 5 guys that are at least 30 years old. We have one young guy. Our opponents were 8 guys who had to be no older than 20 or 21.

Of course they outran us. We turned the ball over. They outrebounded us. They outhustled us. They played awesome defense. They even played smarter than us. I would go so far as to say they got into our heads!

This is the worst part, they got all the calls from the refs. Us old guys are supposed to be the crafty veterans who know how to manipulate every situation to our advantage, particularly the refs. This did NOT happen. Maybe because the refs were age 12 and 13.

Paul

[Paulpate]

Well, I feel sorry for anybody who happens to walk by the court and see a bunch of sorry bastards running up and down the court trying to play what might be called basketball. It is good exercize though. That's what I keep telling myself.

I was 2 wins and 2 losses today. Of course 2 wins and 1 loss came when Norm was my teammate. Then I managed one more loss against Norm giving him a 3 and 1 record. I am not surprised.

Later...
Paul

[Paulpate]

This morning was some good basketball. We played 4 on 4 for about an hour and a half. Woohooo!!!

[Paulpate]

Didn't play in the morning. Slept in!!! I guess there were a couple new people. That's good.

Played in the Wednesday night league though. We lost again. Damn! How can we lose three in a row? We have a good team.

Well, we were behind most of the game to another group of young guys. In the last few minutes of the game we erased what must have been a 12 or 15 point lead. I hit at least two three pointers in that run. That was cool. I don't think I scored up until that point. We tied the game up in the last second when our main scorer hit an uncontested layup. Sweet!!! Overtime.

We just got smoked in overtime. Will we ever win?

[Paulpate]

Well, it is official: I haven't played morning ball in a week. Yesterday I picked up Nathan and did something to my back. It was like somebody was giving me a bear hug and I couldn't breathe. I took Motrin last night and couldn't get up this morning. It still hurts severly! Could it be I'm getting old?

[Paulpate]

After having back spasms on Sunday and Monday, I was finally out on the court again this morning. Five minutes into the first game I landed on Norm's foot and rolled my ankle over terribly. It hurt like having a baby!

I put some ice on it and walked it off. I played for another 45 minutes. I could hardly move. That was kinda stupid. Plus, I was 1 win and 3 losses for the morning.

Ugh! I'm injury prone.

[Paulpate]

Well, I finally went back down to the gym this morning and played some morning ball. Still about 80%. I'm a little tentative on the ankle. But, it felt nice to get a good run in.

[Paulpate]

I'd say when I'm on the court I'm at 100%. But, I'll wake up in the middle of the night or in the morning and my ankle will be so sore.

I've been playing for a couple weeks now and I'm outta shape!!!

[Paulpate]

Monday I lost four games and won zero! Not to mention I played like crap. I think I only won a couple of games all last week.

I'm going to blame it on weight-lifting. I started up again last week.

But, if I don't turn things around on Wednesday, my self esteem is going to begin to suffer!

These are things by which I measure my manhood:

Money (I'm always broke)
Car (7 years old AND always broke)
Women / Sex (I'm married! and always broke)
Basketball (I'm 0 and 4)

[Paulpate]

Wooohooo!!!

Two wins and two losses!!! I played like shnitzel, BUT, the fact remains...

basketball is a team sport!

Woohooo!!!

[Paulpate]

Just like Scottie and Michael, I have taken up an early morning weight lifting regimen. It is going well. I haven't really noticed an increase in strength yet. But, I'm getting over the initial soreness.

The problem is, I also play basketball early in the morning. Right after the weight lifting, in fact. The real problem is I'm no Scottie OR Micheal. I'm probably not even Scottie or Michael's kid. I suck at basketball and I need all the help I can get! So, this weight lifting has really thrown my shot off. But, yesterday I finally felt like it was coming back because I wasn't as sore as I usually am. Hopefully, I'm becoming accustomed to the weight lifting and my shot will come back.

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