James Singleton Is Wrecking My Weekly Pickup Game

by Brett Edwards

For the past two years or so, I have played in a weekly pickup basketball game on Wednesday nights. There's a group of 10-15 of us, who are more or less at the same skill level, and we have the privilege of having a gym in West L.A. all to ourselves from about 7-10PM. The games are extremely competitive, because unlike other pickup games I've been a part of, everyone actually passes the ball and attempts to play defense. But the last two weeks, we've had a couple of new participants that are basically wrecking the competitive nature of these games.

One of the guys who works at the gym where we play just happens to be the brother of James Singleton, who plays for the L.A. Clippers. The past couple of weeks, they've decided to roll out on Wednesdays and participate in our "open gym." Last week, we managed to avoid actually playing with these guys, (I said "no thanks, I don't enjoy being shut out") but they did play on on one half of the court, so we could only play half court ourselves. This week however, we didn't have a choice. They had "next," and made it clear that they were going to run with us.

Initially you might be thinking, "hey, wow, I get to play with an NBA player!" But for me, it was more like, "holy shit, I don't want to be the guy that injures an NBA player." Plus, it's not like these guys are going full speed against us, so these basically were half-assed fuck around games, just running up and down the court taking bad shots.

We did get to play one semi-serious game, and I was on James' team for that one. It was funny because I thought we were still in screw-around mode, but he started giving me instructions to run pick and rolls with him, and I was like, "oh, are we playing for real this game?" and he said "yeah." So that actually was kind of fun, and as you might imagine, even going at less than half speed, a guy who gets limited playing time in the NBA is ridiculously talented. He's known as a 6'9" dunker, but was dribbling between his legs and draining NBA threes like it was no big deal. Also, he's a very nice guy, and was constantly passing to everyone on his team, as well as giving little coaching tips to everyone on the court.

So overall, did it completely suck to play pickup ball with James Singleton? Of course not. It's not like he was dunking on people and grabbing his package or anything. But for weekend warriors like myself, these pickup games are not only great exercise, but they provide a nice environment for some serious competition. And that competition goes out the window when someone with NBA-level talent joins the game.

Comments

[nerditry]

Damn, I get to play at an outdoor apartment court with some very good 8th graders and young high schoolers.

Honestly, I can't think of the last time I ran ball indoors. First time back you always get that sensation from trying to breathe cold, conditioned air and think you're drowning.

[basketbawful]

I've got a buddy who played pickup hoops with Fred Hoiberg a few years back. He said The Mayor was dunking on everybody, hitting threes from ridonkulous distance, and basically just schooling anybody who dared guard him (the same friend tried to hold Hoiberg's arm on a three-pointer, only to be lifted partially in the air as Freddy just put it up like any other shot).

Yeah, pros are pros for a reason.

[Brett]

Who knew the Mayor was such a dick? See that would piss me off if a guy who was that much better than everyone was going full speed and whooping it up. Especially since Hoiberg's not that big of a dude, I think a hard foul or two would have been well-deserved.