Basketball Widow

Sports Widow Plays Shake n' Bake Street Basketball

April 9, 2007 11:30 PM | 0 Comments

We have just made our annual Spring Break pilgrimage to Wapato Point, which is a small community in Lake Chelan, Washington. This is our seventh year of traveling to Wapato Point, and it's a recreational haven for us. We play basketball, tennis, Putt Putt golf, swim in an indoor pool and generally commune together. Tonight I was conscripted into playing basketball with Austin on what has to be one of the prettiest outdoor courts ever, and it's in clear view of the condo we are staying in and there is a view of the mountains behind the court.

After years of getting clobbered by Austin on the court, I am making some progress. My first hurdle has been to be able to dribble the ball without looking at it. My coach Austin recommends bouncing it and watching its position out of the corner of my eye, and I am trying to master this.

I also have to remember a lot of game rules:
If the basketball hits the rim, you have to "take it back."
If you make a basket, you have to "check it" and it's your opponents ball next. Check it means your opponent bounces the ball to you, and you bounce it back.
There is no guarding outside of the 3-point circle.

Then, it's all body and language interaction. Austin likes to threaten me, to tell me he's going to "serve me," and then he asks me what I want. I tell him, "I'll have some chicken fried steak or escargot or lobster with clarified butter." Then he says "Order up" and races to the basket. Sometimes I ask for creme brulee, but then I truly do get torched.

Austin's favorite technique when we're playing is the "Shake 'n Bake" in which he does a lot of fancy footwork and changes directions multiple times to fake me out. Feeling a bit more confident, bordering on cocky, I decided to ask Austin to discontinue our age-old tradtion of padding my points. I told him that I am willing to risk humiliation and that I can take the REAL score. So, I lost 5-10, dang it.