Hoop Dreams

Sorry for the break, but we have decided to start posting a new idea once every week. Since I am publishing this on a Friday, Friday will be the weekly date (unless, of course, the readers decide otherwise).

This is an idea that needs to happen, but sadly it is 6 years too late for us. Back in the spring of 2003, we decided that we needed some good basketball games to get us through the summer. We posted what could best be described as a "Want Ad" on CoachT.com (a Tennessee high school athletics message board) trying to get any numbers of good players around town, even if it meant looking like a homo asking for a random dudes number at a prom. Anyway, one thing led to another and the next thing we knew, we basically were playing a Nashville All Star game 3 times a week. No offense to the great players that did not get to participate with us. After a few weeks we quickly realized we had roughly 12 or so really good players that were at every pick up game. And the best part about this crew was that we were able to keep our summer games going for 3 years. By the end of the final summer, the core group of guys could play together blind folded. We knew tendencies, passing angles, and even could read each others thoughts simply by making eye contact. Sure we weren’t coached, but we could play against teams with much better talent and they could not beat us. During the time we spent together, we did not realize just exactly what we had stumbled upon. When all was said and done, we just had a great time and still remain friends until this very day.

With all of that said, here is the idea. I have talked about this with a few of the players and this is what we came up with: Choose a smaller college (think D3 or NAIA with a crappy team and a terrible record that has nothing to lose) and go to the coach and make a deal with him to take all 12 of the players over the next 3 years. Granted, some of the players could probably go to a better, possibly higher level college, while others (me) usually wouldn’t be able to play at that level. In the end, the coach gets to have a team of players who genuinely like playing with each other, a team that plays very well together, and individuals who know their roles. If you have read The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons, you know he argues that team chemistry is a huge part of being successful, and I agree. I believe this could have been a huge success as well as a great time. Would a coach go for this? Who knows... but if someone has a kid in middle school that loves basketball, try and force him into this experiment. Would be fun to know how it turns out.