43 replies to this topic

[Xannatharr]

I play basketball pretty casually; a regular Sunday morning game, mostly with some friends from work and some guys we met at our suburban courts over the years.

But this weekend I decided to head down to Rucker Park to play some games there; I heard that there were good games and lots of people watching, so I wanted to make my mark!



So when I got to Rucker Park and walked up to the courts, a bunch of people looked at me funny when I called "I have last down" and got queued up for a game.

One older black gentleman greeted me and politely said "Hey man, you sure you want to try to run with these guys? They play a pretty rough brand of ball around here."

I nodded to him, "Heck yes! And hang around, if you are available when my game starts you can jump in and play with me!"

A few minutes later the teams ahead of me were done playing and I walked on the court to take on the winners of the last game. As I walked up I confidently pointed at three random guys that were hanging around. "There's my squad, let's ball!"

You won't BELIEVE what happened next... these guys on the other team acted like they played together all the time. They were setting screens, throwing touch passes, all sorts of stuff. And on top of that they were GOOD. They were almost all black and several of them dunked the basketball like we weren't even playing defense.



To top it off, everyone on my team was ball-hogging, shooting air-ball threes, playing bad defense and not even calling out when some huge black dude was setting a pick on you. They all sucked. We only had two baskets (I made an awesome three-pointer!).

We got run off the court in less than five minutes.

This is B.S.! New York needs to break up these guys coming down to Rucker Park and playing together all of the time and fix it so that when a game starts, everyone gets random team mates to play with so they can be good! And I am not racist or anything (#blacklivesmatter) but they need to stop all these tall, athletic black guys from getting on a team together and just dunking on everyone.

If the city doesn't do SOMETHING I will stop going to Rucker Park to play basketball, and I guarantee that others will too. Then who will be left to play!?

Thanks for listening,

Xann

Edited by Xannatharr, 09 June 2017 - 06:47 AM.

[Tigerwolf]

Did you scream they were "hacking"?

[Wyattorc]

Shame on those guys for being good! I'd suggest finding a group of guys you like playing with, then go back to play again.

[Xannatharr]

Tigerwolf, on 09 June 2017 - 06:52 AM, said:

Did you scream they were "hacking"?

You know what... a couple times some of their moves looked suspicious. One of those guys bent over and squeezed a little orange pump thing on the tongue of his basketball shoes RIGHT before he dunked on me.



That must be it, they were cheating too!

Wyattorc, on 09 June 2017 - 07:06 AM, said:

Shame on those guys for being good! I'd suggest finding a group of guys you like playing with, then go back to play again.

NO stop saying this. Basketball is only fun and good when you get on a team with random people that you have never played with or even watched before.

Get out of here with all this "Team up" nonsense, it's not reasonable and no good basketball players do that crap!

Edited by Xannatharr, 09 June 2017 - 08:39 AM.

[PFC Carsten]

You miss the point, where you are not allowed to play on the nice, plain courts whenever you decide to do your sunday morning round with your casual friends, but instead have to resort to a parking lot where there are no real baskets, but empty latrine buckets and where each time you miss a throw you cannot re-join the game but must wait until that round is over.

Apples and oranges.

[Admiral-Dan]

Xannatharr, on 09 June 2017 - 07:28 AM, said:

You know what... a couple times some of their moves looked suspicious. One of those guys bent over and squeezed a little orange pump thing on the tongue of his basketball shoes RIGHT before he dunked on me.

That must be it, they were cheating too!

Of course, every player that is better than you must be cheating.
I’m sure they also used aimbots.

[Ragnahawk]

So this has to do with faction play.

[Appogee]

In what way is it relevant to you or your story that the opponents were black...?

[Odanan]

Xannatharr, on 09 June 2017 - 06:46 AM, said:

If the city doesn't do SOMETHING I will stop going to Rucker Park to play basketball, and I guarantee that others will too. Then who will be left to play!?

Thanks for listening,

Xann

I see what you did there...

[Xannatharr]

PFC Carsten, on 09 June 2017 - 07:35 AM, said:

You miss the point, where you are not allowed to play on the nice, plain courts whenever you decide to do your sunday morning round with your casual friends, but instead have to resort to a parking lot where there are no real baskets, but empty latrine buckets and where each time you miss a throw you cannot re-join the game but must wait until that round is over.

Apples and oranges.

With all due respect, I believe that you may be the one missing the point.

Appogee, on 09 June 2017 - 08:12 AM, said:

In what way is it relevant to you or your story that the opponents were black...?

I don't know - do we have a small portion of the population around here that happen to be dominating some type of game and being targeted by others because of it?

I'm short and white and I don't play as well as those guys - but I see them being singled out.

Regards,

Xann

Edited by Xannatharr, 09 June 2017 - 08:28 AM.

[Commander A9]

Alrighty, I'll play this game.

Instead of bitching at the city which pays the money to maintain the court and establish a venue to play, to which you may or may not have paid your tax dollars to help maintain as a public access venue free of violence against your person or property...

...you could find some friends or make some friends, practice, practice, practice, and then challenge those mean, tall, good black guys, and beat them at their own game, as a team. No one cares about that super-duper three-point shot you made. Why? Because you lost because you didn't play as a team and your collective skill couldn't even begin to compete with your opponent's.

But they didn't ask you to leave the game. They didn't stop you from playing. And they didn't ask you to never play again. In fact, they said nothing to you other than a warning that 'hey, these guys are good, are you prepared for this?' But you went home and you got upset and took nothing away from it other than deflecting responsibility for your loss from yourself to your opponent. You know what? You're right-your opponents WERE responsible for you losing because they beat you. But the city of New York will do nothing because your opponents violated no standing legal statute. Beating you at basketball and making you upset because you lost is not against city law.

If you leave, others will take your place. If no one else shows, the big teams will remain until a new challenger appears.

A perfect analogy for Faction Warfare, but the answer remains the same.

Don't call PGI and ask them to break up the big teams when they beat you.

Form a team yourself and challenge the big teams...or join them, learn from them, and improve your game.

Problem solved.

Edited by Commander A9, 09 June 2017 - 09:51 AM.

[Xannatharr]

Commander A9, on 09 June 2017 - 09:46 AM, said:

A perfect analogy for Faction Warfare, but the answer remains the same.

Don't call PGI and ask them to break up the big teams when they beat you.

Form a team yourself and challenge the big teams...or join them, learn from them, and improve your game.

Problem solved.

I think your sarcasm detector may need to be dusted off, that's the whole point of my post

Xann

[naterist]

its ok xann, i had a rough day in P.E. too.

[naterist]

i think the biggest hole in yoiur metaphore is, you can always go to another court, we can not go to another faction play.

[Xannatharr]

naterist, on 09 June 2017 - 12:02 PM, said:

i think the biggest hole in yoiur metaphore is, you can always go to another court, we can not go to another faction play.

Indeed.

[Scyther]

@OP:
Actually, you in fact misrepresented the whole situation to once more pander to the whole 'git gud or GTFO, it's not our fault we're awesome' line of BS.

So let's retell the story properly.

The city has a limited number of basketball courts, which they built 5 years ago, which they aren't funding more of because they say only a few hardcore, adult players use them.

The hardcore players would like more courts so they could get more games going and more people playing, maybe they could develop an actual league or something, get some corporate support.

However in the meantime, they want to play, to stay in practice. So they send some flyers around to the local public school saying "Come out to play basketball at Rucker Park, sports are good for you! Bring your best game, because we play to win!"

Most of the schools in this area don't actually even have basketball courts, because the city won't pay for them. But hey, kids hear 'come play, it's good for you' and head on over to Rucker Park.

When they get there, they don't know anyone, and they haven't played together before, and some of them have never played at all. So an older kid who doesn't play and doesn't really give a dam about anything just sorts them into random teams and points them at a court, where a group of older, tougher men who've played together for several years are warming up.

The kids get stomped. But hey, they're kids, they're resilient, they try again. They get stomped again. Gritting their teeth, they try again. This time they at least score a few baskets, but still get stomped.

Kids quit playing and go back to soccer on the school grounds, where they can at least get a somewhat fair game going. City points to that and says "See? No point in spending more money on courts, if adults want to play they can spend their own damn money". Adults gripe that with no one forming new teams they'll soon have no one to play, and the courts will get converted to soccer fields, because soccer is 10x more popular anyway. (And soccer fields are cheaper than courts)

Parents committee suggests, maybe, perhaps, if some of the courts were reserved for only the kids to play on, that then some of those kids would get used to playing together and form better teams.

Adult teams tell them to shut up. "Git gud or gtfo mah court."

5 years later, there are no basketball courts left in Rucker Park.

Edited by MadBadger, 09 June 2017 - 01:12 PM.

[DarklightCA]

naterist, on 09 June 2017 - 12:02 PM, said:

i think the biggest hole in yoiur metaphore is, you can always go to another court, we can not go to another faction play.

I am guessing you never heard of quick play then.

Edited by DarklightCA, 09 June 2017 - 02:14 PM.

[Big Tin Man]

If only someone hung up a clipboard at that park saying "SIGN UP FOR OUR TEAM AND GET LESSONS HERE!!"

But I did learn that I'm a tall black man that can dunk. I learn new things every day.

Edited by Big Tin Man, 09 June 2017 - 01:23 PM.

[Stahlherz]

You forgot about that persistant group of players bring golf gear to basketball, refuse to work with their random team mates and still expect to get a level playing field.

[PFC Carsten]

DarklightCA, on 09 June 2017 - 01:10 PM, said:

I am guessing you never heard of quick play then.

Did you ever try playing basketball in an ice hockey arena? Yep, totally not comparable.

Xannatharr, on 09 June 2017 - 08:24 AM, said:

With all due respect, I believe that you may be the one missing the point.

No, because:

MadBadger, on 09 June 2017 - 01:06 PM, said:

@OP:
Actually, you in fact misrepresented the whole situation to once more pander to the whole 'git gud or GTFO, it's not our fault we're awesome' line of BS.

So let's retell the story properly.

The city has a limited number of basketball courts, which they built 5 years ago, which they aren't funding more of because they say only a few hardcore, adult players use them.

The hardcore players would like more courts so they could get more games going and more people playing, maybe they could develop an actual league or something, get some corporate support.

However in the meantime, they want to play, to stay in practice. So they send some flyers around to the local public school saying "Come out to play basketball at Rucker Park, sports are good for you! Bring your best game, because we play to win!"

Most of the schools in this area don't actually even have basketball courts, because the city won't pay for them. But hey, kids hear 'come play, it's good for you' and head on over to Rucker Park.

When they get there, they don't know anyone, and they haven't played together before, and some of them have never played at all. So an older kid who doesn't play and doesn't really give a dam about anything just sorts them into random teams and points them at a court, where a group of older, tougher men who've played together for several years are warming up.

The kids get stomped. But hey, they're kids, they're resilient, they try again. They get stomped again. Gritting their teeth, they try again. This time they at least score a few baskets, but still get stomped.

Kids quit playing and go back to soccer on the school grounds, where they can at least get a somewhat fair game going. City points to that and says "See? No point in spending more money on courts, if adults want to play they can spend their own damn money". Adults gripe that with no one forming new teams they'll soon have no one to play, and the courts will get converted to soccer fields, because soccer is 10x more popular anyway. (And soccer fields are cheaper than courts)

Parents committee suggests, maybe, perhaps, if some of the courts were reserved for only the kids to play on, that then some of those kids would get used to playing together and form better teams.

Adult teams tell them to shut up. "Git gud or gtfo mah court."

5 years later, there are no basketball courts left in Rucker Park.

Edited by PFC Carsten, 10 June 2017 - 07:08 AM.