Locker room talk: rolling basketball thread

IdleRich

IdleRich
yeah, that's mostly schoolyard play, don't really see that in the pros.
Yeah I know nothing about the game but I can see those guys he's fooling are not good. People who watch that sort of thing on youtube don't seem to understand that the reason that guy isn't doing it in the NBA isn't cos he chose to humiliate losers on youtube instead, it's cos it simply won't work on top level players. But something of that nature must happen in pro games every now and again no?

it's the kind of thing you do when the score isn't close, one team is blowing out the other and the play isn't that serious anymore. coaches would probably be pissed if you did this sort of thing in a close game.

Sure, it's like a training ground skill - but sometimes (I'mt thinking football here but maybe it transfers) there may be a situation with seemingly no way out and then he pulls off some audacious skill and it works and maybe they score or something. For me that is what can a brilliant goal, when there is a flash dunk in basketball that is someone who is gonna score anyhow showing off in the way they do it, but I'm interested here in those moments when someone has the vision to use a trick that was probably designed for showing off (or more charitably, simply for practising close control skills) in a game to do something that otherwise would not have been possible.
 

Leo

Well-known member
high risk, high reward. if you try it in a close or important game and it works, you're a huge hero. if it doesn't, you're in the doghouse as they guy who tried to be a showboat when the game was on the line.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Oh yeah of course. One of the famous ones in football is the so-called Panenka penalty, named after the guy who first did it (or first got noticed doing it more likely). You know what a penalty is right? Just in case, it's a free-kick from twelve yards which is given for a foul in the box, just the taker vs the keeper and with the odds greatly in favour of scoring. Except of course it can be incredibly high pressure and so even the best players can fold and miss the target completely or whatever. And also there is a psychological battle, often the keeper will come over and say some "encouraging" words or something before it's taken and, in the past before it was banned, sometimes they would do silly movements or whatever. But the fact remains that if the ball is struck hard and it is close enough to the corners it is all but impossible for the keeper to save it, their best tactic is to pick left or right and dive as hard as they can in that direction the second the whistle is blown and hope that they pick the right way, and that the ball hits them.

Panenka's famous penalty was when he decided to just tamely chip it down the middle and hope that the goalie was fully committed to throwing himself to one side or the other. Luckily for him, he was and so he dived out of the way as the pathetically weak shot went into the net exactly where the keeper had been standing half a second before. And that penalty has been emulated many times - but given that it's entirely possible to put the ball where the keeper has no chance of reaching it, deliberately putting it somewhere where it will be so easy to stop seems like an incredibly cocky - or just stupid - manoeuvre. Sure in a game that is not important or when you're five nil up, but doing it in an important match seems insane to me. Pirlo did one against England I think that worked, but I remember the Italian Totti doing it one time and the keeper just stood there and caught it - and then Totti with typical sportsmanship ran up to him and pushed him. Gotta love that, try to take the piss out of someone and then get so angry that they are not fooled that you attack them!
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
The Totti one is in this list, also one from Ronaldo, but maybe when Real are playing Copenhagen you can get away with it. But the last one in the list looks - judging by the reaction - to be a big game so I dunno what he was thinking....

 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Did you see the Totti one? I find it staggering that he pushes the keeper. That after his attempt to humiliate this guy in front of thousands failed his first reaction is not any kind of soul-seeking or lesson-learning or even embarrassment, instead he just gets really angry with the guy who had the temerity to not be fooled and instead did his job and saved it. One of the least sportsmanlike things I've seen in any sport I think.

Here is a training ground trick working though, check the one at 2.29. It's quite interesting to me how there are obvious parallels between the basketball ones and the footie ones - ball through the attackers own legs, through the defenders legs etc and in this case it kinda goes round the back like that teleport one. I would like someone to clear up for me, what is a crossover in basketball? Is it called that cos they change direction or cos they change hands or what?

 

version

Well-known member
gus is stopping in chicago on the way to new york and were gonna play one on one
2015-08-14-1439579631-4791296-whitechocolategiphy.gif
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
gus is 6 feet with a swimmers frame. Im a wiry, broad shouldered 5'11and was once the spiritual leader of my middle school basketball team called 'the rats'
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
they were coached by my father who was wise enough to understand that you shouldnt waste time teaching 12 year olds a jumpshot and instead have them sprint all practice so you can run full court press the entire game. On one occasion we made the other team cry the strategy was so frustrating.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
they were coached by my father who was wise enough to understand that you shouldnt waste time teaching 12 year olds a jumpshot and instead have them sprint all practice so you can run full court press the entire game. On one occasion we made the other team cry the strategy was so frustrating.
Full court press, what's that, man to man marking in their face every time they got the ball? That's why you need the player with the skill to slip through the press.
 
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