Retrospect: basketball season, part 1

Self-tutoring about people and events from the past: the tutor reflects about basketball.

I’ve never played basketball on a team. I played it in PE when I was in grades 5, 6, and 7, but then I moved from that school, and didn’t touch a basketball again until I played with my sons up at the nearby school yard.

Yet, interestingly, I’ve a few connections to basketball. My father refereed for it when I was a kid, so I used to go watch games that he refereed. Moreover, I guess one of my uncles was a basketball star in college. He was even MVP one year. You’ll never hear that from him.

Where I am right now looks out onto a basketball court that’s just there for leisure. It’s well-used: last fall, even in November, kids were out there playing almost all the time. The snow came, then outdoor basketball season 2022 finally ended. Looking on the empty basketball court during the days of snow and -15°C (we had a winter this year), I pointed out that the basketball players would return, perhaps sooner than anyone would imagine. A couple of people agreed, recalling how devoutly people had played basketball through the fall.

Today is one of those days when the statistics don’t say much, but it’s really nice outside. The basketball players are back: in hoodies, they were shooting hoops about half an hour ago. So I guess it’s official: outdoor basketball season, 2023, has begun.