Matthew Monday: Our First Professional Basketball Game

I had never attended a pro basketball game in my life.  I was never really a fan.  I might watch a few minutes on TV but I never had any allegiance to a team.  Then you have a son who likes basketball, and for some reason he becomes a fan of the Brooklyn Nets.  So for the past couple of years we followed the Nets through the newspapers.  It doesn’t hurt that I grew up in Brooklyn.  It’s a thrill to have a home team I can root for.  I never considered the other New York teams home teams for me!  

So in the last few years the Nets made some big trades to get some star players and they competed for the division. Today their two big superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving remain on the team and they have added some quality depth to help them out.  This year they started off losing, replaced their head coach, and then won something like 20 out of 21 games.  A super streak.  Unfortunately Kevin Durant got hurt recently and they have struggle to win as many as they lose with him out.  So they have fallen back a bit, but hopefully he’ll be returning soon.

We went last Sunday on January 15^th, and they were playing a below .500 team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.  Why did we pick that game?  Well, the prices of the big name teams were a lot more expensive, and so for a seat in my price range ($100/seat) we got better seats for the Thunder.  When we bought the tickets, we didn’t know Kevin Durant would be out.  That would have altered our choice, but what can you do?  Them’s the breaks.

The Barclay Center, the Nets’ arena, is in downtown Brooklyn, which has limited free street parking and very expensive pay parking.  So I gave Matthew the entire Brooklyn experience.  We drove into Brooklyn into my old neighborhood and took the subway to downtown to the arena.  I tried to take a picture of Matthew on the elevated subway platform, but he refused to cooperate.

I also took a picture of the Williamsburg Savings Bank Tower.  This was iconic for me growing up in Brooklyn.  For the longest time, this was the tallest building in Brooklyn.  According to Wikipedia it was the tallest from 1929 to 2009 and spans 41 floors.  Brooklyn has gotten a few skyscrapers since then, but we don’t have the same fetish for heights that they do in Manhattan.

 

The Barclay Center isn’t all that picturesque, but its short height does make for an interesting contrast with its surrounding environment.

Here’s the view from our seats.  It looked closer than the camera makes it seem.

 

The little snot finally let me take his picture inside.  He’s proudly wearing his Nets jersey.

One of the ushers took our picture.

So we got to go down to court level during warm ups.  I think this is Day'Ron Sharpe, a backup forward.  But I’m not entirely sure.  Here’s a photo and a video clip.

 

 

Here’s the one video clip we got of game play.  The red are the Thunder and white Brooklyn.

 

 

The score was close most of the game, but unfortunately Nets lost 112-102.  But it was still a lot of fun.

Matthew Monday: Basketball Champions

Matthew played basketball instead of soccer this year, and boy did he enjoy it.  I don’t think I posted on it but their season started in October (I think) and just concluded last Sunday, February 16^th. 

What a season.  Their regular season record was 16-0, and then they won a playoff game and won the divisional championship game.  In all their team, the Fifth grade St. Rita Jaguars, played eighteen games and won them all.  What a difference from soccer where in two years I don’t think they won a game.

I am not going to say Matthew was a star player.  The team had one superstar player, a few other good players, and the rest of the team supported them.  Matthew was a decent defender but not much of an offensive threat. 

I have some video and pictures to share.  Back in January 26^th, I got on video one of Matthew’s few scoring baskets.  He is the road black uniform, number 44.

The next clips are from the final championship game.  Here they are in the home white uniform.  If you hear somebody in the crowd yell “Matt” or “Matthew,” it’s directed at him.  I post this because it shows a bit of Matthew’s defensive skills.

Here are the final two minutes of the game with the St. Rita fans sensing a win.  There’s a bit of mayhem at the end.

And then after the games the Jaguars receiving their trophies.  Matthew gets his trophy at the 38-40 second mark.

Here are some pictures.  First a team picture.  Matthew is in the front row on the left.

Here’s zoomed in at Matthew.

And finally, Matthew letting out a victory scream!

It’s good to be a kid!

Matthew Monday: Basketball Shooting Tournament

There hasn’t been much on the Matthew front to report lately but there was something back in November that I’ve been meaning to post.

As I mentioned back in October, Matthew decided to play soccer this year instead of basketball.  Well, as expected, the St. Rita soccer team is horrible.  Two years ago they didn’t win a game.  Last year Matthew played basketball, and the soccer team again didn’t win a game.  So far in the first halve of this year’s season—it gets divided by winter with a first half autumn and second half spring—they didn’t win a game.  In the meantime, Matthew had improved in basketball and wished he had joined the team.

But back in November, separate from the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO), there was a nationwide basketball shooting contest.  It was essentially foul shots, though the younger grades were a step closer than the foul line.  Each school would pick the best two or three for each grade, send them to a local competition (Staten Island, in this case), the winners would go to a regional competition, and those winners would go for the national.

It was one day in early November that Matthew came home from school and said he had won the basketball shooting contest at his school for his grade.  I really didn’t understand the national tournament yet so I was confused.  But I have to admit I didn’t believe he had won any kind of basketball shooting contest.  He could barely reach the basket two years before and he hadn’t practice since.  Well, he did win his school competition, even over the ones on the basketball team.  And so he made it as the school representative for fourth grade at the regional.

At the regional he was excellent.  He was something like 15 of 20 in the first round, and a little less than that in the second.  Unfortunately there’s not going to be much to show you because—mea culpa—I muffed the pictures and film.  I think I screwed up initially and then my phone battery died.  But here’s what I did take.  First a still picture of Matthew of Matthew getting the ball at the foul line.

And here’s a four second video of Matthew taking a shot.  The camera stops before the ball reaches the basket but I do think it went in.

Finally Matthew wound up in third place for the fourth graders.  Now that is third place for all of Staten Island, and we at Staten Island have a population for nearly 500,000.  That’s the size of a small city.  Here’s a picture of Matthew with his third place medal.

As you can bet, he wants to play basketball next year.

EDIT:  I forgot to mention.  Third place does not move on in the competition.  Only the first place winners.  

Matthew Monday: 2017-18 Basketball Season

Matthew played basketball for his school team this winter, and it was really enjoyable, both for Matthew and us parents.  Matthew played for the second and third grade level team in the Catholic Youth Organization that ran the league.  On balance they were an average team, but they did seem to get better as the season went on.  They started the season losing and half way into the season were three wins and five losses.  A couple were close losses, but some of them were blowouts.  Then their team, the St. Rita Jaguars (his school is St. Rita’s Church), ran off five victories in a row, but unfortunately closed the season with three losses, for an overall record of eight and eight.  Still the first twelve teams make the playoffs and St. Rita’s came in eleventh.

Playoffs are elimination rounds, so if you lose, you’re out.  Their playoff game was against St. Patrick’s Church.  During the season the two teams had played a marathon of a game.  It was tied at the end of regulation time, and they had to play double overtime, both teams grabbing leads but losing it by the end of the quarter.  In the third overtime, St. Patrick’s squeezed out a victory.  So both teams were both evenly matched.

The playoff game was again evenly matched.  St. Rita took a lead but St. Patrick came back, but ultimately St. Rita held on by one basket, 14-12.  It was exciting because St. Patrick’s could have tied it at the end, but the ball failed to go into the hoop.  Amazingly the Jaguars had won their playoff game, and got to move on.  Here is a video clip from that game.  Matthew is #44, they are in their road uniform in black, and Matthew tends to wear a white undershirt beneath the tank top.  He is mostly on the far end of the camera.

Next up was another team that had beaten St. Rita’s during the regular season, Our Lady Help of Christians.  Though they lost it was still a close game, and another evenly opponent.  In this game, St. Rita was mostly down during most of the game, trailing as much as by six points.  But they tied in in the fourth quarter and with three seconds to go their point guard, Jackson, drove for the basket and was fouled.  All he needed to do was make a foul shot for the lead, and he sunk it!  St. Rita won 15-14. 

Here is a photo of Matthew trapping one of the opponents by the edge of the court and trying to take the ball.  Again St. Rita is wearing the road black. 

By the way, they wore the road black throughout the playoffs because their opponents all had better records during the season.  With this second playoff win, they were in the Quarter Finals.  Winner would go on to the championship game.  This time, however, their opponent would not be an evenly matched one, but one that routed them easily, Church of Sacred Heart.  There were two kids on Sacred Heart’s team that were just superior.  One of them was a full head and shoulders taller than any of the kids.  I wonder if he had gotten left back to be in third grade.  But St. Rita scored the first point off a foul shot, and actually took a 1-0 lead.  Sadly though, that was St. Rita’s only lead as Sacred Heart ran off 23 consecutive, unanswered points.  The final score was 23-3.  But what a glorious run.  St. Rita got better as the season went on and far exceeded the expectations.

Here is a video clip from that last game.  Matthew sees quite a bit of action in this clip.  You’ll see him run behind one of the Sacred Heart players and steal the ball, unfortunately he passes it errantly back to them, the Sacred Heart kid drives for the basket, Matthew blocks his shot but fouls him.  After the foul shots, Matthew is back in the St. Rita end of the court, gets a pass in the far corner, tries to take a shot but gets blocked.  Here:

Here is a team photo, though incomplete; a few players somehow didn’t get in.

Finally here is Matthew with his participation trophy.

Did I already say this was a lot of fun for the parents too?  I guess I did!

Matthew Monday: Basketball Final

This was Matthew’s second year in basketball skills clinic, a one day a week class over the winter on Saturdays to learn how to play basketball.  It’s for kids from five years old to about ten, and they have it in the school gymnasium.  Like last year, the clinic ended with a game.  I forgot to bring a camera last year, but I remembered this year.

Last year for some strange reason they divided the squads between the big kids verses the little kids for the game.  I don’t know if it was intentional or it just fell that way, but as you can imagine it was a rout.  This year it was fairer.  I think they divided the kids by under eight in one game and over in another. 

Here’s Matthew before the game, first a photo and then a little video of him warming up.

Notice he can dribble, and not badly for a six year old.  But as you will see in the game, he forgets to dribble and just runs with the ball.  He wasn’t the only one, however.  Just about all the kids in the heat of the moment ran with the ball, no matter how many times people were screaming to dribble.  Matthew was put on the team with the yellow tanks, while the opposition got the blue.  You can pick out Matthew from the red long sleeve shirt he has underneath.

It was really hilarious watching the kids run around.  Unfortunately for the yellow team, none of their kids could reach the basket on a shot.  The blue team had a few kids that could really shoot, and they scored eight baskets to yellow’s zip.  So Matthew’s team lost again this year.  He was disappointed, but he still had a blast.

Here’s one more clip. 

I think the parents had more fun watching the game than the kids playing it.

Here’s the Yellow Team group picture.

They are so cute.  And here Matthew displaying his medal.  All the kids got a medal.

My handsome athlete.