Before the advent of the internet, good runs were harder to find; especially if you were traveling to a distant city and needed to get your hoops fix with healthy competition. One of the most valuable resources in those days - the early '80s that is - was a copy of The In-Your-Face Basketball Book by Chuck Wielgus, Jr., and Alexander Wolff. The follow-up edition (The Back In Your Face...) proved to be just as effective several years later.
The IYF and BIYF guides were "compendiums of the best sites to play a game of pick-up basketball" and covered a wide range of American cities. Though the guides are out of print and out of date, the accepted playground terminology and pictures from those days are alone worth a used-copy purchase on Amazon or eBay.
Fourteen years after Wielgus and Wolff compiled this list of rewarding runs, they wrote the foreward to Hoops Nation: A Guide to America's Best Pick-Up Basketball; a similar, but more comprehensive field guide of 700 courts covering the 48 contiguous states. Author Chris Ballard offers a descriptive account of his journey through some of basketball's most lored and loved playgrounds, using a "ratings system, complete with graphic symbols, rating such criteria as type of court (indoor or outdoor), level of competition, court quality, rough play, dangerous areas (only exceptional pick-up games in dangerous areas are included), and the regularity of female players" (Amazon.com review).
As much fun as those books are, it's an act of futility to criss-cross the country every few years and to go through the expensive and time-intensive publishing process to share basketball pick -up game reviews. The folks at Dime Magazine and Nike Basketball knew this; that's why they created the Ballers Network, (also available as a Facebook application.)
I'll leave it to them to describe the service:
"Basketball has gone global and Ballers Network is your chance to find a run wherever you are, whenever you want to play. Now you can:
Right now someone, somewhere is ready to ball. Are you?
Get in the game with Ballers Network."
If you haven't downloaded this application to your Facebook account yet, I suggest that you do. The more ballers participating, the richer the resource!
The IYF and BIYF guides were "compendiums of the best sites to play a game of pick-up basketball" and covered a wide range of American cities. Though the guides are out of print and out of date, the accepted playground terminology and pictures from those days are alone worth a used-copy purchase on Amazon or eBay.
Fourteen years after Wielgus and Wolff compiled this list of rewarding runs, they wrote the foreward to Hoops Nation: A Guide to America's Best Pick-Up Basketball; a similar, but more comprehensive field guide of 700 courts covering the 48 contiguous states. Author Chris Ballard offers a descriptive account of his journey through some of basketball's most lored and loved playgrounds, using a "ratings system, complete with graphic symbols, rating such criteria as type of court (indoor or outdoor), level of competition, court quality, rough play, dangerous areas (only exceptional pick-up games in dangerous areas are included), and the regularity of female players" (Amazon.com review).
As much fun as those books are, it's an act of futility to criss-cross the country every few years and to go through the expensive and time-intensive publishing process to share basketball pick -up game reviews. The folks at Dime Magazine and Nike Basketball knew this; that's why they created the Ballers Network, (also available as a Facebook application.)
I'll leave it to them to describe the service:"Basketball has gone global and Ballers Network is your chance to find a run wherever you are, whenever you want to play. Now you can:
- Find a court
- Add your home court
- Find a game
- Schedule your own game and invite other players
Right now someone, somewhere is ready to ball. Are you?
Get in the game with Ballers Network."
If you haven't downloaded this application to your Facebook account yet, I suggest that you do. The more ballers participating, the richer the resource!
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