First off, I want to say forgive me, Father for I did not worship with the body yesterday.

Some things change and some things have stayed the same. Yesterday, I went to Joe Dumars to play ball at the butt crack of dawn. It was something I had to do for various reasons, first was to play against the Luu family. That was fine and dandy since the last time I played against them, one of them pulled out a gun because he was pissed. That was the first time I ever had cops interrupt a b-ball game. However, playing against them this time only last for an hour and a half because they were worn out already and I got picked up by the brothas to run with them.

So what has changed at Joe Dumars?

First off they jacked up the prices to $8 now!
Second, I noticed they have not built a wall to block the rails to the upstairs. I used to climb over the rails back then because they have a bar up there. So I would get my all you can drink Gatorade up there :)
Third, they remodeled some parts of the area.

What stayed the same at Joe D's?

First, the competition is still the best that I have played against.
2nd the MSU court is still for the best ballers, while the Pistons court is for losers. It's almost like how we describe the CCRB down in A2.
3rd, I can say that I played and stayed way longer than any of the peeps that went with me yesterday. It's been a tradition for me to play and stay longer than everyone else that I go with.
4th, I'm still referred to as the Chinese ***** (another term that African-Americans call themselves). I like it because it shows acceptance and respect for my game.

I was able to wow the crowd, with this one baseline crossover, 360 in the air, through a double team, with a reverse layup and 1. I was crossing people over when I had the chance, and when that wasn't there, then I had the 3's going, if that was shut down, then I got the new backboard shot going. One person described how I played yesterday as I was Iverson on defense with all the rips I had, and T-Mac on offense because I had so many ways to hurt them.

For the past month now, I've been wanting to take my game to a more intense level. Nothing against CBC ball, but nothing compares to Dumars smash mouth in your face ballin. I love the trash talkin on the side or on the court that just gets me more fired up. Yeah, CBC ball is for outreach, but at the same time I feel like people force me to turn my game down and just level off. And I ain't that type of player, I wanna improve as a player everyday.

Finally, throughout all the different teams I was running with there was one main constant. The offense ran through me, which does not necessarily mean I scored but everyone always looked for me. The interesting part is that everyone accepted it and each of them knew their role. I don't know any of brotha's I was runnin wit, but they gave me respect from watching me play. I didn't have to tell any of them what to do because they all know how to play the game within the system.

One thing I did feel bad about though was I kept yelling at my cousin's friend because he wasn't cutting it. He got intimidated by this one big lookin brotha who weighed at 250 and was 6'4. He got scared because of the size factor. I pointed at my heart, and got in his face to see how big his heart is. When it comes down to it, it's the size of your heart is what counts on the court. If I was ever to get a tattoo, it would be of Psalm 23.

I miss those days where my squad would run it up there every Friday night. Those runs yesterday were for my Dekeyser Squad. Gotta start hitting up Dumars again, because it's the best runs in the area, advantage Eastside.

Anything Goes