As a kid, playing basketball in your driveway was the best thing ever. It was a magical place to be.
Basketball will always be a part of me, no matter what. The beautiful thing about falling in love with the game as a kid is having dreams of making the NBA. It’s amazing!
I wanted to be like Allen Iverson. I’d go outside in the driveway and imitate his moves–the up-and-under, reverse layup, and his legendary crossover. I really believed that I could be as good as A.I. That’s the nature of being a young kid, isn’t it?
The hoop
But perhaps the best thing about driveway hoops was playing 1-on-1 with a friend. Here’s one of those ‘legendary’ driveway battles, played with my best friend.
Year-2008, Age-11, Driveway-Carmel Street, Players-Mikey G vs. Mikey R
We headed outside after school. “We’re playing to 50. Then it’ll be halftime,” I declared “Really?” Mikey G said. “Yea! We’re going to play to 100!”
It was a Tuesday night, and we started the game around 5:30, playing in our polos and jeans shorts.
The driveway battlers, age 11.
I got the ball to start. We started trading baskets back and forth, and called fouls, too. That added time to the game.
At halftime, Mikey R was ahead, 50-48. We drank our Gatorade and wondered if our moms would call us in. It didn’t matter, though. We were committed to finishing this driveway battle. So it was on to the second half.
Mikey R came out on fire and grew the lead to 65-56. Then, I made a little run of my own–mostly at the foul line. It didn’t matter how I scored, though. All that mattered was WINNING!
I narrowed the lead back to a basket, 90-88, and then went on a 10-2 run to go up 98-92. The win was in my grasp!
But then (after a timeout), Mickey R came back with a 7-0 run of his own. The score was 99-98 Mickey R. For me, it was now or never! Visions of A.I. went through my head as I pulled up from 30.
Swish! 101-99 was the final in a battle that took 3 hours to play.
Needless to say, both of us were dead tired the next day at school.
It’s a terrific memory of driveway hoops–a place where you can be coach, star player, and role player all wrapped into one. Driveway hoops never got old. It’s a timeless treasure!
