Search For a Hoop
My introverted nature has meant that quarantine has not been as bad for me as other people. I spend most of my weekends relaxing at home anyway, so losing the option of going out did not affect me that much. One aspect that has been hard though is the lack of sports. I’m no longer able to play basketball and football with my coworkers. Furthermore the combination of my staying home all the time and my hate of non-sport related cardio has meant that I have been extremely lazy.
One might think that this has made me get fat but it's been the opposite. I’ve lost around 10 pounds total. That's great right? Nah, cause I’ve lost muscles. I can noticeably tell that my arms and legs are getting smaller. Occasional workouts are helping to stymie the atrophy of my muscles but it's nothing like my regular workload. To really fix this issue I went off on a search for a hoop to play basketball on. Basketball is a super popular sport so I thought that there would be no issues in finding one. God I’m idealistic.
The first court I tried was from an elementary school that is close to where I live. It is gated but I’ve seen someone else play on the court so I figured I should give it a shot. After walking to the court I saw that it is gated and locked. I would be able to jump the fence if I wanted but I’m hesitant. I live in a majority white neighborhood and I don’t know who would be offended by me using this court. Would they see me as an intruder? A violator of their peace? I figured there would be other open courts so I set off in my car.
Next I came to a huge park. Publicly funded and open to all, score. As I went to park I saw that there were a few baseball diamonds and what looked to be tennis courts. No obvious signs of a basketball court, curious. I got out of my car and walked through the park. Sure enough it had a space for baseball, a playground for kids, and three tennis courts. No basketball. How the hell? Who designed a park without giving it a single basketball hoop. What kind of people were surveyed in the decision? Looking around at the makeup of the people utilizing the park, made things make more sense. Catering to the majority I guess. Well the search continues.
I kept driving and saw in the distance 3 open courts and an open driveway to them. What a beautiful sight. I almost went down a one way street in my haste to reach the promised land. After parking I got my stuff and my ball and got ready to hoop. There were a group of about 5 kids playing at the far end of the court. They were playing baseball with a soccer ball. I wasn’t worried about this because I was confident that we could stay out of each other's way. After putting all of my stuff down someone comes up to me and ruins my day. A kids camp has reserved this area. So even though there is plenty of room for us to intermingle and keep a safe social distance (all the kids aren’t even wearing masks anyways) I had to go. Furthermore even when the camp stops at 4pm, this belongs to a catholic school so its “private” property. So even after these people leave the owners will likely gate off the area and keep anyone from utilizing it. What a waste.
At this point I’m highly discouraged. My last beacon of hope is a high school I passed on the way. I’m thrilled to see that the gate is open and it only closes at 4pm. Plenty of enough time for me to hoop. What I first thought was a basketball court looks to be a gated skate park. Farther off in the distance I see hoops. The rims look shitty / non-existent in the distance but it's something. As I get closer I realize that this has all been a waste of time. Not only are the courts surrounded by tall and locked gates but the court is unusable. Half the rims are missing. The ones that do exist don’t have nets. There is construction going on inside the court, to what purpose I have no idea, so there is dirt and debris everywhere. At this point I’m done searching. It's crazy to me that I couldn’t find an open place to hoop but what can I do?
As a society we are so obsessed with protecting capital that we erect gates to keep others out. But what does this accomplish? What use is a hoop that only some people can use or ones that sit unutilized? Why is it that what's open to the public is a state of disarray or does not fit the needs of all who would use it. As I ponder these ideas I’m plotting where I can search next. Maybe I’ll drive around more or maybe I’ll quell my fears and jump the fence. All I know is that ball is life. The search for a hoop will continue.