|
The attitude in the game I did last night was SO BAD, it made me sick. I'm not talking about the attitude of the "inner city" poor kids who were getting their butts kicked, but the attitude of the middle class white kids who were doing the kicking.
The losing team had lost a week or two ago by 94 - 0. Everyone in the city heard about it even though it was a JV game, so not in the paper. So this other team, who is not particularly good, came into the game knowing ahead of time they would probably win.
In describing this game, I can't give the "winners" the respect of calling them Team A, so I'll call them Team Z, and the "losing team" Team B.
Team Z was cheering loudly every time a B player fouled, and the Z players would slap hands and congratulate each other when they fouled on team B. One team B foul was a late screen by a very, very large girl who had no clue how to play basketball, but was gamely trying to play her part in the plays. She had no intention of hurting anyone, but since she was still moving toward the Z player when the contact occurred, of course it was a foul. The problem was that since she was so -- shall we say round -- and the other player was sort of small, the Z player literally bounced off and landed on the floor. The result looked like a hit, but this girl wasn't smart enough or skilled enough for that -- she just didn't have a clue. My partner called the play as a personal, common foul away from the ball. The Z coach came up off the bench carrying on and signalling an intentional and arguing with my partner. I'd have whacked her, but he is more mature than me, and sat her down and went on.
As the game went on, it was obvious that Team Z was not content to just win, or even beat the pants off Team B, but wanted to grind their noses in it. The fans were jeering and calling names, and some of the freshman players who weren't playing JV were quite offensive in their comments. Team Z was still full-court-pressing at 60 points ahead, and when the fifth B player fouled out with no bench players left (They had left for various reasons such as jobs and family responsibilities) the Z team started running up the score, with fast breaks and hotdogging fancy shots, and loud protests from the stands when we would wave off a basket for a travel, or double dribble.
At the end, when the buzzer sounded, a Z team player had the ball in her hand, and I said, "Ball please." She reached it out to me and then at the last second flicked it past me, across the gym. I would have whacked her in an instant, if I had thought it would have accomplished anything. But I will definitely file a sportsmanship report, for what it's worth.
The whole thing was so ugly, when I got home I felt I needed a shower, not because of the physical exertion, indeed in both the Freshman and the JV games, I never broke a sweat. But the shower might have washed off some of the foul smell left from such a nasty game.
The B team coach, however, got the last word in. He said to the Z coach, "Remember, what goes around, comes around." I don't believe in the religious teaching of karma, but he was merely predicting the near future -- Team Z is gonna take enough butt kicking before the season is over.
|