Alaskan Bulgarian

The Perfect Pick-Up Game

Before we get to basketball, let me talk about Dennis. Dennis isn't a student of mine, he's in one of the 11th classes that I don't teach. But Dennis owns the internet club that I come to. He doesn't have money invested in it, but he's probably put in enough time on the computers here to have given the club thousands of leva. At school, Dennis is just a student, a good student and one fluent in English, but just a kid that listens to his teachers.

Here at the internet club, Dennis is a Corleone. He pushes aside kids in their chairs a little when they're in his territory, he wanders about at will while his account is running to give tips to other users, and he plays his music as loud as he wants when he's forgotten his headphones. He was just playing The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony," one of my favorites, and has turned it down a bit to play Annie Lennox's "No More I Love Yous." He's a Counterstrike and Warcraft expert, which I'm sure would make him a good friend of some people I know.

Dennis is invincible here at the internet club. He tells me he lives here because, at home, his parents give him a hard time about not studying. Dennis, I think, more than any other kid here, represents where Bulgaria is going. Even as five and six year-olds here play games that are way over their heads like Counterstrike or Grand Theft Auto 3, they're becoming computer-literate like no kids I've ever seen. Four year-olds are usually pretty good with a mouse in Bulgaria, even when they can't read what's on the screen. And by the time they're ten or eleven, they know enough English to understand such useful phrases as "start game," "cover me!" "choose your weapon," etc. It's not going to get them jobs right out of school, but it at least gives them a great starting point for understanding Word, or other more useful programs. And even if they know "head shot" before they know how to use "the," being at least a little good with computers is something. Now, on to pick-up games and basketball.

Tuesday night has become basketball night for me here in Silistra. I play with an ever-changing assortment of twenty-something guys from around town. Most of them played ball in high school, which makes them all solid pick-up game players in Bulgaria. Last night, we played the most symmetrically perfect pair of games I've ever been involved in. Sure there were errors on both sides, and I, in particular, had my share of turnovers. I let my only dunk attempt literally slip through my fingers as I was focusing on the players around me, the basket, anything but the ball. But the games flowed, they never stopped, or got silly, and no team ever began to look like they'd run away with a game.

Most importantly, there were exactly ten players ready to play in the gym until the last minute when a little of the symmetry left to go to a 9:00 meeting. Nobody was left sitting on the sides, guzzling water and trying to look relaxed, and everybody was putting in their all. Both games had a middle section where it got rough, and every other play ended in a solid foul, but towards the end execution came out on top (In pick-up games! Execution! It was mind-blowing). At the end of two heavy full court games, the gym getting dark, we called it a night with everyone left, exhausted.

Part of the perfection and symmetry of the night came from the fact that we lost the first game 21-19. I had six or seven points, a few blocks and a lot of rebounds, but the other side just played a little bit better at the end of the game. It didn't feel like a tough loss, it felt like the start of something good. We all felt good after the first game. Winded, but good.

The second game started with our side making the first few baskets. I mostly let the offensive game flow around me, getting offensive rebounds and kicking them out, making sure guys had open shots, etc. I didn't actually have a basket until somewhere in the middle of the game and only finished with four or five points. But the entire team was clicking on defense. The play of the game started with a block that sent the ball out to the three point line, where our little guy snagged it and ran it up the floor before passing it off to our small forward for an easy lay up. It felt like a Swiss watch fastbreak and it all came out of the team funneling the ball to the other side's weakest player who felt like he could show me the ball for three or four seconds before taking a shot. I loved the way it felt.

At about 8:30, our little guy had to leave with the score tied 19-19. We wanted to finish the thing so we played 4 on 5. On the first possession I made a lucky 15 foot fadeaway that had to bounce in. We shut them down on defense (We'd been playing zone the whole night, and playing it well, another miracle of the perfect game. Zones almost never work in pick-up games in my experience, but these zones flowed for both teams) and the ball went straight up the court where our small forward made a tough lay-up for the win. 19-21, 21-19. Night over.

We left with "good nights" and my "good games"--Bulgarians, by and large, aren't big on congatulating each other after games, especially informal ones, but they're always more than happy to return a handshake, even if they think it's a bit odd--and I wandered my way home, reflecting on the fantastic symmetry of it all, and the fact that I'd found it here in Silistra.

Posted by Rob at June 9, 2004 07:39 PM