I recently found myself on the same basketball court with a former NBA player at our Sunday open gym. This is not the norm. We typically have a few games going on at once and usually 1-2 college level athletes per team, the rest of the players are usually just focused on continuing their necessary breathing patterns. Justin, Chris, Andrew, Shawn and I showed up to play this past Sunday. As the first teams were taking the court, I noticed a guy with dark hair, about 6'5, walking onto the court. At first glance, I thought, he looks like he might be good. After his first shot, I told Justin that this guy looks like a thoroughbred (this is a lame term for someone who is great at their sport, commonly used in the 80's). Then the man came closer, and it was clear we were playing with the one and only "Sam Jacobson". Sam played 4 years at the University of MN, then played a few years in the NBA with the Lakers, Warriors, and Timberwolves. He never amounted to much in the league, but hey, he was in the league, and had a great college career.
So lets get to my first game against his team. We lost 11-0. I missed one shot and mostly tried to stay upright, but it was surreal playing against someone who was just so very great at the sport. It just looked so easy for him. His team won 4 games or so to keep the court. When they finally lost, a sulking Sam walked off the court, complaining about his teammates not moving to the right places. Keep in mind he had kept the court for 4 games and his non-pro athlete teammates were probably gassed. This pissed me off, not only because they had won 4 games in a row, but mostly because....It's open gym!!! If you care too much your a tool. If you care too little your a loser. This is the biggest obstacle to finding a good open gym to go to. Too much caring and you have fights. Too much the other way and you have a sloppy, waste of time, game. Obviously Sam hasn't mastered this tightrope in his 20+ years of organized bball.
I came away thinking Sam (whom I used to worship) is a dork. That might not be true, because I didn't talk to him, but he certainly didn't impress with his personality. Maybe when I play against a retired John Thomas down the road I'll be impressed with him. Below is a video of a Sam Jacobson dunk from an Italian pro league game last year. I think the music fits him yeah?
Update...After some thought, I realized I have played against a future/current NBA player. In 1993-94, our Minnewaska traveling bball team beat Joel Pryzbilla's Moticello Tigers in a 8th grade tournament in St. Cloud. There isn't really much to tell except he was already 6'9 and didn't seem to care about the outcome.
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6 comments:
Sorry to hear Sam was a douche.
You should expect that 0ut of a former Gopher.
My fondest memory of Joel Pryzbilla was him sitting in Andrew's living room and me in utter disbelief as to how long his legs were.
Shirk
I think Danny Walker got with quite a few girls in college by claiming he was Sam "Jewish Jordan" Jacobson.
Jim, didn't Monique agree to go out with you because she thought you were Fred Hoiberg?
I agree he was a douche, but I still love him.
My favorite Joel moment is when he came to my dorm room to play Zelda after banging the girl 2 doors down and he had to bend over to get through our 6'0" doorway.
The doorway was 6'10"
I banged so many honeys in college with my Jacobson game! (never mind the fact that i am only like 5'10".)
Kevin Lynch was at my sisters 30th birthday party. Talk about a douche! My dad said, "God, Kevin Lynch is a real geek!" He was wearing sweatpants. In all honesty, i think JB is a cooler person.
Oh yeah~ and Ricky Foggy used to be a coach for the Augsburg football team and he played on the coaches intermural team and I had to gaurd him. I mostly just followed him around the court as he shot 3s and dunked all over my shit.
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