Jackson and some Basketball Memories

Here is another of my film shots. I envisioned this portrait of Jackson holding the basketball with the goal in the background being out of focus. Shooting with my old Canon T-70 with a 50mm F1.8 lens nearly wide open that was easy. I remember being a kid Jackson's age and playing basketball. Our goal was mounted to our garage which was at the back of the backyard. The yard sloped down to the garage so it was not level at all. We kept the boat, go kart, lawn mower and bicycles in the garage. There was a small uneven concrete slab in front of the goal which was set at abour 8 ft. On the left side of the goal were pine trees and the fence. Behind the fence was a wooded field where we played and shot our bb guns. You had to be careful not to put too much air into you ball or it would bounce over the fence and it was a real pain to get your ball back because it was often muddy behind the fence. So needless to say we always shot from the right side of the goal. Over time as the ball hit the rim on the right side it would loosen the rim until it would start tilting too the right. When my dad would tighten it back up and you couldn't hit anything for a few days because you had adjusted to the tilted rim. Other things I remember about basketball as a kid. We also had a nerf goal mounted to the door at the end of the hall. I remember my mom playing nerf basketball with me. i also remember in those early years of nerf b-ball that I would re-enact Memphis State games on my nerf court. Keith Lee and Phillip "Doom" Haynes were the players that I liked the best. Jack Eaton, the Channel 5 sports caster, did the play by play for the tigers and I loved listening to him call the games on my old clock radio. In 3rd grade ( the grade Jackson will be in when school starts) our team won first place in basketball. I think I scored 4 points all season. All the Harding Academy elementary schools formed their own league. The star of our team was Trey Nolan. Trey's dad was the coach. In 4th grade we were the worst team in the league because Trey played in a city league. I distinctly remember playing Quince Road that year because we lost the game 20 something to 6 but I had all 6 points. I hit three jump shots from the right side. I guess all the shooting from the right side payed off in that one game. My best year as a basketball player was 6th grade. I don't remember our record but it wasn't that great. I think I averaged about 8 points a game and a few rebounds. I was as tall as I am now in 6th grade so I was considered tall back then. Our coach was our 6th grade teacher, Ken Roberts. Ken is also part of my family, he is married to my cousin Barbara. Ken was a fun coach. One of his many talents was juggling. One afternoon after practice he was juggling 2 basketballs and asked me to toss in a third. Well I didn't toss the ball in, I threw the ball at him so he would drop the other two and then I ran because I knew he would get me. As we walked across the street back to school I was walking about 30 ft behind Ken and the rest of the team because I knew he was going to get me. Well he looked back at me and I stopped. He turned around and started walking again and as I started walking he threw a basketball over his shoulder in my general direction. I wasn't paying a lick of attention and the ball hit me in the mouth which had just been fitted with braces about a month before. It freaked him out that he had hit me and he was worried to death about screwing up the braces. The braces were fine but the inside of my lips were all cut up from the ball hitting my mouth. This story sounds horrible by today standards but back then it was just a teacher and a kid horsing around. In Jr High I gave up basketball because I wasn't that good. My friends and I would play pickup games after lunch and we would usually play 21. I had to learn to become a shooter because I could hardly ever get a rebound. But if I ever got the ball and hit a shot I could usually win because I could hit the rest of my points to 21 in free throws. Eventually my friends instituted a 5 point free throw limit to help make the games a little more fair. Well so much for the basketball memories. The kids love to play basketball in the gym after church. Jalen really loves to play speed with the big kids. One final picture of Jackson. He wanted me to take a shot as he made a layup. Unfortunately, just as he went up the ball slipped out of his hand.