Finally: Basketball spielen in Germany

This is an article I wrote for the Bulldog Weekly... There will be a blogpost about my central/eastern Europe trip soon!

So the Madness began … without me.

March Madness tipped off in the USA last Thursday and I’m in Germany. And I missed it as I’ve missed In-N-Out, a warm day at the beach and those tall California palm trees.

March Madness is the medical term invented by the doctors (the talking heads) at ESPN to describe the hysteria that sweeps across the American nation for the NCAA Division I college basketball tournament at this time each year. It is not uncommon to see College basketball fans filling out mock brackets and placing small, or even large, bets on games. And they go crazy, watching each insignificant first or second-round game to see if their predictions come true.

Well I was one of the crazed college basketball fans for as long as I can remember. And since I couldn’t watch the games from Germany, I was overwhelmed by a basketball fit as those first round games were being played. So I asked around and found an athletics store and decided to purchase a basketball with the hopes that by shooting some hoops I could at least curb my madness.

I purchased the cheapest ball I could find and dressed in some stylish European athletic short shorts and then went to a park to shoot some hoops.

The park was next to a lake, the grass was green and the sky was blue. It was a nearly perfect spring day.

It took a while for me to find my shot again. I hadn’t touched a basketball since I arrived in Germany two and a half months ago, but eventually the ball began to fall gracefully through the bottom of the net. It gave me a peaceful easy feeling.

A group of people, roughly college aged, played a game of basketball on the court opposite mine. After about fifteen minutes, they called out to me in German, and asked me to play.

So for the next hour I played basketball with the Germans, thus satisfying my basketball craving and partaking in a unique cultural exchange.

At the end of our game I couldn’t help but express my satisfaction that one of the players wore a pair of Lakers basketball shorts.

Upon hearing this, one of the guys said, “The Clippers are better,” in a serious and almost threatening German tone.

“Nein,” was all I said.