Dubai

I’ve been to Dubai before, and from past experiences, I know that Dubai is not a walkable city. Everything is so far apart and I only had less than 24 hours in Dubai, so I had to make the most out of it. My airplane landed at 7pm on a Sunday night and I knew that was the only day in which I could play pickup basketball, so I had to be decisive on where I wanted to go. I spent hours researching pickup basketball places and I actually ended up double booking myself that Sunday night with 2 pickup groups (yes I know…I should never do this) but I needed to be sure I could get at least one if the other were to cancel or get full. One was indoor and one was outdoor, so obviously I was trying to get the indoor one. Ultimately, I got my first choice and played indoor basketball with a very competitive group of people. I would recommend anybody coming to Dubai to contact this group below first if looking for good competitive basketball.

Finding and getting to the court (6 – hard to find group, but they respond almost instantly through a WhatsApp group)

Like I said, I had found 2 groups that played pickup basketball that day, one indoor, and one outdoor. I ended up choosing the indoor group but I have to mention the outdoor basketball group because it was actually a hilarious experience.

I first found this outdoor group on Facebook. They were called ‘Dubai Sunday Club Basketball’ and played from 9pm to 12 midnight, which was perfect because I could only play on Sunday. They were extremely responsive, I requested to join the group and chatted with the admins right away on the pickup basketball details and where they play.

Easy right? Nope.

Seemed like no one could give clear directions on where the basketball courts were actually located. I guess it’s one of those things where you are so familiar with the area, that you don’t actually know the location names or street names, you just know how to get there with the back of your mind. Just look at these answers from the group, when I asked where the courts were…

How is anybody supposed to know where they are going haha. What makes it even more extremely hard is whenever I travel, I do not purchase a data plan (save $$$!), so trying to contact them or look up directions while at the area makes it difficult. 

But anyways, these guys were extremely nice and helpful and they seemed like they would want anyone to play basketball. If I had another day, I would definitely want to try to meet up with these guys because they just seemed like they had such a close-knit group of friends that enjoyed playing basketball every Sunday.

Maybe next time.

Anyways, the group I ended up going to was a much more a legit league/club. I stumbled upon their website http://www.ballaboveall.ae/ and they are a group that organizes leagues, club teams, tournaments, and pickup basketball. The pickup basketball part was exactly what I was looking for so I contacted them through Facebook and within 5 minutes, got a response that I would be added to their WhatsApp group. The way pickup basketball works is that they have 3 days of pickup basketball, Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday was billed as Div 1 (intermediate to advanced) and Sunday was D2 (Beginners to Intermediate). Bummer, I wanted the Div 1 but I had to settle for D2. In order to play, one has to respond to the WhatsApp group and place their name on a list that everyone fills out. Every time someone new joins (or takes themselves off), they must resubmit an updated list to the group chat.

The group chat. Every time you want to add yourself to the list, you copy the post, paste it, and then add your name. You need to do the same if you take yourself off (that’s why there are blanks).

This allowed the group to limit the players to the first 15. Pretty simple way of getting people to play. I put my name on the Sunday pickup basketball on Saturday and was able to get on. I would say by Sunday mid-afternoon, the list was full with 15 players. I am still in the group chats and I can say that lots of people drop off the top 15 during day of games, so always put yourself on waiting list and you’re pretty much guaranteed in.

Games are always 90 minutes. And it cost 50 AED to play.

All days were played at different gyms so make sure that you go to the correct one. The Sunday group played at Raffles Sports City. And like I said before, Dubai is so large I think the only way you could get to this place was by driving. So Uber or Taxi would suffice.

Also, I think the basketball court was the only thing open at this venue. When I arrived at Raffles Sports City, everything looked closed. No lights on or anything. Not even if you walk through the front door, you’re not going to notice any basketball court. You need to walk through the dark corridors until you hear basketball bouncing and breathe in a sign of relief that you went to the correct place.

The Basketball Court (7 – fine indoor courts with confusing out of bound lines)

The courts are pretty typical of what you would expect of an indoor basketball court. Real backboards, rims and nets. the court is used as a multi-purpose court, so there are lines all over the place, which made the out of bounds sometimes difficult to see right away. I remember at least 2 instances of where the ball handler got confused/forgot which line was out of bounds, and went out of bounds.

Because this was inside either a sporting venue or school, they had all the necessities such as bathrooms, locker room and even water in those large 5 gallon water dispensers (rare for international courts to provide water).

The Players (6 – Above average players who know how to play)

You have to remember that I went to the ‘Intermediate’ session where it was billed beginners to intermediate. But I can safely say that there was no beginners here. Everyone knew how to play and game was fast paced throughout.

The tallest player was 6’7 and the shortest at 5’7. I would say average height was 6’0 and the average age was probably 35.

Very few players had any post moves. Even the 6’7 guy didn’t do much in the post except for the times he caught a rebound and just stood a foot taller than everyone else for an easy put back. Not a lot of ball handlers either. I would say most people played small or power forward. Most players had ugly shots but kept shooting. There was only 1 person there who had a natural looking 3-point shot.

Because of the players being small forward, power forward positions, there weren’t many ball handlers. I had fun securing a lot of steals from ill-advised passes or just plain terrible dribbling skills.

There was also another one of those ‘stereotypical’ pickup basketball guys you see everywhere in the world and this one was the guy who called a foul every time he drove in the lane. Luckily for me, I had him on my team so I didn’t complain.

While no one really stood out, everyone was decent enough to run a good game.

The Game (8 – fun full court games up to 9)

Games were played to 9 by 1’s and 2’s. checking the ball was confusing at times because half the time people checked the ball at the top of the key, while at other times, they inbounded it from out of bounds. Unsure what the right way was, but everyone seemed to know when the games resumed play.

Teams did play zone, which was interesting because you don’t see zone in pickup basketball. Most teams played 2-3 but in one game, a team tried playing a 2-1-2 zone which completely confused everyone on their own team.

So, for those of you who don’t know me, I’ve said it a million times before, I look nothing like a basketball player and that has its advantages and disadvantage (see Rome for an example of a disadvantage). But for times where the organizer makes teams based on what people look like, I am always placed on the team with good players so that it is ‘balanced’ out. And because of this, I was placed on a team with a group of friends who apparently already knew each other and of course, were very good.

In short, we dominated every team. We didn’t lose the entire night. I think we ended up winning 7-8 games in a 70-minute span. It was so much basketball, I could not continue on because I was completely exhausted.

Conclusion

Overall, an easy way to enter the pickup basketball scene in Dubai and an easy way to meet new people. The guys playing here are extremely nice and even gave me a ride after back closer to my hotel. The WhatsApp system is not perfect and there’s room for improvement (people putting their names on the list and then dropping out last second…) but it’s an easy way anybody can get in. As I was leaving the gym, I asked the organizer how the competition is in the Saturday Div 1 group and he replied ‘I watched you play, and you’ll be fine. If you are looking to play in the league, contact me’.