Lyon

Finding and getting to the court (8 – Incredibly easy to find. Just wandering through the city brought me to this mini park)

After some luck finding indoor courts in my previous cities, I tried my luck again in Lyon but indoor courts were proving to be very hard to come by in google searches. I then went back to the basics and wandered Lyon for an outdoor court to play on. The first basketball court I stumbled upon featured 2 players shooting around with a deflated basketball that didn’t bounce, so I decided that it would be best for me to keep moving until I could find a court with more people playing and an inflated ball. Luckily for me, in less than 5 minutes of additional walking, I stumbled onto another basketball court called Place de l’Europe.

The Basketball Court (5 – concrete court with double rims and nice soft backboards but no nets made it very difficult to shoot)

There were 2 full court basketball courts with 4 hoops on the sides of each court, bringing the total number of hoops to 10. The side hoops were lower for kids to shoot on, but they were also perfect for adults looking to bring out their inner dunker. The courts were caged in with a fence, but there were also lines on the court to identify out of bounds and 3 point lines as well. The playing surface may have been slanted a bit but unnoticeable once playing. The courts were definitely smaller than usual but nothing outrageous as outdoor courts go. There were no nets on any hoops and the rims were double rimmed. The only bright side for the hoops was that the backboards were not the traditional metal backboards, but a wooden texture that allowed soft banks (Though I will say I did try one bank shot and hit the side of the backboard…so the soft backboard do not help everyone).

The Players (8 – the only reason why this is so high is because there was a kid who dunked and a kid who was going to be a future NBA player…only if he was truly a high school student)

There was only one full court game going on at the time I showed up. This was in the afternoon time around 4:40pm. The other full court was taken over by little kids who were just shooting around on the side hoops. 

The full court game featured 4 on 4, which was kind of nice because of the extra court space.

Average height of players was probably 6’0. Average age was roughly 18 and the skill level had the biggest range of talent where the great divide was somewhere between kids who could dunk, to kids who just started playing basketball.

Most kids probably were there just to shoot around and had very subpar basketball talent, but were forced into a full court basketball game when asked to play. There were 3 players who stood out. 

Future NBA Kid: I wished I found out this kid’s age because he was either a 20 year old baby faced assassin or really a kid still in high school. He was about 6’2, had crazy handles and could finish with ease anytime he drove. His jump shot was still lacking but with work, it could be deadly. He could also dunk. 

The kid who actually dunked: While future NBA kid could dunk, he never dunked in a game. Instead, it was this tall lanky white kid, who was probably 6’2 with no offensive skills to be found, who actually dunked. He had trouble dribbling but understood his value of being tall and blocked a ton of shots and played great rim protection defense. 

Hot Sauce: This quick guard had handles good enough to be featured on the U-18 AND 1 mixtape. With his quick hands and carrying ability, I wasn’t 100% sure if he actually would dribble like that during a game, or he was just doing it for show for these pickup games…because there was no way he would be able to dribble more than 10 dribbles without carrying violation.

The Game (4- Future NBA kid just drove in for layups every play)

I arrived when there was a full court game already going on. I didn’t speak any french so I didn’t know how to ask for next. I just did what any other person looking to play would do, shoot on the hoops until they were finished. So I waited my turn and eventually when their game ended and one kid was leaving. I think he asked if anyone wanted to play in french, but understanding the universal basketball code of ‘we need 1’, I jumped into action and raised my hand.

I did notice that the future NBA kid, kid who dunked and hot sauce were all on the same team in the game before so they pretty much annihilated the other team of kids. But when I joined, they split the teams up and I was teamed up with future NBA kid and tall kid who dunked.

First game went relatively quick (this seems to be a recurring pattern), but it had nothing to do with me. Future NBA kid literally drove in every play and finished his layups. I wasn’t even sure what we were playing up to because he scored way too fast. No one hit a 3 pointer that day because it was a bit windy and the double rims no nets combo didn’t help either. That game wasn’t as fun because it only featured future NBA kid scoring with the same move every play.

I had no idea when the game ended, but when it did, we split teams again and this time it was me and Hot Sauce vs future NBA kid and kid who dunked. This was a bit more fun as the future NBA kid and I guarded each other. I wouldn’t say I shut him down or even came remotely close, because he did score 95% of his teams points, but the games were a bit more even as both teams scored relatively the same amount of times. I even had a nice crossover on him with a nice 1 handed reverse layup that brought shades of Julius Erving.

The biggest moment of this 2nd game was when the kid who dunked (who at this moment I had no idea he could dunk) actually dunked on a fast break. First dunk I’ve seen on this EU trip so it was very exciting when it happened.

I am still unsure what the games were played up to, but I am certain we lost the 2nd game because future NBA kid scored the last basket and everything ended. I think if we had kept score, it would have been about 25-20 with all 1’s and future NBA kid scoring 24 of those points. 

Conclusion

These games were a bit confusing to me as I had no idea how people were keeping score, but seeing someone dunk in a game was the highlight of the day. I wish I had asked future NBA kid how old he was because he was scoring at will and destroying everyone in sight.