Rome

Finding and getting to the court (5 – Rome isn’t big in basketball so it was difficult finding a court to play)

Rome was proving to be incredibly difficult to find a court to play on. I tried all my previous search tactics but everything was coming up with nothing. It wasn’t until I read an article where I learned that I should be calling it ‘basket’ instead of ‘basketball’ did I finally turn up a good lead. I googled ‘basket’ courts and finally found a Facebook group called ‘Basket Playground – San Lorenzo’. It also amazes me how awesome google translate is because it can translate everything on the page, so even though everything was written in Italian, I could get the gist of it through translations. The page was not as active as the Lisbon Facebook page, but it was still my only lead and I decided to go for it.

I later learned that San Lorenzo is a Club team and the court itself is I believe called ‘San Lollo Basket’. But if you Google map ‘basket playground rome’, it should take you directly to the court. It’s about a 30 minute walk from The Colosseum.

I arrived around 6:45pm on a Tuesday.

The Basketball Court (8 – only one court. Well cared rims, nets and backboard. Court surface is a brick type.)

There is only one basketball court and I am pretty sure it is bigger than regulation and that is probably why people did not play full court. There were 2 half court games going on at the same time when I showed up. These were by far the best rims, nets and backboard I have played on so far. I think the nets were new. I later learned it’s because the club team practices there so they maintain the courts.

The lines on the court are faded and I don’t think there was a half court line. The playing surface was a weird brick type so the traction was not the best, but it was manageable. The nice thing about this court was that the playing surface was huge, there was 30-50 feet of space outside the out of bound lines so people could run out and chase loose balls.

The Players (9 – I may have been too nice in my other city reviews because these guys were by far the best players I played against)

I will admit that this was the first time playing pickup where I felt intimidated. When I arrived, there were 2 half court games going on, with a lot of people waiting for both. One could easily tell that one half was recreational while the other half was legit. I decided to suck it up and forced myself to try playing on the ‘A’ side for once.

There were over 12 people waiting for next in a 4×4 half court game. Average age was 30ish and the average height was about 6’2. Everyone was tall and roughly 25% or so of the players there could dunk because they were dunking in between games. No one dunked during a game though.

I decided to sit myself down amongst the players in hopes that I would get next next next. I knew it was going to be hard because everyone seemed to know each other, high-fiving and talking/laughing in groups.

The thing about pickup basketball is that typically friends form teams together and strangers always seem to be left out. Knowing this and because I knew nobody there, I tried shooting around and talking to people in between games in hopes that I could join a team and play.

Well…next, next, next went by and I still wasn’t playing. I even tried telling people I had next but they decided to form teams with their friends who came later than I did. They even said things like ‘we didn’t know you had next’ to not have to play with me. It then hit me, no one was going to be nice and add me to their team…this was real street pickup basketball. It’s been so long since I’d been rejected in pickup basketball that I forgot what I should have been doing, and that was finding others and asking them to form a team to play next. After waiting 5 games and 1.5 hours later, I finally made a team of misfits who had not played yet and called next. I’ll talk about the game later, but first more about the players.

I learned that because there weren’t many basketball courts in Rome, this would be considered one of the most competitive courts in the city. Also, the neighborhood club team practices and plays there so a lot of players today represented the club team.

Everyone could shoot. If you read my previous blog on the Lisbon pickup basketball experience I mentioned that there were an ‘absurd amount of 3 pointers”. Well, there was even more 3 pointers and jump shots made today than probably all my other city pickup games combined. It wasn’t that everyone was lucky or anything. Everyone had decent form and it couldn’t sag off of someone, you had to play tight D all around.

There were some big dudes as well, lots of 6’5 and 6’6, range who posted up all game. You could tell they practice post moves because they were very fundamental. Everyone played aggressive and fouls were rarely called unless it was blatant (or end of game)…which of course led to lots of arguing, but no fights.

The Game (9 – you know its intense when people start fouling every game point because they don’t want to sit out 5 games for next)

Before I get to gameplay, I did realize that when shooting around, if a player makes a shot, they don’t get the ball back. For those who typically play in the USA, you know that when shooting around and you make a shot, you get the ball back to keep shooting. But in Rome, no one gave you the ball back.

Now on to games. Games were to 21 with 2’s and 3’s. There was that weird check rule again but today it made a bit more sense. After a made basket, foul, or out of bounds, you have to check the ball. But you can check it anywhere outside the 3 point line. So again, differing from USA customs where you only check at the top of the key, today I found myself checking all over the place, including from the corner 3 spot. Also, you did not have to ‘pass in’, you can start attacking instantly after check.

Different cities always seems to have their own rule on whether or not a shot counts if a foul is called on a made basket. Here on this court, a basket will still count even if you call foul.

Because everyone knew that there were double digit number of people waiting, no one wanted to lose and sit the next couple of games out, so everyone played with intense energy. There was this one team who had won 3 straight games before my team took the court.

The most important thing about playing with new people is to make sure they like you, meaning that if you play well enough, hopefully they will want to have you on their team. During this game, I did what every person trying to prove themselves should do – play hard, hustle, play defense, set screens, box out and don’t do anything stupid. I even boxed out the 6’6 dude and grabbed a rebound getting some claps from the crowd. The game was close throughout with both teams making their jump shots and hitting tough layups. It eventually came down to next basket wins. Fortunately, we won the game on layup I made after a checked ball…something that would never happen in the US because I would have had to pass it in.

I wasn’t sure if I was more happy to win and play next, or happy that I won and the team that excluded me had to watch us beat the team that beat them. I guess the high-level intensity brings out the competitor in all of us.

I would end up losing the next game because they just out played us. I decided not to stay because I had already been there for over 2 hours and there were at least 3 teams who had next. But I will say that people were a bit friendlier at the end of the day after proving yourself on the court.

Conclusion

This is the first court I would say that you should have some high level basketball experience. You need to stay aggressive and not call any ticky-tacky fouls because you won’t be taken seriously. Form your own team and make it known you have next because no one is going to pick you if you go there yourself. Expect high level playing styles and lots of shooters. The people I talked to on the court said this was by far the best basketball competition you will experience in Rome.