Philadelphia II

This is my outdoor pickup basketball experience in Philadelphia. Check out my indoor experience at Pottruck Center gym at the University of Pennsylvania

I found myself in Philadelphia again, but I was unsure if I would have enough time to make it out to the basketball courts. I had an event and a dinner before needing to depart the city in less than 12 hours. However, I made it my mission to find an outdoor basketball court to play on. Besides, I've done it before in cities like Phoenix, where I only had an hour to find and play basketball before meeting a Kardashian. Surely, I'd be able to do it here in Philadelphia as well. 

Last time, I was able to play basketball indoors at the University of Pennsylvania, but this time, I wanted to do it the old-fashioned way: finding an outdoor court where anybody could access and play pickup. 

With only an hour to spare, I knew I had to move fast. After about 27 seconds of research, I settled on Schuylkill River Park to see if there would be any pickup games running. Without hesitation, I made my way to the park, in khaki shorts and sneakers, crossing my fingers that my attire would be suitable to play in.

This park had everything. From tennis courts, to a baseball field, a dog park and obviously basketball courts. When I arrived on this beautiful late Saturday afternoon around 5 pm, the prime time for pickup games, both courts were already packed with intense 5-on-5 play. Luckily, just as I was about to choose a court to call next, one game finished, and the next crew needed one more player to complete their team. I seized the opportunity and leaped right onto the court to play.

Right as we were about to begin our game, there seemed to be some confusion about who was on whose team, and someone suggested we play shirts vs. skins. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, my team somehow agreed to be the "skins." Now I know we were in the city of brotherly love but I was most definitely not taking off my shirt. It wasn't due to any self consciousness about my body but simply because there was no logical reason to go shirts vs. skins. Fortunately, before anyone undressed, I quickly interjected with a quick"yea nah, I'm not taking off my shirt." Surprisingly, my blunt protest was effective, and no one ended up removing their shirt. We then proceeded to check the ball and started the game.

The games were played with 1s and 2s (insert my usual disapproval face here) to 15, which could result in long games, especially if both teams struggled to score. However, this game moved fast which worked out perfect for me as I had a dinner to attend afterwards. It seemed that some of these guys had experience playing at the college level, evident from their JUCO/D2/D3 shirts which made for highly competitive games. After one game of blood, sweat and tears, I quickly left the courts and headed to my dinner reservation with no time to change...full of sweat, just sweat.

Conclusion 

If you are looking for some fun exercise, come to Schuylkill River Park, where there are plenty of athletic sports to play, especially pickup basketball. Both courts were highly competitive, with even the occasional dunk here and there!