Enjoyed the discussion Dons started about a month ago back, and I've got a question of my own: How do you deal with the guy in a pick-up game who isn't remotely interested in playing hard?
A bit of background: I'm to some extent a nut, and I'm cognizant of it -- every game is Game 7 to me in the sense that I'm going to put just about everything I have into every game I play. It's in my nature to maintain that it's winning that is particularly fun about playing ball, so priority number one in every game I play is winning. That said, I don't purport to be some star -- or anything of the like. I'm your typical former high school player who is a decent pickup player and just loves playing pick-up because I love the game of basketball. I've played in a few games where I was the best player on the floor, a few games where I was the worst, and a whole lot of games where I was usually somewhere in the middle (usually the third or fourth option offensively on a lot of teams, and I love playing D). I make up for not having overwhelming size by being fairly slow
, and it's always required everything I have on every play to even have a shot. So I'm the last person whose going to flip out at someone whose playing hard and making good decisions but is simply in over his head -- I've been in that spot more times than I'd care to admit.
But what I can't tolerate is the guy who completely short-circuits your team (and sometimes the spirit of the game overall) by giving absolutely nothing (usually, this is more evident on the defensive end, but I'm not thrilled either way) -- especially a dude with little athletic talent in the first place. This is the guy who breaks up a 1-on-none break by pulling up at the foul line to fire an underhand fling off the top of the backboard. The guy who doesn't cross halfcourt to come back on defense too many times all game, and when he does, he stands around, misses defensive assignments and points to guys who aren't being covered -- because the folks guarding those guys are rotating over to help on
his man. Chances are, if you have one of these guys and the other team doesn't, you're going to score less points than the other team. This isn't good.
So what's the best way to deal with this sort of thing? To me, it's one thing in a game with your friends and folks who all know each other messing around. But in a public game where you don't necessarily know the guys involved (at a park or an open run at a gym, for instance), it seems extremely discourteous to the game and those involved with it, and that's what I'm talking about here. So what's the best way to deal with this? In the past few weeks, I've seen this a few times at my gym. On one occasion, the guy was told by his own team to get off the court, promised to play harder and stayed in the game. In another, in a rare loss of temper, I wound up yelling at someone for his lackadaisical attitude defensively (the guy had just mouthed off at me about leaving my man open...which was odd because I'd been busy preventing a lay-up from his while he stood around), and I was subsequently given the "Stop taking yourself so seriously...this isn't the NBA" spiel. So I'm curious as to what the board thinks of these sorts of players. I realize that I'm nuttier about winning than some are, but I'd have no problem with a team that busts its gut all game and loses to a better team -- it's happened a million teams, you shake hands and walk away. But I'm a big believer that the 'guy who doesn't play hard at all' is the worst sort of game-ruiner. Thoughts?
-sw