Pick Up Basketball

I was looking through the Washington City Paper, a free "alternative" newspaper for DC. They always have a small sports column, that usually focuses on something besides the traditional sports stories covered by cable programs or the newspapers. I read the column by Dave McKenna about pick up basektball in DC. He wrote about seeing a game of "loser's out" at a playground in the city. He was appalled that loser's out was played in DC, where winner's out has always been the rule. Growing up in a suburb of DC, it was always winners ball. Loser's out was described as a white way to play the game, but in my majority white community we always played winners.

When we wouldn't have enough players for a true game, we would always play 21. The idea behind the game is every person for themself. 2 points for a field goal and 1 for a free throw. Free throws were earned by making a bucket, and after 3 made free throws, you had to check it up and play ball. Gettinn tapped meant you lost all of your points, and if you didn't hit 21 exactly, you dropped down to 13.

McKenna mentions in the article how 21 was the suburban(white) game, while 33 was the city(black) way of playing it. I remember playing 33 when I was a kid, but it was predominantly 21. I probably played 33 when I went to basketball camp, where kids from other neighborhoods all came together to play ball. When I was 13 my family moved from the DC area to the Baltimore area. In Baltimore they played 50(both black and white). 21 or 33 never came up.

This was an interesting article because it discussed some of the differences in pick up ball between different groups of people and areas. It would be interesting to me to hear from other people who might have other variances on pick up ball in different places they have played.