I went to the NBA 3 on 3 tournament in London this past weekend. Originally we had 4 guys heading up, but the last guy bailed on us the day before. We were put into the 6’1″+, over 30 division (my teammates are on the wrong side of 30, but they’re black so they’re still more athletic than me). Out of the 3 of us left, only Brian was over 6’1″, and he was only 6’2″. My friend Ray was 5’11” tops and I’m a scrawny 5’9″. So we went in both short and shorthanded.
Despite the fact that other teams were licking their chops at their first glance at us (one guy actually said to me, “What are you, 12?!”), we made it to the finals easily enough. Even though they were bigger they were either too slow, too old, or just plain didn’t know how to play. The team we met in the finals was a different story though. They knew how to play, they were in shape and they did what any smart team would do: go at the smallest guy on the court. In the end it wasn’t much of a contest, and we could only wonder what would have happened if that other guy didn’t bail. Oh well, we still got silver medals and I have to say they don’t look as tacky as the gold ones.
I got back to Toronto at about 4pm on Sunday, right at the tail end of the gay parade. I live smack dab in between the 2 streets the parade route was going through, and despite my pleas and showing to them I indeed lived where I said I did, the police would not let me through. They did let the streetcars through however, which is totally unfair. It took me good half hour to find parking, and I had to walk through a mob of people just to get home. I didn’t even get to see the parade, so I was absolutely fuming about the whole thing.
The weekend ended on a better note however. I finally got to move the car back home a few hours later, and I went with a few friends for a nice dinner in Yorkville and hit the Pilot to see the Christopher Plock Quintet play some jazz. It’s not often you see a guy play two saxophones at the same time. All in all it was a pretty fun weekend.