what position did you play in basketball?
Not the easiest question to answer.
Predominantly point guard, as in at my best that was my best position. But through high school I played every spot 5 through to 1 (yes... at 6'1"... or 6' since I've only added another inch since leaving).
These days I'd probably have to go play 2 or 3 since being out of the game for a while, until I trust my hands again with full ball handling duties.
Funny thing is I "tried out" for Hills basketball club on one of my more recent trips to Sydney, pretty much just to go out have a run and enjoy myself, in one of the trials I wound up on a legit sized 3 (The guy was 6'7 and the starter) and I was shutting him down at my meagre 6'1" height and post glandular fever hops... Overall I was pretty garbage in the try-out (my timing was off playing team defence of the most basic motion offence... was having trouble tracking guys on picks and my ego on the floor doesn't allow me to play that lazy "sag and then close-out" styled defence. But I had more than a dozen impressive plays, a number of threes (which is one thing they badly needed, perimeter shooters), stripped their starting point and also had a nice drive where I drew defence and gave a sweet feed to a guy who was a Development player for the Sydney Kings by the name of Dave Pollard who finished with a quality stuff.
So yeah... these days probably shooting guard or small forward til I work my way back. Was considering putting my name down for the Police and Fire games squad but I'm a bit short on cash at the moment.
most points you ever scored in a game?
Not a real straight forward question either... I had a maximimum score in a mixed social game in less than 5 minutes (which at that level doesn't really count for anything) which would have had me on track for a Wilt 100 mathematically.
But really I don't have a scorer's mentality. Right throughout high school my highest was 15 which I got a number of times and would tend to stop when I got there. I didn't like scoring the most for fear of being considered a ball hog since I was already pretty much everywhere.
Never high scored for my team over a season, finished third 2 years and second once (woeful team that year... I couldn't NOT score that year or we'd have been completely destroyed every game). I probably could have but I didn't like to... I would have easily led our school in assists though over those three years. They didn't keep the numbers but it would have been very comfortable.
career highlight while playing?
A few different things stand out I guess. I was at Forrestville for about 5 seconds (never played a game because I left again prior to the season's start) and trained against Brad Newley. Got my own shots in against him in training... sure he was too athletic for me to hold him down, but i kept getting my own back.
I put up 20 on Scottie Ninnis (current Adelaide 36ers Head Coach and had his jersey retired from his playing days, also represented Australia) and his old man team aptly named "Veterans"
and when he didn't cover me I was seeing double-teams (not advisable) and I pretty much dismantled his team.
I stuck a 3 directly in Darryl Pearce's face
(ex-Adelaide player, also had jersey retired, also played for Australia and was best known as a three point bomber) which was pretty much all I wanted from that game (his team was FAR better and more athletic than the one I was on and that game was pretty much over before it started).
Almost beaned Al Green (ex-36er, was drafted by the Suns many, many moons ago - has the single game scoring record in the NBL still to this day), who was coaching another school, in the head with a behind the back pass on a fastbreak (which I still justify as my teammate not bothering to reach his arm out... it was RIGHT THERE!
) in an intercoll game, which was our school's big rivalry of the year.
Also more than a handful of single plays... I could have comfortably filled a highlight reel if they recorded our games.
Oh... one more, I made the coach of St Peters (one of two biggest schools in the state - $-wise which then extended to sporting prowess as reputable players would drift there, even mid-school year, for some reason clearly not related to illegal sports scholarships...) cop a tech and have a time-out called on his behalf after inadvertantly asking if their scoreboard was broken when running past their bench after hitting a three. Fact was I didn't know we'd opened the game with an 18-0 run and assumed they must have scored at some point.
Such was my reputation for talking smack in other games...
- damn greed)
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