INSIDE: - The Liberty Lake Splash

The Splash July 1, 2010 • 15communityMY FIRSTSA COLUMN SERIES BY SPLASH STAFF WRITER CHAD KIMBERLEYMy first HoopfestHoopfest, the world’s largest three-onthreetournament, celebrated its 21st yearof blacktop basketball last weekend on thestreets of downtown Spokane.I just experienced my first … it mightalso be my last.It won’t be my last just because my teamwent 0-3 (more on that later).It won’t be my last because our finalgame of the day witnessed six or sevencops tearing through the backside of ourcourt en route to the shooting that occurredjust a fewblocks away.It might bemy last because,plain and simple,I am gettingtoo old for this.I came tothis realizationSplash photo by Tammy Kimberleywhile sitting in abookstore in downtownSpokane escapingthe chaos ofthe streets betweenour first and secondgame of the day. Iattempted to get upand head toward ourteam’s court when Iheard my knees, ankle and back play theRice Krispies song when I stood up.Snap, crackle and pop. Add a littlemilk, and I could have been a meal for acarnivore.As the oldest member of my FamilyLeague team, consisting of my brother-inlawJosh Johnson, his brother Mike Johnsonand his brother-in-law John Kirsch, Irealized my job was simply to sub in forguys as they got tired, let the other teams’big guy pound on me in the paint and tryto contribute a point or two toour team’s total — and also tryto have some fun.Splash photo by Tammy KimberleyI would say, despite the losses,most of those goals wererealized. Our team had an unusuallyconsistent run of toughlosses. We dropped our firstgame 18-16 as the time limit expiredon us before we could tieit up and force overtime (gamesgo to 20 points or 25 minutes).This dropped us to the loser’sbracket, where we would haveto win six or sevengames to battle backfor a championship.We lost our nextgame 18-16 as wemissed a late twopointerthat wouldhave forced overtime.After anothertough loss, we hadabout 30 minutesbefore squaring offwith another squadin the first roundof the consolationbracket.We lost 18-16. Despite the same score,we had a slightly different ending. Wewere tied at 16 heading into overtime.We missed a two-pointer, they hit a twopointerand we started making plans forour now newly freed up Sunday morning.18-16, 18-16, 18-16. Seriously, what arethe odds? As John said, the team now hasa perfect name for next year’s run at thewinner’s shirt.To be honest, my body wasn’t too disappointedby the early departure, but Ido wish for my teammates’ sake that wecould have made a better run, or at minimum,won a game. But as I reflect on myfirst Hoopfest experience, there were definitelysome highlights — and one veryunfortunate lowlight.The Hoopfest crew does an amazingjob of organizing, running, maintainingand managing an astounding number ofteams, courts and streets. I was impressedwith our court monitor Courtney whoran a tight ship and didn’t put up withcomplaining from players or fans. Andyou have to respect the volunteers whotake upon themselves the unsavory job oftrash detail.Also, it is great to spend a day shootingair balls with family and friends — themajority, if not all, of those shots comingoff my fingertips — and just hangingout around the court with wives, kids andcomplete strangers.On the flipside, there was one unfortunatething that made the Hoopfest experiencedisappointing. As a basketballcoach, one of the mantras I preach to myplayers is the concept of “win right, loseright.” Whether we pick up a big win orsuffer an embarrassing loss, we treat ouropponents, officials and one another withrespect.Splash photo by Tammy KimberleyThis concept seemed all too often tobe AWOL this weekend. Between playerscomplaining about calls, parents yelling attheir own kids or other kids, threats beingthrown about or posing and mockingafter a win, it was sad to witness.I know there were great moments ofsportsmanship on many courts andteams that showed the characteristicsof winning right and losing right, but itseemed to lean a little to heavily to winwrong and lose wrong.As I walked away from my first andprobably last Hoopfest experience as aplayer, I couldn’t help but think it wastime to leave the street ball to the youngguys and gals and spend time cheering onthe next generation of players.With that, I am nearly 100 percent sureI am retired from Hoopfest.As I type that, I can’t help but think ofMichael Jordan, who is considered thegreatest basketball player of all time, as heretired from an amazing career with theChicago Bulls with the famous quote thathe was “99.9 percent” sure he would neverplay again.Two years later he played again.Splash Staff Writer Chad Kimberley isembarking on multiple “firsts” this summerfor an occasional Splash column series.