Basketball do Brazil

basketball in Ibirapeura park

Strolling thru Ibirapuera park yesterday afternoon, we noticed that there were several basketball (they pronounce it baskecheball) courts inside the park. We took advantage of the fact that Jim Stoller was here for the weekend and Jim, Junel and I agreed to go back to the park this morning to play some basketball...nothing strenous, just a little shootaround. Or so we thought.

About half an hour after getting to the park and shooting about, we were asked by some locals if we wanted to play a friendly game of 3 on 3. We figured why not, it gave us a good opportunity to interact with some of the locals.

Apparently, we did have to interact with them, since they play basketball really differently from how we play it in the Philippines or even in the States. Fortunately for us, Cesar, one of the locals, knew a little bit of English so he was able to somewhat explain the rules of the game. Basically each game is up to 21 points. Each basket made scores 2 points. There is no extra point for shots beyond the arc. Everything is normal so far. Here is where things get weird. For each basket made, the person who scored the basket then proceeds to shoot a free throw while everyone else stands in the painted area. If the shot goes in then an additional point is awarded to the scorer's team and the opposing team inbounds the ball. If the ball doesn't go in then the team that comes up with the rebound gets possesion of the ball. Another different rule they have is that you do not have to take the ball back outside the painted area when you rebound ball after an oppenent's shot during the normal run of play. Walang nakaw. The only exception to this rule is the rebound after the extra free throw. In this situation you had to take the ball outside of the painted area before being able to take another shot.

The rules really threw us off in the beggining. Opponents would grab the rebound and I would expect them to take it out first but then they would immediately put the ball back up in for the score. Coupled with the fact that the rim was really unforgiving and Junel had a really bad wrist injury we were soundly beaten by our opponents. Not to take anything away from them. Cesar, who looks like a typical black american, was pretty wide and would come up well with rebounds underneath the basket. Tomas, who looked of Italian descent, was deadly from the outside. Their third player was actually a girl, Rosalinda. The best way to describe her was she looked like a female version of Ronaldinho. She was pretty hussle and she had a good outside shot as well.

The way they play the game is really interesting but I would prefer our rules. There was a lot of standing around under the paint waiting for the rebound. This is probably since it was the easiest way to score. The extra free throw also gives too much of an advantage to the scoring team. Because of all the standing around there was rarely any movement. We mixed the teams up after Junel was too injured to play and no one would cut to the basket or move about to get open. Its also interesting how they determine the teams. They play a version of maalis-alis. But instead of playing the hand palm up or palm down, they either put out either one finger or two fingers. This goes on until the number of 1s vs 2s was equal.

Its definitely an interesting way to play the game. Next weekend hopefully Junel will be better and we'll see if we can play some more games with the locals.

Better start practicing my outside shot.