Anybody who was in Los Angeles this past weekend for the NBA All-Star festivities surely saw the ads for the ‘Los Fearless’ campaign launched by Nike. The sportswear gurus teamed with some of their top NBA players, including Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Deron Williams.
Combined with their ‘Los Fearless’ events that included multiple appearances from these NBA superstars, Nike put together a basketball tournament to get the entire city of Los Angeles involved. The process leading up to the tournament was shrouded in mystery, as nobody was quite sure what to expect.
Lakers Nation was lucky enough to get a spot in the tournament, and would test their skills against some of the best players in the city of Los Angeles. However, once we reached the tournament site we quickly realized that we were at a little bit of a disadvantage.
The team consisted of myself and Associate Editor Michael Goldsholl, both of whom hadn’t played organized basketball since high school. Considering I’m 5’10” and my teammate is 6’5″ it wasn’t a big surprise that we were already at a disadvantage. However, when we discovered the actual rules to the game our chances went from slim to nonexistent.
In an attempt to stick with the fearless motto of the tournament, Nike changed the rules to turn it into a completely different style of basketball. Instead of a rectangular court, the tournament was played on a trapezoidal shaped floor that eliminated the corners. You were awarded two points for each basket scored in the paint and only one for those scored outside of it. As I mentioned above, my 5’10” figure that weighs a staggering 135 pounds isn’t exactly meant for this style of basketball.
As we suited up and awaited our first match-up we discovered that the team we would face was called ‘Compton’s Finest.’ Since our chances were already at nonexistent it’s impossible to lower them anymore, but that certainly didn’t help our confidence much.