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.
Next: Lakers Nation Takes the Court
Finally our turn had come, and we took the floor to stand toe to toe with Compton’s Finest. My long, luscious blonde hair stood out like a sore thumb, but it was hard to see it since I was at least six inches shorter than any other player in the tournament. We warmed up and discussed our strategy, but in the end none of that would matter.
The game started not with a jump ball, but with something they called the rip. It involved one player from each team holding the ball and the player to rip the ball from the other got to start with the ball. Safe to say we didn’t win that one. The opposition scored quickly, as my best attempt at taking a charge didn’t work out. The biggest obstacle for Lakers Nation proved to be passing the ball inbounds. The bizarre shape of the court gave us very little room to inbound the ball, and the opposition managed to steal virtually every inbounds attempt we made.
Ultimately we managed to get on the board once, but we had a little help doing so. An inadvertent referee whistle forced the opposition to stop, but we pressed on! We finally completed an inbounds pass that resulted in a lay-up on the other end. Lakers Nation had finally scored. This wasn’t going to be a shut-out. Needless to say, we were excited.
Unfortunately Compton’s Finest scored four straight baskets to beat Lakers Nation 11-1. However, in the end we had proven to everyone that we were as fearless as the rest.
While our dreams of street ball glory ultimately didn’t come true, the event was still a major success. Hundreds of basketball players from around the city participated, and it ended up being a fantastic event for both Nike and the city of Los Angeles.
I want to send one more special thank you to Nike for getting us into the tournament. While Goldsholl and myself aren’t the most physically gifted basketball players in the city, we certainly enjoyed ourselves while we were there.