It’s the largest 3 on 3 basketball tournament in the world, and my family has played for 12 years. To say that we play may be misleading. We gather, wear matching shirts, lose a few games with shots that don’t touch the rim, and passes that hit spectators, then we wander around downtown Spokane and eat chocolate covered strawberries.

This year was no different. Our team name was Children of the Eggman, so named after my Dad who while making breakfast in the morning can almost always be caught singing the line, I am the eggman, koo koo ka choo, (from this Beatles song) as he’s masterfully frying up a dozen eggs to order for everyone in the family. Our team t-shirt was his face, printed large and off to the side, with a word box reading, koo koo ka choo (even though I learned in this process that the real words are goo goo g’joob, who knew?). I made 19 of them.

We have never won a game. When we started 12 years ago, I believe we tried to as any team in the tournament did, but it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t our calling (much to my brother Stephen’s chagrin- he could win with a couple of teamates like himself). We have moved ahead in the tournament by forfeit, and we did throw a game once when we were playing against a young Dad and his two waist-high daughters. I believe that that was the most enjoyable basketball game I’ve ever played.

A full set of pictures can be seen here on my flickr account, my favorites below.

(This last photo really captures the difference between our team and the other teams that play. Look at my opponent, so serious and ambitious, and then look at me all goofy grin. Thanks to Eric for taking dozens of pictures of the games, these last two included).

xoxo
Laura. =)

Tags:   hoopfest2 Comments