Boston Exposure League

The triangle offense is considered to be one of the most complex, yet effective offenses in basketball.  It was created by Sam Berry in the 1940’s and later perfected by Tex Winters who has been Phil Jackson’s mentor and assistant coach for 20+ years. Michael Jordan and the Bull ran it in the 90’s and Kobe and the Lakers currently run it in L.A. The triangle offense has accounted for 12 of the last 18 NBA championships. Let’s just say it is quite effective when running properly. Phil Jackson once said that it takes between 2-4 years to fully understand the Triangle Offense… In our case, we had 2 days to master it.

The first two days of the Boston Exposure League were very mental for my team. Not only were we trying to learn about each other but we were trying to learn the Triangle Offense. Basically, it is similar to any other offense except for the spacing and post options. It was a blast from the past for me to watch my “teammates” struggle to learn the simple concepts and basic basketball rules… Oh, the good old days of Indian Hills. Realistically, any professional level basketball player should be able to pick up any offense after a few run-throughs. The only issue is that many of the players in this league are living in a basketball fantasy world bubble in which they believe they can play at the next level but are not even close to good enough. Some may say I belong in this bubble but at least I know how to set a screen or cut to the basket…

Thursday came around quickly and the jitters started to creep into my system. The nerves subsided immediately once the game began. It took me the entire first half to get acquainted to my teammates and the competition. Once I settled down, I was able to play real basketball. Apparently, I still have a little spunk in my game. We won our first game 141-121 and I finished with 21pts, 4rebs, and 5assts. Although I ended with decent stats, I wasn’t happy with my performance as I am a huge self-critic and knew I could play better. We won our second game 135-85 and I had 25pts, 6rebs, and 3 assists. Of course, I wasn’t satisfied because I was 1-7 from 3’s.

Our third game was against a much tougher team and we ended up losing. I had a solid all-around game finishing with 18pts, 8rebs, and 14assts. I finally felt like I was involved in all aspects of the game. Plus, my coach and the team now understood my unselfish approach to the game. I actually got yelled at by a few of the players for being too unselfish. They said I was stealing all their assists by making the extra pass. God forbid I give someone else an easy layup. To make it up to them I was more aggressive offensively and had 28pts, 6rebs, and 6assts in our fourth and final game of the weekend.

Overall, I was very happy and surprised by the first 4 games. Coming into the league I had made a mental goal to average double-figure points and maybe 3rebs and 3assts. I did not expect to be averaging 23pts, 6rebs, and 6assts. Either I’ve gotten a lot better by not playing for 5 years or everyone around me is not very good. For now, I’m going to believe that my age and experience are propelling me into a new level of confidence I never had in college. My teammate called me the Jewish, white Lebron of the league. I can take that label!

We play again tonight and tomorrow and then are off until Sunday for the championship tournament… fortunately, these old bones of mine feel great so far!