Bangkok

Watch out for giant lizards!

Finding and getting to the court (7 – Easy to find the courts but must watch out for huge lizards)

Arriving to Lumpini Park was extremely easy as it was right in the heart of Bangkok. This place could be the perfect rest stop after an exhausting trip to the Grand Palace or Wat Pho. The park itself is massive and its surrounded by plant life, water ponds and is the natural habitat of many different species. In route to the basketball courts through the park we passed by many exotic wildlife including giant lizards! These lizards which are officially called Asian Water Monitors roam the park by land and by water. I assumed that they are harmless as any local person would just go on about their day, but to us tourists, it was a perfect picture taking opportunity with these lizards. We saw many with the largest probably 5 ft long (my editors point out that I am probably exaggerating).

Anyways, back to basketball. Once you are in the park, there is no clear direction on where the courts are, but if you just follow the circular route, you will no doubt eventually find the courts. I will say that there were these other courts we stumbled upon but it was enclosed with a building. It seemed like you needed a membership to use those basketball courts. Eventually after wandering the park for 20-30 minutes, we finally found the outdoor courts. We played on a Saturday afternoon.

The Basketball Court (8 – Wooden backboards with metal rim and nets.)

The courts aren’t going to be the best courts you play on, but they get high marks for having basketball lines correctly drawn without having other sports lines. If I had to guess, I would assume that these courts may even be used for league games because they had clearly marked 3 point lines, half court lines, jump ball circle, and even the free throw lanes had makes for where players should line up. Out of bounds was clearly marked by an orange line around the court so there shouldn’t be any confusion in what was out or what was in. The wooden backboards gave bank shots a soft touch but metal rims and metal nets throw things off at some points but no big complaints.

The Players (6 – Fun to play with but talent level was only average)

One disclaimer here is that I traveled with 5 friends so it was a bit less nerve-racking asking to play. But I exclude my friends from any analysis because they aren’t locals.

When we arrived to the courts, both hoops were being utilized. One hoop featured a 1 on 1 match up between 2 kids who were probably 16 years old, while the other hoop had two brothers just shooting around. 1 kid was maybe 8 years old while his brother was maybe 13.

Because we didn’t have a ball to shoot, we just watched the 1 on 1 matchup for a bit before getting bored and eventually ventured over to the kids who were shooting around. They gladly invited us to shoot around with them and even spoke English as we learned that they went to an international school. The older kid played basketball at his school.

Eventually the 1 on 1 game ended and we played a game of 4 on 4 half court. We shot free throws to split teams.

We played about 3-4 half court games before some older kids started showing up and wanted to play full court. Full court was more fun as us friends got to play on the same team. I would say the most people started showing up around 4 pm.

Average age was probably 22 years old with the oldest being about early 30s and the youngest being high school age. The height range was about 5’4″ to 6’2″.

The skill level was pretty mediocre. You could tell everyone had some experience and skill but I don’t think anyone played at a US high school level. As is the case in many foreign countries, you can tell that many players have never played organized basketball. But nonetheless, it was reasonably competitive because most guys probably played regularly at the courts. The players were mostly Thai but some expats as well.

But there will be one and only one player that I will remember from this trip.

Steph Curry – OK, this was not the real Steph Curry but he did have the complete Curry game clothes, from shorts to jersey. He reflected his game around Curry, shooting 3’s the moment he caught it but unfortunately for everyone else, he didn’t have good form nor did he make many. While this usually wouldn’t be much of a story, the part that stood out was the fact that he would get angry at other people taking 3’s. Even yelling ‘NOO’ very loudly when his own teammates would shoot. I never played on his team, so I never felt his wrath.

The Game (7 – half court was fooling around, but full court became competitive)

I am going to skip the half court games because most of the times, we were just fooling around and its also hard to play seriously when one of the players is 8 years old.

The full court games were great because it’s always fun when playing with friends. We made our own team against the local competition. Getting on the court was pretty organized as people seemed to follow the ‘next’ rule pretty strictly. We suggested playing to 15 by 1s and 2s, though it is unclear whether this is normal in Bangkok.

It got more serious as one team started to play zone to try and slow us down, though many of the locals did not seem to have a great grasp of a zone defense. In the first game, the other team seemed to be surprised by our transition offense but in subsequent games the pace picked up on both sides.

After 3 wins, the locals excluded us from the next game, citing a ‘dynasty’ rule. It is also unclear whether they made this rule up just to prevent us from playing again or if this is actual Thai basketball custom. At this point, we had been at the courts for a while, and decided it was time for a relaxing massage to celebrate our hard work for the day.

Conclusion

Lumpini Park seemed to be a good place for pickup games with decent traffic and skill. It’s easily accessible as the park is in the center of Bangkok. Any person visiting Bangkok should have no issues playing here and most players seemed very welcoming.