Singapore II

One of the reasons why this group is still around is because of the strong organizational and managerial qualities of the admin. I love how he’s evolved this pickup basketball group over the last four years. This isn’t just your normal old pickup basketball where 5’s play nonstop. The admin has transformed this pickup basketball experience into a mini tournament.

Before arriving at the basketball court on Tuesday night, you are told to bring a t-shirt of a certain color to wear. The admin separates everyone onto 5 teams and each team plays a mini round robin basketball tournament against each other. 

• 7 minute games with 24 second shot clock

  • First team to 15 wins or highest score wins after 7 minutes

    • 3 points for a win

    • 1 points for a tie

    • 0 points for a loss

• There are 3 pointers and 2 pointers (Woot! I hope 3s and 2s gains traction in pickup basketball) 

  • You get +1 point on a shooting foul

    • +1 point on a missed shooting foul (but other team gets the ball to inbound) 

      • I will say this one can be taken advantage of if the winning team purposely fouls the losing team just so they can’t score 2+ points

    • 4 points when fouled on a made 3 pointer

    • 3 points when fouled on a made 2 pointer

• After you play each team once, you will be ranked 1 through 5. 

  • Top 3 teams make the semi-finals

  • Teams 4 and 5 play a play-in game for the 4th and final slot in the semi finals

• Tournament games are 10 minutes long with 24 second shot clock

  • First team to 15 wins or highest score wins after 10 minutes

• And of course, games start promptly at 7:40pm, so if you are late, you will be replaced by someone else. Don’t be late! 

• Oh, and one more addition that I love - there are referees! 

  • If you are not playing, you could be assigned a referee role for the game

  • 3 referees per game

I personally loved the new rule changes, especially the addition of referees. While we sometimes take referees for granted, especially when the job looks so easy from the couch, I believe that forcing players to referee games gives them firsthand experience with how hard refereeing can be. 

There are definitely pros and cons to the new format, but I do think that it’s for the better. The biggest pro is that it gives pickup basketball a bit more meaning, as we are playing for a ‘championship’. The con is that you are playing for a ‘championship’ during pickup basketball. I doubt anybody there is there to win per se, but it’s more about getting good runs in and this group gets that done. 

I won’t give my usual reviews on the courts and players since I’ve written about them before but the main details are

• The gym is too hot. There is no AC. Please bring lots of water

• Everyone plays zone defense

• The players (both male and female) are extremely friendly and everyone has basic basketball skills.

Conclusion

I never actually knew what the name of the meetup group Kith2Kin meant, but I finally got around to asking the admin. 

‘Kith means friends while kin means family. I want to instill a culture where the group becomes closer through basketball as we become friends, then family, through hoop sessions. I think it’s already happening with some of the folks as they continue to interact and get to know one another outside of basketball.’  - the admin 

I approve of everything this admin has done with this group and I hope that he continues to bring the love of basketball to anybody visiting (or permanently living in) Singapore! 

_____

Travel Tip from Singapore Changi Airport to really anywhere in Singapore

If you are looking for a cheap alternative to make your way into pretty much anywhere in Singapore, make sure you take the MRT

• Look for the MRT signs within Changi Airport (~$5SG)

• Take the MRT from from Changi Airport to either

  • Expo and then switch to the blue Downtown Line

  • Tanah Merah and then switch to the green East-West Line

•  Once on the MRT, you can really make it to anywhere in SG

The meetup group

So how do you get to be a part of this exclusive group?

First, you must pass the admin test. The guy who runs the group is a no-nonsense dude who will not let you play if he doesn’t like you just from chatting with you. I know this because he posted a hilarious screenshot of a conversation he had with someone else trying to play in this group asking to not pay to play. And right on cue, this admin shut him up by telling him to stop wasting his time.

Second, you must be persistent. Lots of people want to play in this group. I was on the wait-list for 3 weeks before I finally got an in on the 4th and final week I was in Singapore. Not only did I accept placement on the waitlist, I messaged the admin every Tuesday asking if there were spots to play. And when denied, I would politely ask again next week. Though “politely” could mean different things here because when I finally was able to play and meet the admin himself, he said I came across as cocky and arrogant through the messages. Which to my defense, I had to show that I was good and serious about playing (though really I was probably just really desperate to play).

And third, you must be likable (and probably good) to continue playing here. In the group, they talk about players they like and dislike. For players they dislike, they ‘have removed players due to a clash of playing styles and will continue to do so’.

So really not too difficult right?

The players

This group was more Asian than the first pickup basketball group I played in Singapore. The first group was a good mix of every race and ethnicity. I would say this one was probably 90% Asian. That being said, there were a lot more guards and the height’s skewed towards the shorter side. No longer was I the shortest player on the court! Heights ranged from 5’3 to 6’4 with an average of probably 5’9. Ages were probably 27-40 with an average of 33.

Talent-wise was good and everyone knew how to play which made it fun. Everyone was on the same talent level so no one really stood out. There were some players who had their moments such as catching fire from deep or big men grabbing lots of rebounds, but no one was significantly better than anybody else, which is probably why the games seemed more fun.

Gameplay

Games were 2s and 3s to 15. One thing that stood out was that every team played zone. I almost started off on the wrong foot in our first game when I joked about “who plays zone”, but I don't think they got it as a joke and looked at me funny. I just think playing zone is less fun and brings down the playing level but I guess it is a huge advantage in the average pickup game.

The most interesting aspect of this group was that there was a reshuffle of teams after each game. Typically (and in every pickup I've ever played in), if you win, your 5 competes against the next 5 opponents. In this league... let me just copypaste how it worked because I don't think I could explain it any better.

A new 5 will enter the game but to ensure a level playing field, we will split via a draft system. 2 captains playing in similar positions will be selected and they will pick players from the remaining 8.

1st captain - #1, #4, #5 and #8 picks

2nd captain - #2, #3, #6 and #7 picks

CAPTAINS TO STAND OUTSIDE 3 POINT PERIMETER WHILE REMAINING PLAYERS STAY IN PAINT DURING THE PROCESS.

I have to say this only works when you have a strong admin who runs a very disciplined pickup group. I don’t think this would work anywhere else because either people want to keep the same winning team, or just can’t comprehend how it works.

Other quirky rules for this league was that there were no checks. Anytime the ball goes out of bounds, or there is a foul, just inbound the ball from the closest out of bounds and the game continues playing. Another fun one was “No subs allowed mid game to ensure fairness. If u really have to go off, it has to be due to injury. If you go off due to fatigue, your team will continue playing with one man down. We leave it to the discretion of the individual if he/she is capable to finish the game.” and they are serious about this rule too, because in one game, someone quickly ran off the court because of an unnoticed accidental eye poke, and before letting a sub on, they had to confirm it was an actual injury, and not just him going off because of tiredness.

The one thing that I least liked about this group was that they invited up to 20 people to play. This meant if you lost, you may have to wait 2 games before playing again. But then again, it was 2.5 hours of basketball and there was no way anybody could play that long straight, so maybe it's actually a good idea.

The courts

3 basketball courts. Standard indoor courts. One side court seemed to be used for a league game, the middle court was used for random pickup, and then our court was for our pickup group. Because we were there for almost 3 hours, I got to see various men's, women's and coed groups play basketball. It seemed like a popular place to play if you knew how to get in. That said, I'm not sure anybody could just randomly try to play because I know for sure in this meetup group, there would be no way the admin would let any random person play without communicating with him first. Maybe you could have better luck with the other groups.

Conclusion

Difficult group to get an in to play, but once in, It’ll probably be one that you’ll stick around for a long time (if they allow you haha luckily for me, the admin said he'd keep me in the group for 6 month and if we don't see each other again, I'd be dropped...looks like I need to make it back here then!). I enjoyed meeting the people here and playing with them. If (when?) I ever come back to Singapore, I will definitely contact this group again to play. Plus they record all games which makes it even more fun