Barcelona

Parque de la Barceloneta

Ratings (1-10): 1=terrible/hard, 10=great/easy.

Courts: 5 – one full court where it was impossible to play full. Double rims with metal backboards.

Skill Level: 6 – almost all have played basketball before and it gets competitive.

Easy to Play: 8 – just standard pickup basketball. Go up and call next and you will play.

If there is a more visually magnificent basketball court around the world, please let me know because I don’t think anything can top Barcelona’s Parc de la Baceloneta. When walking through the park it is impossible to miss. In fact, while I was walking towards it, I thought I was going to the Roman Coliseum. With its raised courts and the high rising pillars, you will feel like you are walking right into a gladiator match. I went around 5pm so the sun was starting to set, but it was also the perfect weather and time to play.

There was 1 court but I really doubt anybody could play full court. I don’t know if it was an illusion or not, but it seemed like it was 2 basketball courts long.

There were 2 baskets that people could play on. One basket had little kids and their parents, while the other basket featured 4 on 4 basketball. I naturally gravitated towards the 4 on 4 game.

As I walked towards the courts, I noticed there were some people sitting and watching. I went up to one of them and asked him if they had next. With his broken English, he said something along the lines of ‘I am hurt’. I waited around for about 10 minutes for the game to end, unsure if I had next or not because I didn’t know how to ask in Spanish. After the game ended, I started shooting on the hoop in hopes that they would let me play next. I shot around a bit more before someone finally started to form a team of 4 to challenge the previous winners. Luckily for me, everyone who didn’t play, got to play, so I was in.

Games were to 7 with 1 and 2’s. The courts probably had NBA regulation 3’s . I ended up playing 4 games.

The court: The courts were raised and you have to walkup a slight incline. There was a raised net behind the basketball hoops which I believe was there to prevent anybody from shooting it over the hoop (this actually happened during one of the games). The net did not get low enough so any ball that went out of bounds, rolled off the court and into the park. Average height of players was probably 5’10. Average age ~24.

Game 1: This game went by way too quick. You would think that double rims in a windy arena would prevent any 3 pointers to be made but I was wrong. The other team hit 4 three pointers and the game ended before we could do anything meaningful.

Game 2-3: Two people were waiting and luckily two people left, so I got to keep playing without having to shoot to play or sit out. These next 2 games were a far cry from the first game as no one could make a jump shot. I will say that we did have the tallest person on the court but he was far from the reason why we won. He could probably dunk, but, as the stereotypical tall guy who refuses to stay in the post, he decided to jack up as many 3 pointers as he could. Not only did he not make any, he probably hit rim on less than 50% of his shots. Luckily for us, the other team relied too much on their 3 point shooting as well and could not buy a bucket in these 2 games. This one play, a guy shot a 3 pointer over the backboard. I was unsure if this was the Steph Curry revolution or Euro ball where everyone could be shooters, but the 2 teams combined to shoot an unheard of number of 3 pointers. I stuck to easy, high percentage layups and putbacks for the win.

Game 4: With the uncanny volume of 3 pointers being shot, I decided to join the fun and started jacking up shots as well. This turned out to be a costly mistake as I just added to the brick total that the tall guy on my team was already setting records for.

As for the other two players on my team, one was solid, he didn’t turn the ball over, but also didn’t really score. He played hard on defense so that was good. The other guy on our team, who was probably the 2nd tallest person on the court, probably never played basketball so he had some trouble dribbling and moving around.

The other team did have 2 players who stood out. One was a big man who actually finished nicely when he drove to the basket. Unfortunately he also had the 3 point bug and shot way too many 3 pointers. But when he did drive, he was unstoppable because he muscled his way for an easy layup. There was this short guard probably about my height who could dribble and finish as well. He had a nice step back midrange shot that went in a surprisingly high percentage of the time. He scored the last 5 baskets of game 4 which ultimately defeated us. I unfortunately had the privilege of guarding him during game 4…

I didn’t stay any longer after the last game because I had to go to dinner. It was probably for the best because more and more people began showing up and waiting for the next game would have taken a while.

For anybody traveling to Barcelona and looking for a court where you will feel like the center of attention with its raised courts and coliseum feel, this is the court for you.