Lisbon

Finding and getting to the court (9 – As long as you are near the heart of Lisbon, this court is extremely easy to get to…just don’t mind the steep hills and slippery sidewalks to get there)

It’s always fascinating finding out about pickup basketball games around the world. I found my Amsterdam pickup basketball through Meetup.com, Zurich pickup basketball through forums, Johannesburg pickup basketball through the hotel I stayed at and other cities through Google searches. Lisbon just adds to the list as they actually have a very well run Facebook group called ‘Campo Mártires da Pátria STREET BASKET’. It’s a group of almost 500 members and when people want to or are going to go play basketball, they just post there and people show up. I found them and saw people posting on almost a daily basis of times when they go play pickup so I decided to go check them out on Saturday 6:30pm. I just plugged ‘Campo Mártires da Pátria’ into google maps and you can easily get there by following directions.

The Basketball Court (4 – only one court. No nets on either rims and one side had both a bent rim and backboard)

There was only one basketball court and when I got there, it was being shared with soccer players. There are actually soccer goals underneath both hoops which is actually kind of nice because it gives players room to finish layups. But because there are soccer nets, that means half the time soccer players are on the court kicking the balls around.

On one side, the rim and backboard were ok. No nets on either rims but at least the rim and backboard were in good shape On the other end, the rim was bent down and the backboard had a weird bend on the bottom so the middle protruded out just the slightest bit to affect any backboard shot/layup. So you can probably guess which side the majority of basketball was being played on. Single thick metal rims and I believe metal backboards.

The court itself is nice. Its surrounded by a fence so no ball can go rolling away. There is only one entrance so I felt pretty safe putting my valuables on the other side where no one will actually go. One of the players told me they just painted the lines the day before we played so we were the first players that played with the new lines. The court lines had everything from free throw box, to 3 second semi circle, to 3 point line and of course a middle circle for jump ball. But it did make everyone wonder why whoever fixed the court, decided to paint lines, rather than fix the actual hoop and backboard.

The Players (8 – best overall talent I played against. Most players knew how to play basketball…including a semi pro player from Brazil)

When I first showed up, there was a 3×3 half court game going on the side with the bent rim and backboard. I wondered why they had chosen that half instead of the other nicer half, but after watching them for about 10 seconds, I realized that they all probably never played basketball ever. There were travels and double dribbles every play and they were doing nontraditional pickup ball rules such as inbounding the ball after a made basket, and shooting free-throws on shooting fouls. I was going to leave but then luckily someone came and asked if I had next. I asked him if this was the overall talent but he quickly told me he had never seen them before and there will be more (better) people coming. I would later find out that this guy was the one posting on the Facebook group telling everyone to come play that Saturday evening. I am not going to include this first group of players I saw in any ratings.

After this first 3×3 game finally ended after a painful 30 minutes because no one could score, more players started showing up.

Average height was ~5’10 with the tallest being 6’5 and the shortest being 5’5. The average age was probably 25 with the youngest in 9th grade and the oldest probably mid 30’s.

There were 4 players who stood out.

Semi pro player – this 6’5 guy was by far the most talented player I played against in my international pickup basketball career. I spoke with him and he mentioned he played professional in Brazil before moving to Lisbon to play in a semi-pro league. While he had the resume of being incredible in pickup, he didn’t utilize his size as much as I would have liked him too. But nonetheless, he stood out above everyone else.

The guard who beat me –Basically, I guarded the semi pro player in all 3 games we played and we easily won all 3 games. But when this guard had next, I thought there was no way we would lose because we just shut down the semi pro guy and we would easily be able to beat this next team. NOPE. This guy hit all his 3’s on me, locked me down, and easily took it to the hoop a number of times.

The twins – these 2 twins matched up against each other every game causing some of the most bruising and physical low post games I had ever saw. Just think of sibling rivalry but taken out full force on the court. They both went after each other every play down low, throwing elbows, hooking, lowering their shoulders into each other, and neither of them ever got mad at each other because, well they are brothers. But it’s nice to see players do post moves once in a while, but these guys did it the whole game.

Guess who’s the semi pro and who’s the twins?

Everyone was really nice, there was never arguing and even clapping and signs of approval when someone did an impressive move.

The Game (8 – high level intensity games. The good players knew ball movement while the worse players did too much 1 on 1)

Games were 3 on 3 half court. I don’t think people could play full court 5 on 5 because one side has bent rims and backboards, and there were also soccer players on the other side. The games I played were all on the better side.

The first couple of games were 1’s and 2’s to 12, while the last couple of games changed to 2’s and 3’s to 16.

I didn’t fully understand the checking rule but I think it went as follows

After a made basket, the other team can take the ball beyond the 3 point line and start playing. But it wasn’t like FIBA olympic rules where you can kick it out beyond the 3 point line and start playing instantly. There was always a pause (where a check should be) where the offense made sure the defense was ready, so it was a bit weird to me. I didn’t really understand it and kept checking it after the other team made baskets but the other team never seemed to check to me.

If the ball goes out of bounds or if there is a foul called, then you check the ball.

Also, the person who starts with the ball (after a check or no check) can just start dribbling or shooting without having to pass it on the first play.

The out of bounds was the fence and not the painted lines. They seemed to have soccer rules for out of bounds where it’s only out if the ball touches the fence. The players body can touch the fence and that would not be considered out.

The games were interesting. I got to guard the semi pro player every game and I will say, he has the talent there, but I don’t know if he wasn’t trying or just wasn’t that great. And when I mean is that he wasn’t great compared to expectations. He was still better than everyone else. He could easily push/post me and score but only seemed to do that maybe 2 times max. Regardless, the ball ran through him and he scored a lot of his team points. I did get him to take some terrible jump shots and even stole the ball from him a couple of times. But with our team easily winning all 3 games against him, I am unsure how well he plays at the semi pro level.

Other than that, and like I mentioned above, there were 2 twins who posted up the entire game. You typically don’t see post players anymore but it was nice to see these guys fight for position every play.

There was also an absurd amount of 3 pointers today. Lots of people were shooting 3’s and even I hit all my jump shots…and I never hit all my jump shots. It will probably not happen again and I AM NOT LYING…I was called Steph Curry for the first time in my life. I guess it was just one of those days.

But it all came crashing down in the last 2 games when this new guy came and guarded me. Don’t want to spend much time talking here but he hit his 3’s, and played lockdown defense. One cool thing to note was that I later found out that this dude worked in the analytics space so we had a nice little conversation after our games ended.

There were some younger players who definitely know how to play basketball but they weren’t basketball smart yet. They were doing too much dribbling and one on one action that ends with one of those crazy layups that never had any chance of hitting rim. But, I see potential in these kids.

I played until 9:30pm so all in all, a good 3 hours of basketball.

Conclusion

With the majority of players knowing how to play basketball, the games were intense and you could feel that everyone wanted to win. For those looking for an easy pickup basketball game in Lisbon, Portugal, go to Facebook and search ‘Campo Mártires da Pátria STREET BASKET’ and you will always be up to date on the latest basketball action in Lisbon.