Zurich

Finding and getting to the court (5 – Very hard to find about this playing group, but the courts were very easy to get to)

Playing pickup basketball in Zurich was a big challenge. It rained the 2 days I was there so there was no chance of playing outdoors. I had to get creative and searched online to see if there were any open gyms or meetup groups. Not much information was online and the meetup group for Zurich was rather lacking. I was so desperate I started going to the 2nd and 3rd pages of google in hopes to finding a place to play. After some intense googling, I finally found a forum where someone had previously asked a question where people play indoor pickup basketball. It was dated 2013 but people commented on it until 2015. It was a gym located at Stapferstrasse 54 where people played pickup for an hour Tuesday night. I arrived to Zurich on Tuesday so this was a great lead. I searched additional forums a bit more and discovered that there was another post late 2016 when someone mentioned pickup basketball at this same gym Tuesday night again. The start time had changed by 30 minutes, but the day and place was still the same, so I figured that this was convincing enough for me to check it out.

Getting to the court from the Zurich central station was very easy. Got onto the 10 Tram and in about 5 stops (10 min total) got off at the Winkelriedstrasse stop. I actually walked into the wrong building at first because I noticed an indoor basketball court in the building, but the janitor told me it was the building across the street. He pointed me in the right direction and I finally made it to the correct gym.

The Basketball Court (6 – Great hoops and backboard. The court was small so the wall was considered out of bounds. Floor had great traction)

There was one full court with 4 side hoops to shoot on. It seemed like a standard rim and backboard so there would be no excuses for bricking. The court was relatively small so the wall was considered out of bounds. The 3 point line was probably NCAA standard but because of the small court, shooting from the 3 point line on the side meant stepping onto the wall. I could never figure out what was actually out of bounds though. I did notice people hitting the wall while dribbling but no one called it out, so I assumed it was soccer rules where the ball had to touch the wall.

The one complaint I had was that there was not enough room under the basket. I ran a bunch of fast breaks, but with the wall was so close, hitting the wall after finishing a layup was almost inevitable. Also the wall underneath the basket had no padding, and it wasn’t a flat wall so on one fast break, I hit my arm on a ledge sticking out and bruised up my arm.

The floor was either swept or in good condition because I was getting great traction in my running shoes. No worries of slipping.

The Players (5 – Average basketball skill level)

There were 12 people total playing that day. Average age was about 32 years old with the youngest probably being 20 and the oldest probably in his 40’s. Average height was 6’2. There were surprisingly tall people…but unfortunately, most of them had just started playing basketball or were just learning the game.

2 players to note:

Mr. Fundamental – The best player on the court was this 40 year old, white haired guy who was 6’2 and had the whole package. He could dribble, post up, pass and shoot. Whatever team he was on was significantly better than the rest.

The inviting guy – As I entered the courts to play basketball, and before I could even think about my first move to talk to the guys and ask to play basketball, this one guy comes up to me and asks if I am here to play basketball, which I promptly say ‘Yes’, and then he directs me downstairs to the locker room to change. It was almost too easy because it’s always so difficult joining a group to play but this guy invited me before I even had a chance to worry. As for this basketball game, he shot the basketball like a two handed overhead pass.

The Game (7 – Full court basketball. Games to 21 with 1’s and 2’s. 1 sub per team.)

Once we had 10 people at the court, we immediately started shooting for teams. First 5 who made it were on a team, while the rest were on the other team. I usually don’t think much about this approach making teams when players skill levels are comparable but this time it did really produce unfair teams. Typically the people who make their shot are the ones who are better and if there is a huge drop off in talent, its really going to be a one sided match. I made my free throw and I believe we ended up with the best 5 players on 1 team.

As we started, 2 more players came and they were promptly put onto teams. So each team had 6 players where we subbed in and out.

The game was easily like an NBA team vs a high school team. Our team was scoring with ease, even throwing alley oops (non-dunking) on many plays. I actually did not know what we were playing up to so the game lasted much more longer than I expected. Usually pickup games end around the 9-16 range but this game went up to 21. I think the final score was 21-5.

After that game, we immediately swapped 2 players with the other team. Unfortunately for me, Mr. Fundamental was traded to the other team along with this PG player. I was kind of glad that PG went to the other team because even though he was one of the better players, he was shooting a TON of jump shots that never went in. He was the type of player which expects to make every shot but in reality never makes any and then starts getting angry at himself because he was having a bad shooting day. One player we got in return had never played basketball in his life. It was the type of player where they would travel on all plays but no one called it on him because he was so bad. The other player we received was a huge 6’5, 300lb guy who didn’t jump but took up a lot of space. As for basketball talent, he once shot a 2 foot jump shot over the backboard…

The 2nd game was much closer. My floater was on that day so I drove a lot and scored most of my points off floaters. Even though that 6’5 guy wasn’t really basketball savvy, he did set some great picks which allowed me to get these floaters going. The other team, led by Mr. Fundamental got easy baskets around the rim after grabbing many rebounds and putbacks. We were at a 17-17 tie before the other team broke out a mini run to cap off a 21-18 win. By the time the game ended, our 1 hour allotted time slot was up, but the people scheduled to use the gym after us had not come so the guys were deciding whether or not to play any longer. I had to go by then, but I assumed that you could have played longer as long as the people after you do not show up.

Conclusion

I don’t think I had ever used a forum for anything until Zurich and I am glad I dug deep into google and read forum comments. These guys seem like a very inviting group and are always looking for people to play basketball with. So if you are in Zurich on a Tuesday night, I would check out this place!