Philadelphia

Now, this is a story all about how, I played basketball in Philadelphia…

I had many potential ways to spend my time in Philly; eat a philly cheesesteak, tour the liberty bell, hunt for an ocular device, or get dunked on by Joel Embiid.

Out of all those things to try, see, or do in Philly, I obviously went for the latter option in hopes that I could find a park to challenge NBA superstars in a game of basketball. 

There were plenty of outdoor basketball courts to choose from and I wanted to check them all out, but I was told that it would be better for my health if I were to play on an indoor court since running/jumping on a hardwood floor (compared to the hard asphalt surface) would be better for my knees.

See, I was visiting two doctors and whether they really cared about my knees or, in a more likely scenario, were concerned about my safety while wandering the streets of Philly in the middle of the night, they opted to treat me to some pickup basketball at the Pottruck Center gym at the University of Pennsylvania. 

To my avid readers, you may notice that this will be a bit different than my usual posts as this gym is NOT open to the public and you must know someone who studies or is employed at the University of Pennsylvania to enter the gym. Similar to the University of Texas outdoor court, there will be security checking ID. Good job UT and UPenn.

Pottruck Center

This gym had 3 full courts side by side and it just doesn't get better than this. Penn's endowment was $20.7 billion in 2022 and I’d hope they spent some of that money on their indoor basketball courts. 

I’m not going to spend too much time describing the courts and hoops, because as expected, they are probably the highest quality of equipment you could possibly want in pickup basketball.

The courts were divided pretty much by talent level. The middle court was where all the ‘talent’ was, while the two side courts were reserved for lower level play and/or just shooting around. Obviously, I was going straight into the middle court to test out my pickup basketball skills against future doctors, lawyers, and engineers.

I was really hoping that the educational system might advance pickup basketball games to 2’s and 3’s, but was disappointed when games were played to 16 with 1’s and 2’s.

Getting onto a game was fairly straightforward. See who is ‘next’ and either join their team or assemble your own team to play later. Everyone was cordial, so I don’t expect you’ll have an issue getting on to play. The talent level ranged between raw talent and kids who could dunk. One kid that I’ll always remember was this 6'8 raw talented pogo stick who could jump out of the gym, but had very little knowledge of the game of basketball. He had multiple basket interferences/goaltending violations because he kept grabbing the ball before shots hit the rim, or while on the rim. I guess that’s what you should expect on a college campus as these kids were still developing into their bodies. 

Conclusion

I’ll say it again, this is not a place where everyone can get in to play. You MUST know someone who either attends or works at the University of Pennsylvania. But if you do know someone, I recommend coming here for a ‘safe’ place with all amenities to enjoy some pickup basketball! 

One of my editors pointed out that some universities such as UNLV allow anybody to drop in and play basketball for a fee. I’ll have to try that place out the next time I visit Las Vegas!