Vancouver

This is part 1 of a 2 part series for Vancouver, Canada. I played in both an outdoor court and indoor court in Vancouver. This one is for the outdoor court. If you are interested in an indoor court for Vancouver, read about it HERE!

Kitsilano Beach Park’s Basketball courts are my favorite basketball courts to date. The scenic views from the courts are magnificent and the court itself is very well maintained. With the court being in the center of a very popular beach park, don’t get nervous because you will always be playing in front of a crowd.

Finding and getting to the court (9 – Ask any Vancouver resident and they will tell you that Kitsilano park is the place to ball)

Finding a pickup basketball court to play on in Vancouver, Canada was probably the easiest thing to do. Any site I went to (Reddit, Google Searches, Facebook) or person I asked had a consensus basketball court that everyone recommended and that was Kitsilano beach park. From my searches, they not only recommend it as the basketball court to be at, but as the most competitive as well. It’s very well maintained because the City of Vancouver maintains it and hosts a lot of basketball tournaments there.

It’s right outside downtown Vancouver so it was very easy to get to. I walked there from downtown and it took about 30 minutes, though I will say that the Burrard St bridge was probably longer than it looked. I should have probably biked it but either way, Kitsilano was very easy to get too.

I arrived at the basketball courts at 6:30pm on a Friday night.

The Basketball Court (7 – 2 full courts with quality rims, backboards and nets. Sunset blinds one side of the court)

Kitsilano Beach Park is one of the coolest parks I have ever been to and the basketball courts were right in the middle of everything. Surrounding the basketball courts had people barbecuing, playing tennis (including wheel chair tennis), playing volleyball league matches, and the best part was that the basketball courts were beach side. One side of the courts faced the lovely water and sand making it a very popular place to enjoy not only basketball, but also some beach time.

As for the basketball courts, it was one of the best outdoor courts I had ever played on. The backboard, rims and nets were very good quality and the lines were clearly painted. The playing surface was high quality basketball playing surface so grip was good. Even with the clearly painted lines, the out of bounds for 3 of the sides (baselines and one side) was the grass outside the courts. That meant that you could still step on the white lines on those 3 sides and still be considered in. The only side where the white line was ‘out’ was the side facing the 2nd basketball court.

There were 2 full courts of basketball going on. One court had people just shooting around and one court had full court action. This court would have been a perfect 10 (I really wanted it to be) but there was one minor flaw that can never be changed. One hoop that faces the beach with the incredible view also faced the side where the sun sets. As the sun sets, the sun gets lower and lower to eye level of people shooting and players become more blinded. So make sure when you play here, try and shoot away from the water/sun. In the games I played, the winning team got to shoot on the side away from the sun.

Because this court is in a very popular beach park, there were porta potties near by, as well as a working water fountain. I do not believe there were any lights so I don’t think you can play much past sunset, though sunset in the summer in Vancouver is after 9 PM.

The Players (7 – With all the hype surrounding this court, you better be good to play on this court)

I went to this court with a friend (first city I finally had a friend!).

We were probably the luckiest players at this court because when we got there, there were probably over 15 players waiting to play next. We walked around and asked someone waiting for next and they pointed to at least 3 groups of people. As we were finding out who had next next next next, the game that was playing just ended and the next group of players were going to go on to play. But, there was a lot confusion and arguing on who had next. There was this one kid who said he had next but didn’t have a full team yet so my friend and I quickly asked if we could join, which was exactly what he needed and then somehow he convinced everyone else waiting that he had next so we got to play right away just as we got there. I would like to give this kid props because he could have picked anybody waiting but he picked us 2 random dudes who just showed up to join his team.

What made it even luckier for us was that our team was constructed with the perfect playing styles and positions. I was the point guard, we had a very good shooting guard, an athletic wingman, my friend was a 3 and D guy and we had a center who not only stretched the floor but also boxed out every big the other team had to offer. In my opinion we had the best 5 players on the court at any given time, and we won every game for 2 hours straight (~7 games).

As for the other teams, everyone else was pretty solid as well. Typically, in pickup basketball you would find a player or two who don’t play much basketball but today everyone was decent – you had to be. There was one 6’6 player who stood out because he was extremely long and even almost made this insane dunk driving through the lane against us but fortunately he missed.

Average height was 5’11 with the shortest 5’6 and tallest 6’6. Average age was 27 with the youngest being 18, and the oldest being 60+. Besides the old guy, the next oldest was probably 35 or so.

The Game (10 – Definitely the most fun basketball I played. Lot’s of spectators make the game a bit more fun to play when theres a crowd)

Games were to 11 with 1’s and 2’s. The most interesting part of pickup basketball in Kitsilano park was the art of ‘Next’. They had a rule of a person who calls next can form his own team, so that one person can form a team with anybody including people who just played. Though that rule was probably one of the most argued part as well because I clearly remember a time where one game had 3 people currently playing that had next, next, next. So technically under this rule, they could pick the same team and play over and over and over again, though that did not happen. This rule also left out a lot of people, there was this one guy who thought he was playing for 2 games in a row, only to be left off again and again because the team already picked up 5 players. Because of the high confusion of the next rule here (or the aggressiveness to play next), it’ll really be dependent on who plays that day, so be on the lookout for many different variations of ‘next’ on this court.

Like I said, most teams had solid players but teamwork was a bit off. There were a lot of games where the other team just threw terrible passes to each other so maybe not the most smartest players. I remember a game where we started off with 3 easy layups off of 3 terrible passes.

We won all the games convincingly except for one game where it was 9-9 to 11 (no win by 2). With the 3 point revolution upon us, both teams including ours, felt like it was the best decision to shoot a 2 no matter what, forgoing any easy layup. It was probably the right move because a 2 would win the game and even though both teams missed at least three 3’s each, we kept chucking away. Luckily for us, my friend hit a 3 to end the game and we would continue on playing next. I think basketball analytic nerds would highly approve of this strategy.

After we won our first game shooting into the sun, we did have an advantage every game since we got to shoot on the hoop with the sun at our backs. Not sure if it would change the outcome of any games, but at least I did not leave Kitsilano Park blinded.

I don’t know about others, but I really enjoy playing in front of a crowd. A crowd always brings out the best of me and I seem to play off their energy. There were not only the players who had next were watching, but because the court is right in the middle of a popular beach park, there were plenty of passersby catching a glimpse of our basketball games.

2 hours and 7 games later, our whole team was pretty beat up and tired, so we retired and let the court start up again with 10 new players. We watched a bit on the benches right next to the court and I thought it would just be the next and next next teams playing against each other but for some reason they shot for 10 new players. I think by this time most of the good players left because there were a lot of players we did not play against in the past 2 hours were trying to play. The only returning player was that 6’6 guy and in the first 5 minutes of the next game, he had 2 monster dunks. Good thing for us because we weren’t playing by this time.

Conclusion

I am biased here because we were lucky getting to play immediately and getting put on a very good team. If you visit Vancouver, Canada, you will find yourself at Kitsilano park one way or another because it’s such a popular area with so many different activities going on at once. As for basketball, make sure you are aggressive when declaring next and make sure that you get on the court immediately when it’s your turn because lots of people waiting means that there won’t be much delay between games. Worst comes to worse, if you never get to play, you can just take a couple steps and find yourself at a nice relaxing beach.