On Sunday, John Michael played his last basketball game of the season with i9 Sports. It was the championship game between the Jazz, where JM basically played center because he’s one of the tallest players, and the Lakers.
The final score was 37-30, Jazz, with JM scoring four baskets and making one of his two free throws (a clutch shot that gave his team the lead) after he was fouled for the first time, in a game that was full of fouls (many of them uncalled by the referees, on both sides). It ended in an overtime period that could’ve gone either way.
Watching as a basketball fan, I thought it was an intense game with frequent turnovers as players constantly wrestled for the ball – often to the point that they ended up flopping onto the court.
As a sometimes nervous parent, I thought it was kind of a train wreck. Players on both teams grew increasingly aggressive with each other as the game went on, leading to people getting popped in the face, hurting their hands, getting sat on by opponents while struggling to keep the ball. The scorekeeping official finally halted play long enough to urge the kids to stop pushing and being so physical.
It worked a little, and the refs started calling fouls with more frequency, but I worried that someone would end up leaving the game on a stretcher. Happily, they did not.
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Author: Wes Platt
Lead storyteller. Game designer and journalist. Recovering Floridian. Email: southpointaccessnews@gmail.com.
