Basketball.....

its the end of February...

The championship basketball tournament was tonight.

Two months ago, my new boss at Chugach, asked me to co-sponsor a Marshallese team of basketball players.  I learned that one guy can sponsor 10 Marshallese guys to be on Kwajalein, after their work hours.  So 15 or so of the guys we worked with signed up, and Dan needed someone else to cover things if more than ten of them actually wanted to play.

As a sponsor, we are expected to be with the group we sponsor the entire time they are on island.  We have to be at the checkpoint to sign them in, and be there to sign them out.  It turned out to be the slightest inconvenience compared to the entertainment of watching them play.

I will have to keep coming back to this post to completely describe the beauty of watching these guys play basketball.

On Ebeye, its the favored sport.  There is not enough room for soccer, they played softball at the dump but too many guys were getting impaled on junk so they stopped it.  I hear there could be tennis courts?  Volley ball is big too, but I would guess its viewed a womans sport over there.  So its basketball.

Jurajar, the tallest guy on our team is my height 5'11" and he's equal to the shortest on the other team.  Aichy is nearly as tall, but much thinner, looks like an NBA player, and plays better than i would guess they do.  He's incredible.  Maybe 140lbs.  Those two are the tallest on our team, which is equal to the shortest "rebelle" on their team.  Their team had two Marshallese guys.  Two incredible Marshallese guys.  Not as incredible as Aichy, but damned good.  They are the ONLY reason our team lost tonight.  The Marshallese guys ..wait people...are twice as quick as the white folks (rebelle).  It only takes one Christmas visit on Ebeye to realize this.  Near the end of the dancing and all they throw can goods out.  "Throw" is a misnomer.  "Rifle" or "Launch" or "shoot" etc is a much better description.  The only reason the rebelle faces in the back don't get hit is because of the reaction times of the Marshallese people in front of them.  The can could be heading at your face at nearly the speed of sound, where you pretty much write things off.....then from nowhere a dark skinned arm and hand shoots up like a rocket ............phewww.....life saved.

We have Jimmy, who is also nearly 5'10" but he has to weigh well past 300lbs.  Jenson, same height almost but maybe 240lbs.  They are walls.  Even against the towering opposition. They are walls, but both very quick walls given their size.

The opposition - Eric at 6'5" played college ball.  Brian at 6'4 or 5" didn't but can shoot close up, Alex teaches high school and coaches two high school basketball teams at 6'4".  The rest of their team was chunky white guys over 5'10" and two Marshallese dudes that saved their asses at 5'9" and 5'10".

Besides Aichy, Jurajar, Jimmy, and Jenson, oh wait Nelson is about 5'10"....most of the rest of our guys were around on average 5'7".  Timothy, 25 or so, shaved head except his tribal lock, drove in several times and scored against and in the middle of the giants, he is 5'6".  It was amazing.

Timothy came back during the second half and hit 3 three pointers in a row.

Aichy drove in once, with the heat of two tall guys right beside him, for a lay up.  Eric and Brian both slammed their arms down above him as they all jumped, expecting a regular layup from the guy 7 inches shorter than them.  Aichy new it was coming, jumped forward spun so his back was at the basket and tossed the ball over his head behind him without looking.  SWISH.  He landed and walked away a smooth as ice as though he had been doing that his whole life.  No big deal.