Saturday Story - August 15, 2020 - The Riot at the Granny Basketball Game!!

 Saturday Story - August 15, 2020

A Granny Basketball Story

It was a tough game.  At halftime, the Georgetown Fire Ants were behind by 18 points - 32 to 14 to the Leander Lightning Lizards in the home opener for the Granny Basketball Central Texas teams.  Not only was it the home opener, but it was the first game ever for the Lightning Lizards.  They were a new team in this fast-growing sport of Granny Basketball - a sport for women over 50.

The fire ants seemingly were playing well.  Monica, who rarely missed a shot was almost the other way around, where she rarely made a shot.  And, at the other end of the court, the Lightning Lizards couldn’t seem to miss.  They were playing at the fairly new Leander Civic Recreation Center.  It was the first time for the Fire Ants to play on the floor.  The Lightning Lizards had practiced here for the past six weeks in the pre-season. 

It just didn’t make any sense to Lynda Wilson, the captain of the Fire Ants.  Even in the warm-up prior to the game, the Fire Ants couldn’t hit a basket.  Last week in their opening game, the Fire Ants had squeaked out a close game over the Round Rock Rockettes 63 to 59 at the Georgetown Recreation Center.  Of course, the Georgetown Rec Center was the home court for the Fire Ants.  The Fire Ants and Rockettes were generally evenly matched.  Lynda expected that the Rockettes would get a good crowd when they played at the Clay Madsen Community Center in Round Rock in a few weeks.  And in that game Monica had 48 of the Fire Ant’s points and tonight, Monica had 6 of the Fire Ants points.  (Since only the two forwards on a team score, it is common for one or both of them to have high point totals.)

And, the Lightning Lizards were a new team.  Lynda thought that only about four women had ever played Granny Basketball before on the new team.  Their big forward seemed just to stand under the basket and pop-in basket after basket. Their shooting forward, Marissa Burill, was ‘hot’.  She was a 6 foot, very talented player.  But, it was rumored that Marissa had played at the University of Texas and even a small stint in the WNBA - Women's National Basketball Association. 

At halftime, the Fire Ants team moaned and groaned.  Getting beat happens - but getting beat by such a huge score to a new and fairly inexperienced team was humiliating.  

Monica came up to Lynda and said “Lynda, I think something is wrong with the baskets.  I think they are too low.  I can touch the bottom of the net - and I never can do that at home.  Can you call a referee over to check that out?" Monica added, "I'm used to a 10-foot basket, so my shots are all too high and bouncing off."

Lynda did step out on the court and caught the eye of one of the refs. The ref happened to be the director for the Leander Civic Recreation Center, “Doc” Stimson.  

Doc asked Lynda - “What can I do for you?”  He then added a comment that he shouldn’t have said “It looks like you are getting outplayed tonight.”

That comment irritated Lynda and Monica (who was standing next to Lynda). Lynda started “Doc, what is the height of the basket?

Doc looked startled “Exactly 9.5 feel, just like the rule book states”.  

Lynda’s eyes got big “No, that is incorrect, I’m on the Executive Committee for Granny Basketball and the rim to the baskets are to be exactly at 10 feet - just like boys, girls, and men’s basketball.”

Doc shook his head “I’m sorry, coach, but you can’t pull that stuff on me.  As director of this facility, I have read the Granny Basketball rules forward and backward.  9.5 feet (or if you will, 114 inches from the floor) to the top of the rim.  Sorry to disappoint you.”

He turned and walked away.  

Lynda and Monica and the rest of the team had steam coming out their ears.  Okay, that isn’t quite true, but anger and confusion mixed in their heads.  

Lynda turned to Shelley Cantue who was their team statistician and had a laptop computer.  She said, “Shelley - quick look that up.”  And looking at the clock, she saw they only have 1.32 on the clock before the second half was to start. “And make it quick”.

Shelley got on it, but play had started again.  The Fire Ants were putting on a stall, something they were good at - especially when they had the lead with only a few minutes left in the game.  They were stalling until Shelley found the appropriate rule about basketball height. The Lightning Lizards were content to let them stall - after all they had the big lead.  

Lynda had stayed on the sidelines, putting Robin Timmens in for her at a center position.  She and Shelley were working their way through the online rulebook.  

And, they found it - on page 18 of the “Comprehensive Rules for Granny Basketball”, copyright of 2018, they found it.  “Rims on the basketball hoop are to be no more and no less than ten feet off the floor (or 120 inches).”

Lynda called a timeout and tried to call Doc Stimson to their bench, but Doc didn’t come as he was chatting with some of his staff on the edge of the court on the Leander side.  

The whistle blew for the timeout to end, but Lynda had not gotten Doc’s attention.  As the team huddled before going on the floor, Lynda said to the team “When we get possession of the ball, stop the game and bring the game ball to me here on the bench.”

The game started again and the ball was awarded to Leander on the alternating possession rule.  Leander scored (again), and Jane Zolnowski took the ball out and walked to the Fire Ant bench.  

Immediately, Doc Stimson blew his whistle and declared an “illegal game stoppage”.  Since the Fire Ants had the ball, he called for a new ball to be put into play - and two technical fouls were shot - with Leander’s strong forward making both shots.

He blew his whistle for the game to start again, and the Fire Ants did not take the court.  Again, he called an “illegal game stoppage” and again, Leander made both free-throws.

This was repeated a third time, until Doc and the other ref came to the Fire Ant bench - blew the whistle and said to Lynda “You are ejected from the game, you must leave the court.”

Lynda yelled, “But Doc, we have proof that the baskets are ten feet from the floor to the rim.”

Doc blew his whistle louder and yelled at his staff to come over.  “Escort this person from the gym for violations.”  The staff looked at him, and he yelled at this staff “I don’t care if you have to carry her, take her out of this gym and out of this building.”  Turning to his assistant manager, he said “and call 911 and get the police here immediately.”  

The staff gently tried to get Lynda to leave, but she was upset and was yelling at Doc Stimson, so the staff pushing her to the door but the Fire Ants gathered around her.  Doc whistled for the Leander Lightning Lizards to come to his aid.  So soon, the staff, the Lightning Lizards and fans of the Lizards all come to push the Fire Ants out of the door.  About that time, the police arrived and saw what seemed to be a riot among a group of women over 50-years-old (and many in their 60s).  

At the door to the gym exit, Lynda yelled to her team, “Get your stuff, we’re going home.”  

Some turned to go grab their duffle-bags, but the crowd and police kept them from re-entering the gym. 

The Fire Ants were escorted out of the building, but without their duffle-bags (which had their car keys and street clothes), they weren’t going anywhere.  The policeman in charge who was having trouble sensing why two Granny Basketball teams were causing a near riot, pulled Lynda aside and tried to get her story.  

Lynda called Shelley over with her computer and explained the rules that the baskets were to be 10 feet from floor to the rim of the basket.  The policeman said that sounded reasonable just like other basketball teams.  

The Fire Ants were standing outside in their jerseys as a cold rain started.  The policeman found Doc Cortex and asked him about the height of the basket rim, and he curtly said “exactly 9.5” feet”. Asked for proof, Doc sent one of his aids to his office to get the official Granny Basketball rules.  Meanwhile, Lynda and Shelley showed the online rules to the policeman.  

In five minutes with the printed, official Granny Basketball rules in his hands, Doc read aloud “And the height of the rim shall be exactly ten feet from the floor”.  

He looked up at Lynda and said “Oops”.

By this stage, there was no point in finishing the game.  Lynda and the captain of the Lightning Lizards (Mary Neely)  agreed to reschedule the game someplace down the line.  Mary apologized to Lynda and said, “Doc, kept telling us he knew the rules, we were new and we trusted him.”

The Fire Ants got their duffle-bags and other equipment and drove the 16 miles back to the Georgetown Recreation Center.

*****

Okay, a weird story.

Background, I’m trying to weave some of the Saturday stories into a Granny Basketball novel - so I wanted a Granny Basketball story.  The main plot of my novel is still being developed - but this isn’t the main plot!!

But, some questions:

Was Lynda correct in trying to appeal to the ref?

Was the ref (Doc Stimson) correct in thinking that Lynda and the Fire Ants were whining because they were behind?

Should actions be taken in this case?  Should Doc Stimson be fined - or fired? Should formal apologies be made?  

Where does “If you can be anything be nice” might fit into this story?

Hugs and LOVE WINS!!!

Karen