a new ball game

I've seen the game on ESPN. It's called slamball. I don't think it's an x game. It's just revolutionized basketball with only a quartet of men on each team running and hopping on trampolines.

The game is exciting to watch for me because they are like in a circus. Those trampolines come in handy when you're aiming to take a shot of the ring and your height serves as a disadvantage when you want to dunk it like my man, Michael Jordan, minus the tongue sticking out.

I want to slam the ball like those dudes. But there's no court around Manila where you can do that. I don't think even the US is prepared to introduce this whole new sport to the entire nation, home of the basketball sport and great NBA players.

Solar Sports is kind enough to buy the rights to show it on local cable. Maybe these TV guys see the commercial potential of the sports.

Not a lot are catching up on the excitement, though. Of course, nothing still beats the physicality of ten men running up and down the floor of the court and challenging gravity without the help of a trampoline.

Four trampolines can make a player king of the dunks in slamball. And you can roll your arm and do whatever aero exhibition on your way to the ring. Once you dunk it, that's worth three points.

Slamball is not a new word, by the way. It's been mentioned before in the Star Trek adventures as the most famous sport in the galaxy. Now that's a trivia for you.

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kids should know that...

First played in Los Angeles, California, the game gained attention from street basketball players in the area. Within a year, 400 people had been enlisted as potential players. In 2002, slamball made its television debut on the TNN network. The game was also sporadically covered on ESPN. In anticipation of a second season of Slamball on both Spike TV and the TNN, two expansion teams (the Riders and Bandits) were added and a new court was built at Universal City, California. (wikipedia)