Where did you learn to play basketball?

[GBPhoenix1993]

As a kid I always went to Dick Bennett's UWSP summer camps.  There was this kid named Tony same age as me who used to clean up on everyone.

When I was a freshman at UW-Green Bay, I got in a pickup game with some guys that I didn't know.  One guy on my team was just freakishly good, like so good that he was better than any athlete I had ever seen up close and personal but he looked like just a regular short white guy like me.  I told him after the game, "Man you are really good, what year are you?".  He said "senior".  I thought he meant senior in college, but what he really meant was senior in high school. 

After I talked with him for a minute someone took me aside and said "That's the coach's son".  And that was when I realized I had just played hoops with none other than Tony Bennett.  He still was in high school but would come to UW-Green Bay the next year.  I never got to know him real well but when I dealt with him a few times, he was a good guy.  Pretty amazing all the things that guy accomplished in his life since that point.  I remember that pickup game like it was yesterday even though it was over 30 years ago.

If Tony had gone to Marquette instead of UWGB, who knows, maybe he and Tony Smith together could have saved Bob Dukiet's job.

[wadesworld]

Yes. The pot was well over $100 (it was put on at my dad's hospital so a bunch of doctors entering).  I bought a hoop, a subscription to Sports Illustrated and Cabbage Patch Kid for my younger sister. After winning it three more times I was banned from entering.

We didn't have a paved driveway so my dad mounted it on the swingset he'd built for us in the back yard and I played on grass.

Gave up your amateurism at a very young age. Couldn’t play college sports. Sad.

[Billy Hoyle]

Gave up your amateurism at a very young age. Couldn’t play college sports. Sad.

I could see that coming at a young age.   

[dgies9156]

When I was a freshman at UW-Green Bay, I got in a pickup game with some guys that I didn't know.  One guy on my team was just freakishly good, like so good that he was better than any athlete I had ever seen up close and personal but he looked like just a regular short white guy like me.  I told him after the game, "Man you are really good, what year are you?".  He said "senior".  I thought he meant senior in college, but what he really meant was senior in high school. 

If Tony Bennett had gone to Marquette instead of UWGB, who knows, maybe he and Tony Smith together could have saved Bob Dukiet's job.

Doubtful.

[warriorchick]

Yes. The pot was well over $100 (it was put on at my dad's hospital so a bunch of doctors entering).  I bought a hoop, a subscription to Sports Illustrated and Cabbage Patch Kid for my younger sister. After winning it three more times I was banned from entering.

We didn't have a paved driveway so my dad mounted it on the swingset he'd built for us in the back yard and I played on grass.

My hoop was in the grass as well.  Our house was on a long skinny lot, and my mom made my dad put up the pole at the very back.  She thought it was tacky to have a basketball hoop that you could see from the front of the house (and if you knew my mom, this would not surprise you at all).

My brothers and sister and I wore the grass off pretty quickly, and once after a big rain, we had a massive mud fight in the bare spot.  Surprisingly, my mom thought it was hilarious and took pictures of us covered in mud from head to toe.  It was a very happy childhood memory.