Worth it for the fashion alone
August 18, 2021 6:59 PM Subscribe
An oral history of Adam Sandler, pickup basketball legend.
On a crisp Saturday morning at Reed Park in Santa Monica, Chris Collins was readying himself to play a couple games of pickup basketball when he heard an oddly familiar voice. “Yo, we need one! Blue, you’re with us!’” it rang out.
The Buffalo, New York native, who was wearing a blue shirt on that fateful morning, looked up from tying his shoes, bewildered. “At first glance, I was like, ‘No… nooooo, this guy’s dressed like such a bum,” Collins recalls. “He really was dressed like such a bum; he was literally wearing these funky, blue gas-station sunglasses, these long, baggy, shiny nylon AND1 shorts from the 2000s, a baggy grey shirt, black Nikes… just a baggy-ass outfit all around.”
But then, it dawned on him: Holy shit, this is Adam Sandler, he thought, I’ve heard about this — this is the moment.
On a crisp Saturday morning at Reed Park in Santa Monica, Chris Collins was readying himself to play a couple games of pickup basketball when he heard an oddly familiar voice. “Yo, we need one! Blue, you’re with us!’” it rang out.
The Buffalo, New York native, who was wearing a blue shirt on that fateful morning, looked up from tying his shoes, bewildered. “At first glance, I was like, ‘No… nooooo, this guy’s dressed like such a bum,” Collins recalls. “He really was dressed like such a bum; he was literally wearing these funky, blue gas-station sunglasses, these long, baggy, shiny nylon AND1 shorts from the 2000s, a baggy grey shirt, black Nikes… just a baggy-ass outfit all around.”
But then, it dawned on him: Holy shit, this is Adam Sandler, he thought, I’ve heard about this — this is the moment.
Adam Sandler is the Chuck Berry of pick-up basketball, in that the list of people who have played with either of them is long, uncountable, and subject to the Woodstock Effect. Berry famously toured only with his guitar and a cord, backed by pickup bands of local musicians at every single show for nearly his entire career.
I feel like this story has been percolating for a few years as writers here and there throw out "hey, neat!" bits about Sandler's basketball jones. It's nice to see the threadlets bundled up like this.
posted by rhizome at 8:59 PM on August 18, 2021
I feel like this story has been percolating for a few years as writers here and there throw out "hey, neat!" bits about Sandler's basketball jones. It's nice to see the threadlets bundled up like this.
posted by rhizome at 8:59 PM on August 18, 2021
To be clear, I have never played with Adam Sandler nor was I at Woodstock although I was alive in '69. But I have played pickup ball at two of the places mentioned primarily Christopher Morley park on Long Island. It was my home pickup court in the late 70s as a high school player and then when I came home from school in the summers. Not to toot my horn, but to toot Adam Sandler's, you have to be good to play there. If you are not, you lose the first game and sit for hours hoping someone who has winners needs a player AND they pick you.
It sounds like he has what I have, old man's disease. That is, a big reluctance to drive the middle in a pickup game on cement. Hang outside making passes and putting up the 3 when they don't respect you. I am not really sure what I would do if he was guarding me. Not sure how much I would push off or whack at him. I have played against a few retired ballplayers and for them, I lay off until they start pushing it. Even with the brief clips shown, you can see he can handle being on the court. It is not a famous person trying to revive a career by going viral. He can ball.
It sounds like Sandler is somewhat akin to Bill Murray living the life he wants just being a quirky famous guy. I recall reading a story not too long ago about how Sandler was at an IHOP and the hostess told him it would be 30 minutes and he just shrugged and left but after the hostess freaked that she did not recognize him, he saw the Tweet and came back a week or two later and posed with her and had his pancakes.
If he is hooping on the set and going local during shooting, I imagine the producers are freaking a little as either it is hard to get insurance or expense or both.
posted by AugustWest at 9:34 PM on August 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
It sounds like he has what I have, old man's disease. That is, a big reluctance to drive the middle in a pickup game on cement. Hang outside making passes and putting up the 3 when they don't respect you. I am not really sure what I would do if he was guarding me. Not sure how much I would push off or whack at him. I have played against a few retired ballplayers and for them, I lay off until they start pushing it. Even with the brief clips shown, you can see he can handle being on the court. It is not a famous person trying to revive a career by going viral. He can ball.
It sounds like Sandler is somewhat akin to Bill Murray living the life he wants just being a quirky famous guy. I recall reading a story not too long ago about how Sandler was at an IHOP and the hostess told him it would be 30 minutes and he just shrugged and left but after the hostess freaked that she did not recognize him, he saw the Tweet and came back a week or two later and posed with her and had his pancakes.
If he is hooping on the set and going local during shooting, I imagine the producers are freaking a little as either it is hard to get insurance or expense or both.
posted by AugustWest at 9:34 PM on August 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
love this. i'm already so creaky and not near his age but can totally relate to basketball as catharsis. it's also the best place to meet new people, possible exception of a bar.
posted by wibari at 10:35 PM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by wibari at 10:35 PM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
If he is hooping on the set and going local during shooting, I imagine the producers are freaking a little as either it is hard to get insurance or expense or both.
He IS the producers (usually).
posted by Optamystic at 2:50 AM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
He IS the producers (usually).
posted by Optamystic at 2:50 AM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
I’ve played a little one-on-one with Mandy Patinkin and Donny Osmond, separate occasions. Mandy really goes for it, Donny was just Joshin’. On brand.
posted by Admiral Viceroy at 4:21 AM on August 19, 2021 [10 favorites]
posted by Admiral Viceroy at 4:21 AM on August 19, 2021 [10 favorites]
He IS the producers (usually).
I wonder if that’s why he produces? If whatever other arguments about casting or creative control he makes, the real reason is so that nobody can tell him he can’t play pickup during a shoot.
posted by mhoye at 5:33 AM on August 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
I wonder if that’s why he produces? If whatever other arguments about casting or creative control he makes, the real reason is so that nobody can tell him he can’t play pickup during a shoot.
posted by mhoye at 5:33 AM on August 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
...the real reason is so that nobody can tell him he can’t play pickup during a shoot.
Having worked on the set of "Little Nicky", I can assure you that that is one of the main reasons that he produces. That, and to give his old SNL friends cushy jobs in sunny locations. It's a pretty sweet operation.
posted by Optamystic at 5:37 AM on August 19, 2021 [22 favorites]
Having worked on the set of "Little Nicky", I can assure you that that is one of the main reasons that he produces. That, and to give his old SNL friends cushy jobs in sunny locations. It's a pretty sweet operation.
posted by Optamystic at 5:37 AM on August 19, 2021 [22 favorites]
Mandy really goes for it
Is the man capable of not going for it? I love him.
posted by Mavri at 6:58 AM on August 19, 2021 [3 favorites]
Is the man capable of not going for it? I love him.
posted by Mavri at 6:58 AM on August 19, 2021 [3 favorites]
If he doesn't voice lines from his movies at appropriate times, then does it even count?
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:04 AM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:04 AM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
Among the many things I'm grateful for is that Adam Sandler seems like a pretty stand-up guy. This reinforced that impression I have of him.
posted by From Bklyn at 8:30 AM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by From Bklyn at 8:30 AM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
Here's a square I made for a quilt at my UU church:
https://i.imgur.com/W2bL3f3.jpeg
posted by hypnogogue at 10:30 AM on August 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
https://i.imgur.com/W2bL3f3.jpeg
posted by hypnogogue at 10:30 AM on August 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
Being a contemporary of Sandler, I'm jealous. This was how I stayed fit and worked off stress and met people wherever I went until my knees starting hurting too much in my early 40s. Greatest sport in the world, I still have dreams where I'm playing.
posted by Lyme Drop at 10:50 AM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Lyme Drop at 10:50 AM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
This is a really nice article. Something about someone as rich and famous as Adam Sandler just out there playing some basketball with just whoever happens to be at the park or gym makes me smile. He clearly could have cultivated a little group of his own (maybe some of his own friends, maybe some former college players) and stuck to playing on his own private courts or whatever. But just mingling out in the public (among people who definitely would and do recognize him) is wonderful to me.
posted by mhum at 2:34 PM on August 19, 2021
posted by mhum at 2:34 PM on August 19, 2021
Not his biggest fan but love that he's out there. Neat! I still play. Skip this comment unless you want to read inside basketball (heh) stuff.
I wish the videos could have captured some better play. Because only thing that showed was how bad everybody is in them. I say that from experience because I play (and have played nonstop until this stupid pandemic, for decades) and as decent as I think I am, when I watched a video taken from last month, it looked like those.
Which is to say I'd bet money that as much as people are lauding him, I bet Sandler himself would say he's nowhere near as good as he's being hyped up to be. I have no handles (meaning I can't do fancy dribbles). My jump shot is unreliable. And recently I blew so many consecutive layups that it only became a "highlight" because I have bounce and got all the rebounds.
He's not good, haha. But the real story to me is that he's out there playing. And I'll cosign that he knows what he's doing. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this on here before, but basketball has a rhythm. I played with a long retired nba player in Seattle, played with budding professional players in Ohio, and played in numerous other states and cities like Orlando and Philly. Played in full court and half court tournaments. And after playing a long, long time, the game becomes a dance.
You know where people are going to be before they go there. You know when a shot goes up a certain way, what's going to happen next, what a player is likely to do next, and you start to see things developing a good 2-3 seconds before they happen.
So yep, he's there. When they swung that pass to him he'd already identified his man under the basket and used his peripheral vision just to make sure he stayed near there but the pass was gone before his hands even touched the ball really.
So anyway, once you have watched and played like a gabillion games, weird stuff starts to happen. You start to let the archetypes, the "forms" if you will, to bring in Plato's terminology, dictate what should happen.
So you make the right passes, shoot the right shots, even if you're bad at it. The guy with the worst jump shot on the team gets passed the ball wide-open at the 3 point line. Everybody knows he's a terrible shot from there. But you scream at him to shoot it from there. Why? Because that's what's supposed to happen.
There are reasons behind it, sure. To keep the defense honest, so that if someone is open out there the defense has to run to defend, cause hell, this scrub might just make the shot. I mean sometimes the defense will just keep letting the person shoot (trust, I've done it out of disrespect or sheer tiredness), but certain things are just supposed to happen.
Basketball is so much fun. One guy I play with off and on stole a pass of mine and then told me he knew I was going to throw it because that's what he would have done.
And to try to not make this a book I'll just say that's how a lot of people know when there is a true new talent on the scene. When there's a guy who does things differently, moves differently, hits shots he isn't supposed to, shoots shots at crazy angles and makes them, or somehow dribbles through people like they aren't even there. We point and say "now THAT guy is good".
Adam isn't playing a lick of defense in any of these clips aside from a boxout of sorts, but again it's great to learn that he is a consistent player. If he ever showed up at my court I would love it. He'd have fun with me and the other guys I play with that pretty much look like the guys in this video. Not great, but out there getting it in. Awesome of him to show up and play.
Pickup basketball is like nothing else in this country. There isn't anything else I can think of where people voluntarily show up for free outside to interact and cooperate together, and it's people of most ages. I've played with like 15 year old girls and with 60 year old men. People literally of all races. There is nothing like it.
posted by cashman at 3:10 PM on August 19, 2021 [11 favorites]
I wish the videos could have captured some better play. Because only thing that showed was how bad everybody is in them. I say that from experience because I play (and have played nonstop until this stupid pandemic, for decades) and as decent as I think I am, when I watched a video taken from last month, it looked like those.
Which is to say I'd bet money that as much as people are lauding him, I bet Sandler himself would say he's nowhere near as good as he's being hyped up to be. I have no handles (meaning I can't do fancy dribbles). My jump shot is unreliable. And recently I blew so many consecutive layups that it only became a "highlight" because I have bounce and got all the rebounds.
He's not good, haha. But the real story to me is that he's out there playing. And I'll cosign that he knows what he's doing. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this on here before, but basketball has a rhythm. I played with a long retired nba player in Seattle, played with budding professional players in Ohio, and played in numerous other states and cities like Orlando and Philly. Played in full court and half court tournaments. And after playing a long, long time, the game becomes a dance.
You know where people are going to be before they go there. You know when a shot goes up a certain way, what's going to happen next, what a player is likely to do next, and you start to see things developing a good 2-3 seconds before they happen.
So yep, he's there. When they swung that pass to him he'd already identified his man under the basket and used his peripheral vision just to make sure he stayed near there but the pass was gone before his hands even touched the ball really.
So anyway, once you have watched and played like a gabillion games, weird stuff starts to happen. You start to let the archetypes, the "forms" if you will, to bring in Plato's terminology, dictate what should happen.
So you make the right passes, shoot the right shots, even if you're bad at it. The guy with the worst jump shot on the team gets passed the ball wide-open at the 3 point line. Everybody knows he's a terrible shot from there. But you scream at him to shoot it from there. Why? Because that's what's supposed to happen.
There are reasons behind it, sure. To keep the defense honest, so that if someone is open out there the defense has to run to defend, cause hell, this scrub might just make the shot. I mean sometimes the defense will just keep letting the person shoot (trust, I've done it out of disrespect or sheer tiredness), but certain things are just supposed to happen.
Basketball is so much fun. One guy I play with off and on stole a pass of mine and then told me he knew I was going to throw it because that's what he would have done.
And to try to not make this a book I'll just say that's how a lot of people know when there is a true new talent on the scene. When there's a guy who does things differently, moves differently, hits shots he isn't supposed to, shoots shots at crazy angles and makes them, or somehow dribbles through people like they aren't even there. We point and say "now THAT guy is good".
Adam isn't playing a lick of defense in any of these clips aside from a boxout of sorts, but again it's great to learn that he is a consistent player. If he ever showed up at my court I would love it. He'd have fun with me and the other guys I play with that pretty much look like the guys in this video. Not great, but out there getting it in. Awesome of him to show up and play.
Pickup basketball is like nothing else in this country. There isn't anything else I can think of where people voluntarily show up for free outside to interact and cooperate together, and it's people of most ages. I've played with like 15 year old girls and with 60 year old men. People literally of all races. There is nothing like it.
posted by cashman at 3:10 PM on August 19, 2021 [11 favorites]
Up the street from my childhood home was once an elementary school. After it burned down, the little kid-sized basketball court remained. Adult scale hoops were installed, but nothing could be done about the dimensions. An elementary school basketball court measures 74 x 42 feet. For comparison, a high school court is 84 x 50 while a college or professional court is 94 x 50 feet. It’s amazing what a difference the smaller court made, improving some players’ games while ruining others’. It was great for full court 3x3. Half court shots were pretty easy. Stamina was improved instantly. Home court advantage was undeniable.
posted by carmicha at 9:15 PM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by carmicha at 9:15 PM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
Optamystic - thank you, that is fantastic.
posted by mhoye at 9:03 AM on August 20, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by mhoye at 9:03 AM on August 20, 2021 [1 favorite]
MetaFilter: played a little one-on-one with Mandy Patinkin and Donny Osmond
posted by rhizome at 1:23 PM on August 20, 2021
posted by rhizome at 1:23 PM on August 20, 2021
"#Sixers PF Tobias Harris participated in an open run featuring Adam Sandler and several NBA players. The NBA players and Sandler are in Philly to film a movie." (note that it's really just a Tobias Harris highlight reel and Sandler pretty much is just 'there' in like 2 shots)
posted by cashman at 7:25 PM on September 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by cashman at 7:25 PM on September 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
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