07 - No Emo, No Drama, Just Balls

What's up berasap, y'all? If you haven't been paying attention, this is the blog for NCBL 2K11. No need for further introductions, so let's get on with it. This is part 7 of the 10 Things You Need To Know Before Playing In NCBL 2K11, and this post is about the three most common scenarios that can get your teammates in a drama trip, and suggestions on how to avoid or deal with it. It's going to be a short post, because I don't really like blabbering about non-basketball stuff in this blog but I still think it's crucial for people to know this before playing in NCBL or any other basketball tournaments, be it closed or open. Can you dig it?

Anyways, the first scenario is when a player on a team hogs the ball, sometimes forcing a bad shot or committing a turnover. More often than not, these players are the stars or ball-handlers for the team. These players may sometimes be fueled by emotions, and force their way into making a sweet-ass play for the team. Regardless of whether or not the player is successful in his attempts, the player's teammates will usually get demotivated, show less enthusiasm on defense and become less reluctant to pass on offense. The dilemma lies in how to deal with the player if he keeps on caru-ing because this type of player can be a double-edged sword. Here's my advice on dealing with this situation:

• Player caru but scoring, team is leading with big margin - take him out for at least 5 minutes and ask him to be less assertive on the game and let his teammates get some feel for the game.
• Player caru but scoring, team is down by big margin - take him out and tell him that even though he is making plays for the team, his style of play is hurting his teammates and they can't perform at their best because of it. 
• Player caru but scoring, team is leading with small margin - call time-out and ask everyone to just ride the hot hand on offense. Only change the style of play if the caru-er takes a bad shot or commits a turnover on consecutive possessions.
• Player caru but scoring, team is down by small margin - take him out for a few possessions. Ask him to help his teammates get a better feel for the game once he is subbed back in because although he is scoring, the team needs everyone to be involved on offense to win. 
• Player caru but not scoring - bench him and ceramah about the importance of playing a team game.

The second most common cause of drama in basketball is the officiating. In almost every single game I've watched, the losing team would complain about the referees making some bogus calls or missing some fouls or being biased or simply being seorang ref kayu. Does that mean that all referees are crappy? Of course not! What it means is most players feel like the officiating is bad because the referees make/miss calls that the players don't agree with. But not all players realize that the referees' job is not to call every foul, but instead just maintain order in the game. Even more players don't realize that most referees are ballers too, and they have had actual lessons on signals to look out for when calling fouls (like position of hands, body movement, etc) so most NCBL players sebenarnya tak layak pun nak marah-marah referee macam diorang tu takde self-worth. Players should be aware of this the next time they think about blowing up in the ref's ear.

The third highly probable cause of drama is rough play between teams. This is especially true when a fresh team meets a more seasoned team. The fresh team, being new in tournaments and not knowing about the regular physical play in the NCBL (bukan main petang, game official bang, jangan main pasif, kita main aktif), will usually get emo when they face experienced teams who are already familiar with the bumps and bruises that come with NCBL. If NCBL 2K11 is your first basketball tournament, please don't get annoyed when you get a little bump here and there. Tournament basketball and ball waktu petang have different levels of intensity, which is why the play in NCBL is a little bit more physical than your regular pick-up games. So, if you're a rookie, don't get scared when you face the physical play, aite. Just mentally  prepare yourself for it, don't hope for the ref to award you calls and just ball.

Anyways, that's all for this post. Three more posts to go before we wrap up this list. Can't wait for NCBL, man. Bila nak mula ni dah kering aku tunggu..


P/s: I know Parts 6 and 7 is not as basketball-heavy as the first five parts. I'll get back to the good stuff in part 8, aite. Bear with me. Oh, and lagu iklan untuk korang layan. Layan.