Let me set the scene for you. It was a random night in June and I was staying at a random Holiday Inn Express with my family on a small trip for Father’s Day Weekend. I’m sitting up in the room, watching a Tiny House Hunters marathon on my TV and hear endless screaming and ruckus coming from the parking lot. I tried turning my TV up a little louder. I tried pretending this noise at 10 p.m. wasn’t bothering me, and that I was still young and hip, but it was. So I got up, looked out my window, and I saw a group of kids playing basketball. But they weren’t just playing regular basketball. They were using a storage container with a human being hanging off as a basket and backboard. And they were having the time of their lives.
These kids playing a pickup game with a human goal is proof that ball is life
Legends.
Truly, that is a man, hanging off a large storage container, pretending to be a basketball goal. And these kids were getting buckets.
I couldn’t let these All-Stars go unnoticed, so I walked down to check it out. As I walked up, a mom of one of the kids thought I was coming to ask them to be quiet. Absolutely not. I was coming to give these kids the internet glory that is rightfully theirs.
I quickly found out they are actually a baseball team from Ontario, Canada. The 2003 Mississauga North Tigers to be exact, and they are playing in a baseball tournament in Ohio this weekend. They also play basketball, and hockey, and every sport you can imagine because they are the legends we deserve.
The two team names playing at the time were the Backstreet Boys vs. *NSYNC because of course this story could not be more perfect. I think 98 Degrees was still waiting to get a game in on the side, which is oddly poetic.
I also need to tell you about the guy pretending to be the basketball goal. That is Nick the Net, as named by the kids. They were originally just using a red mark on the storage container as the goal until Nick stepped in. Nick and the Mississauga North Tigers don’t know each other, but he offered to lay up there for two hours and get basketballs pelted off his face. Literally, I watched him get smashed about 18 times in five minutes and he never once flinched or complained.
The hotel had a noise ordinance at 11 p.m., so the fun eventually ended. It’s quiet in my hotel room now and I kinda wish those kids could live out their hoop dreams in that parking lot for the rest of time. I also hope they win their baseball tournament this weekend. I take that back, I hope that these kids win everything they ever do in life. Whoever says the future isn’t going to be dope is wrong.
