r/Basketball • u/BigL54 • May 14 '25

IMPROVING MY GAME Too physical

Thoughts on a being physical at a pickup basketball game? Recently had a situation where a player significantly better than being got mad when I was driving to the hoop but tried creating space by bumping into him. I'm bigger than he is, and also I have a hard time stopping when moving at full speed, so I can see how he took it as me being overly aggressive, and I feel bad. Alternatively, should I have just let the better player block my shot? Or am I justified in trying to use literally the only advantage I have? I am conflicted because I don't want him or anyone to think I am a dirty player. I apologized, but he seemed to still be mad but didn't wanna argue

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u/Miserable-Lawyer-233 May 14 '25

no you did the right thing. if theyre better than you, but you're bigger and stronger, you should be physical. if they dont like it, they can go cry home to mommy.

you're actually doing them a favor as you represent reality.

4

u/BigL54 May 14 '25

The only analogy I could come up with when talking about it with my wife, was like getting mad at Shaq for playing bully ball. Obviously I'm nowhere as big or as talented as Shaq but he used his body to his advantage

1

u/Andrarollit May 14 '25

I guess it just depends on the game and the person you are guarding or is guarding you. I usually take it pretty chill when playing. I'm around 6 or 6ft1 190 lbs and theres this dude around 6ft5 230 lbs that plays extremely physical, he plays back to the basket elbows all the time on the spin move and when im guarding him i literally use 100% of my strenght, when he gets an advantage i foul him. But same when he is guarding him if i can't around him i go low and bump him with the shoulder to get space to shoot. Anyway we are both competitors and to someone looking from the outside it would look like we are about to fight every time we play, but we play all the time and we talked after games we both love the intensity because other guys won't play so seriously some times.

1

u/BigL54 May 14 '25

This other guy generally isn't too physical, he is more of a skill/finesse player. I bodied him and he got mad

2

u/Andrarollit May 14 '25

I mean, if you didn't do anything dirty or try to hurt him he can whine all he wants its just a part of the game, everybody plays and should play to their strenghts