Issue 136: The Greatest Game Ever Played

With Thanksgiving around the corner, it’s always a good time to reflect. In most cases, we reflect on the past month or year, but today, we’re going all the way back to 1998.

No, we’re not covering Michael Jordan’s final game with the Bulls or an early Kobe Bryant appearance. Instead, we’re exploring one of the greatest games ever played: the 1998 Chicagoland Area Traveling Team Championship.

The Skokie Zephyrs—that’s my team—squared off against the Niles Warriors in a defensive battle and thankfully, my dad recorded key plays on an old (well, new-ish at the time) video camera. I collected some of my favorite moments and put them into a highlight reel, complete with commentary and analysis.

A few things to watch for:

• One team wore black, the other wore a dark navy blue. I don’t know why this was allowed.
• I have a turnover literally on the first play of the game. I like starting at rock bottom and working my way up.
• There’s an incredibly rare free-throw violation called in this game, committed by yours truly. I still maintain it was a bad call.
• My dad recorded my friend tying his shoe. The full clip is like six times longer and features me laughing at how ridiculous the situation is. Good knot technique, though.
• I played this entire game with a temporary tattoo of Roadrunner from Looney Tunes on my arm. I like to think that gave me extra speed. At one point I saved a ball that was going out of bounds and had run so fast and so far to get to it that I crashed through the door and fully exited the gym. This was not captured on camera, which is truly a shame.

Check out the full video below, and have a fantastic weekend.