He Got Anger: emotions gone awry on the basketball court

Last night in the Celtics-Suns game, Channing Frye got into a heated argument with Kevin Garnett when Frye accused KG of deliberately sticking his feet in his landing space after a jump shot. In the end, somehow KG got two technicals and thus ejected from the game. Color commentator Jeff Van Gundy adamantly argued that at least one of the technicals be rescinded later in appeals since KG did nothing but get in a face to face argument with a guy who shoved his face into KG’s face first. This is basketball. As any guy who has ever played a pick-up game would know, tempers flare, emotions run high, and anger is simply one of the primary and natural emotions to come from a competitive sport. Anger is ok, how that expresses itself becomes a problem. In this entry, I would like to point out the varying ways anger expresses itself in the pick-up game.

The Waterboy – This is in reference to the adam sandler movie in which he would express anger through physical damage to items, screaming, or displaying rage. We’ve all witnessed this guy at every court known to man. After a play in which infuriates him (turnover, missed coverage of a man, lazy defense, etc.), this guy will yell very loudly and sometimes throw the ball violently at the floor, wall, or even the guy he’s angry towards. He’ll even use his body and throw it around recklessly to prove how mad he is. If this was the NBA, he would foul out quickly from all the charge calls.

The Sam Cassell – This in reference to Cassell’s notorious reputation in the league to never shut up. These type of players will express their anger by verbally exclaiming it to everyone without physically damaging or injuring anyone. Sometimes, this guy will not even look directly at the person their mad at but stake loud claims what they would do to the guy if he gets fouled again. The Sam is also known to be the type of player to argue every call on loose balls, touch fouls, and what constitutes a travel call. I personally like the Sam because the tension is being released out in the open with words to express their anger. I like to know what he’s thinking.

The Queen Bee – This is the player who expresses their anger or frustration in passive-aggressive ways. This guy will not initiate any type of direct confrontation nor will he likely be involved in a physical altercation. At first this seems like the type of player you would prefer to play with, however if this guy becomes angry at his team he will most likely take plays off or start jacking up shots to display how displeased his team is playing. He might even become a black hole, where if you pass him the ball, you will never see it again because his team is too incompetent to handle the rock. Like a fading star, this guy will eventually self-implode until there is nothing his team could do to possibly win.

The Secret Wife Beater – This is the guy who doesn’t express much and will keep a tally in his head of every foul committed against him. Up to this point, he has not been able to express his anger through any type of outlet.  At first, you’ll think he’s ok with it and just see him play harder, but inside he’s actually begun to boil where the next infraction against him will result in an explosive physical altercation where someone gets hurt.  This will lead everyone on the court and sideline watching asking “WTF just happened?”

Of course, there are others who get angry and simply forget about it once the game is over. But I just had to point these out.

 

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