NBA 3X Media Games: Rob Jeffries RETIRES
Manchester revelled in glorious sunshine last Friday and Saturday as it witnessed NBA 3X, and whilst it has created a worldwide buzz on YouTube and social media thanks to the final game of the event, one part of it has been left in the shadows; the NBA 3X Media Games.
This week you’ve heard from Ibaka, from Schall, you’ve seen the dunk, but now you get to hear the biggest piece of news out of last weekend.
Ladies and gentlemen of UKAmericanSportsFans.com, British basketball fans, the global basketball world:
I, Rob Jeffries (aka JournoRob to the masses), officially announce my retirement from the professional game of basketball. Update my Wikipedia entry.
Let’s all start from the beginning though, as I give you the breakdown on what happened last Friday and how I came to this difficult decision…
Kit in tow, I made my way towards the blue centre court set up by NBA for the 3X tournament, surrounded by red tiered seating, all overlooked by an enormous outdoor screen showing highlights of the past NBA season. The pressure was already on at this point – nerves ultimately getting to me when Tom Rubashow and Harrison Davis, two of the PR guys from Pitch on hand over the two days to set up interviews and make everything run very smoothly, threw me a ball and asked to see my best jump shot.
Air ball. Things could really only get better.
Time to focus in the locker room as I changed and strapped my knee support on, a result of years of playing basketball as a child on typically renowned hard floor courts in school sports halls, countless other sports and the small matter of a knee-high studs-up tackle playing football aged 15 (you know who you are…Adam Griffiths) which then put me out of most things sporting unless I wanted to endure agony after only a few minutes of play.
Making my way back out into the blazing heat of midday Manchester, I began my warm-up, which consisted of a few cross-court strides dribbling, and the obligatory leg and arm stretches; professional doesn’t come close to this preparation.
I began building up my shots inside, outside, lay-ups, rebounds, I was finding my past form, but I wasn’t ready to give away everything in my armoury just yet until my fellow 3-on-3 team mates joined me.
Eventually, the scene was set, and a crowd of about ten had settled themselves down court-side to witness something memorable. The games were to be first to seven points (one point inside, two points outside the arc), and may the best team win.
Game on.
My side for the first game consisted of Lynda Moyo (ManchesterConfidential.co.uk) and Tim Cocker (longest serving presenter of Xfm Manchester’s Breakfast Show) – and my gosh, did we leave it out on the floor.
Points for all players, including myself as top scorer in the first game, saw us walk away with a 7-1 victory. Where’s my ring?
(Courtesy of Tim Cocker – @cocker)
Alas, no. We were to be able to sneak in another game, but my rampant side soon fell by the wayside as Moyo was on photograph duty for Manchester Confidential, and Cocker left hopefully to be replaced by another Xfm representative (unfortunately that trade didn’t happen – oh the off-season!)
3-on-1?! Surely not?
We were saved as Tom and Harrison bit the bullet and were not about to let the media posse down, however I feared I was about to be dealt a huge blow, as I made pick-ups of the two smallest guys left on court, Harrison and Mark Johnstone (@mjruckus), and with my lack of height we were about to get beat out by a fair few inches and overhead passes.
The Daily Mail’s Tom Sheen was instrumental in making it 4-0, alongside Tom from Pitch and David Blake, also from Manchester Confidential, before we took a much-needed water break.
The blisters on my feet were not about to keep me on my backside though, so hauling my comrades to join me, we stood, we played hard and brought it back to draw even at 4-4.
Only for us to literally give up and hand over the next three points.
I’m not joking, that heat was ridiculous and there were buckets of bottled water sat in ice kindly provided for us just crying out to be drunk, plus the certain matter of Serge Ibaka’s impending arrival for interviews with the players. There’s pride, and there’s insanity, and I was torn between the two at that point.
Sat down, blisters popped and blood stained socks (yep, it was like breaking my trainers in for that second time as it had been that long since I wore them) I changed quickly to grab my first chat with Serge, and I quickly made up my mind.
Knowing I had won the series on an aggregate score of 11-8 – on a court set up by the biggest basketball organisation in the world – this was to be the pinnacle. It had to be; eclipsing even my Year 9 Chester and District Schools Championship winning season of 2004 as captain of Queen’s Park High School, where my team were unbeaten against all comers.
(My pride and joy)
It’s been one hell of a ride people, but all good things must come to an end. But be sure to know that I will continue bringing you all the latest, when it happens, right here on UKAmericanSportsFans.com – including tomorrow an exclusive chat with David Aliu and more from Nathan Schall as both players talk Mersey and the new season.
- Huge thanks to everyone at Pitch PR (especially big thanks to Tom and Harrison), NBA, images of the media game from Mansoor Ahmed (surprised your lens would allow for the horror show we played out), Tom Sheen, David Blake, Mark Johnstone, Lynda Moyo, Tim Cocker, Chris Cox from TUB (Saturday shade buddy), the lads and ladies volunteering at NBA 3X, my brilliant girlfriend Martina Crocombe for the last minute borrowing of her camera, and of course, Fabrice Muamba and Serge Ibaka. I couldn’t have done any of it without you guys. Seriously. I would have been at home otherwise.
- Oh, and Superdrug for subconsciously making me buy the blister plasters the day before – good move.
