Update: Basketball

Eli and I made it back to the gym at School #2, playing basketball with our fellow Azerbaijani athletes.  I first wrote about our basketball games here.  This update is for two reasons, however.  First, a new guy came to play on Tuesday, a young guy who look about my age, and who actually could play ball.  He wasn’t great, but he certainly had seen a basketball court before, and he certainly had played in organized games before.  We were still able to slow him down pretty well, since he couldn’t really dribble with his left hand, but he as by far the most skilled player we’ve encountered.  His name was Fariz.

The other interesting thing that came up was free throws.  I don’t think we’ve ever shot free throws for fouls here before, but the referee insisted on it a couple times.  He didn’t really have any rules for when you should shoot free throws, but there were two instances where a whistle blew and I was being escorted to the free throw line.  This is a new angle to the game we play.  Interesting.