Remember those days of pouncing on the trampoline in your backyard until either your legs gave out, or you flew off into Mom’s rose bush and spent the rest of the night picking raw thorns out of your rump. Or how about those summer nights with the gang on the basketball court where even the slightest mention of a turn-over or goal tending would have you laughed off of the court in a millisecond. These are certainly the days that creator Mason Gordon embraced throughout his vision of a modified basketball game called Slamball.
Slamball was first made popular through its 2002 television debut on the TNN network and also by its increasingly popular following on ESPN. Slamball has earned a reputation of extreme, simply by its extreme nature and rules, or I should rather say lack of rules. To begin with, the Slamball court itself brings not only a slight resemblance to a hockey ring with hard clear plastic walls, but also in its physically engaging game play. Heck, when you need safety walls to barricade its players from its spectators; you just know that you are in for some ultra extreme action on the arena floor.
The real genius to this game is the four trampolines inset on the floors of the arena on each end of the court surrounding the basket. The obvious purpose is to provide boost to the players as they go in for a dunk shot, which in this version of basketball are worth three points instead of two. There are no out of bounds rules and the players are encouraged to bounce the ball off of the barricade walls and block any shot before the ball reaches the floor. When a foul is committed, the player who was fouled is required to jump off of a trampoline facing a defender from the opposing team. This player must successfully evade the defenders who attempt to block the shot and slam a hefty three point dunk in their face.
One of the biggest thrills of the game is the pile-ups underneath the basket during extreme tension matches. That’s the other necessity for the hard clear plastic barricades; reducing the need for spectator rain gear as these athletes pour every ounce of sweat, blood, and adrenaline into this game involving air, courage, luck and pure concentrated will. With the high energy of these athletes combined with 12 feet of air and momentum; Newton’s three laws take effect and someone or something is bound to get slammed. But that’s just the name of the game in Slamball!
Coming off of a successful European tour you can look for the new season of Slamball to be unleashed this Spring/Summer 2007 in a 30 city tour across the U.S. You can find more information about the game as well as the upcoming tour schedule on their official website (www.slamball.net).
About Dr. Eric J. Leech
Eric has written for over a decade. Then one day he created Urbasm.com, a site for every guy.
About Dr. Eric J. Leech