❤️ & 🏀
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
This long Valentine's Day weekend was dedicated to two forces that make the world go round, Love & Basketball.
Lynn and I don't make a big deal of Valentine's Day, love is a year/lifelong project afterall, but we did go see "Wuthering Heights", apparently Warner Brothers insists that you use the quotes on the title. I would describe Emerald Fennel's style as "kinkier Tim Burton." But if you're looking for an alternate relationship drama from a woman director about two people who have been obsessively intertwined since childhood, allow me to suggest Love & Basketball. It's a great L.A. movie, great basketball movie, great cast, and great feature directorial debut from Gina Prince-Bythewood (fantastic hyphenated name btw).
One of the many things I love about the movie is that, despite being released back in 2000, it takes women's basketball seriously. The WNBA was only a couple years old at the time of filming, but Sanaa Lathan's character is dead serious about making it to the league. Her career journey is equally as important as Omar Epps' character. I'm not going to describe the whole plot here, just want to highly recommend if you've never seen it.
The first thing I wanted to do after Lynn and I watched Love & Basketball a couple years ago was go to a USC women's basketball game, and we got to see Juju Watkins play. She's incredible. We also saw her at the Grove last year and I was so starstruck, I hope she's back on the court soon after her ACL injury.
It was NBA All Star weekend here in L.A. and I looked into getting tickets for some of the lesser events, but they were ridiculously expensive. Not surprised they wound up with a half empty arena. I'm glad that the game itself (or games this year) was competitive, but I spent the early afternoon at a different all star weekend event. New Balance was hosting a round robin 3 v 3 tournament in Lafayette Park, so I rode my bike over and watched a couple of the games.
It was a really fun and free event, featuring several players from the Venice Women's League. The style of play was as tough as their nicknames- MVP Bree, The Legend, Lady White Mamba, Ruth the Truth, Sweet Pea, Fuego, Big E, and I'm forgetting a few. Unlike the MNBA All Star game across town, this one felt accessible and true to the purity of the game. And I got to stand right by the court to take photos.
It was a fun showcase of so much basketball talent in L.A. alone. I hope I get to see them play again, maybe at Venice Beach.
And to bring it back to me and my own Los Angeles basketball experience, I'll leave you with this photo of me at around 12 years old in my official duties as guest ball boy (thanks Uncle Robert!) at a Clippers game at the Sports Arena- a long way from Intuit Dome in both time and distance.
Comments