The City
FRANKFURT, GERMANY
Slovenia was scheduled to be the first stop on the tour, but a 3-hour flight delay out of Atlanta meant I missed my connection to Ljubljana. Fortunately there was another flight to Ljubljana 12-hours later so that was enough time to try to find a court in Frankfurt.
I’d had a lot of people from Germany inviting me to visit and while most of those offers came from Berlin or Munich, there were a few from Frankfurt. So, after a quick Google search, I found a court not far from the airport. I hopped on the subway at and made the short journey to Hafenpark.
I learned later that this court was the main meeting point for the best ballers in the city.
It was still early in the morning, so I wasn’t sure if anyone was going to be there. As the morning turned to afternoon, a few people started trickling through. I was shooting around with a guy from Korea but he wasn’t interested in playing a game, or being on camera. I really was hoping to make this a bonus stop on my tour, but I couldn’t really count it if I didn’t actually play a game.
The Run
I didn’t have my luggage with me because of the flight delay. That meant I was playing in jeans and casual shoes. But the adrenalin was pulsing through my veins because I saw this as a great example of the spontaneity and unplanned joy of traveling. I wasn’t planning on staying in Germany, but here I was and my tour had begun.
As the early afternoon became late afternoon, a few ballers started trickling through. They were having shooting contests to start and then we played a half-court game of 4-a-side. It was impossible for me to remember everyone’s names and they clearly had trouble either pronouncing or remembering my name, so they dubbed me “The Tourist.”
This was a fun start, especially being capped off by me hitting a game winner!
The Star
My mind is still blown by this girl Marija who turned up out of nowhere.
She was Serbian, but had relocated to Frankfurt. I was taken aback by her approach. She barely introduced herself, instead she just started trying to get a game going with myself and the Korean guy, and to make the teams even, this other guy who was shooting around by himself on the other hoop.
She didn’t get any takers except for me, so she and I started a game of 1-on-1. To my pleasant surprise, Marija was not only a good player, but she had all sorts of tricks to show off. First, she launched a shot from 15-20 feet to the side but slightly behind the backboard. The degree of difficulty was immense and I was skeptical that she would be able to make it. It took her about five attempts, but eventually she landed it.
To that, she was more receptive, but first, she wanted to show me some tricks she’d obviously worked on. I was intrigued, but also starting to wonder if she was in some way going to try to hustle me for money, such was her confidence in herself. She wasn’t arrogant, but had a way about her that made me feel like she’s taken money off ballers before.
