The NBA is the most popular basketball league on the planet, yet it isn’t the only league around. Many semi-pro leagues exist in America, like the famous Drew League. Overseas has plenty of basketball leagues as well.
- A TV Writer Thinks Up A New Basketball Game
- SlamBall: Trampoline Basketball
- The Rules Of SlamBall
- Next
- Larry Johnson’s Phantom 4-Point Play That Lifted The New York Knicks Past The Indiana Pacers in 1999
- Ranking The 10 Best Young Cores In The NBA Right Now
- The Highest Paid NBA Centers For The 2022-23 Season
- How Shaquille O’Neal Broke Backboards And Forced The NBA To ‘Shaq-Proof’ Their Hoops
- The Greatest Shooting Guard From Every NBA Team
In the past, the world saw the ABA compete with the NBA, and today we have Ice Cube’s BIG3 basketball league. All these basketball leagues are great in their own way, but none of them can compete with the uniqueness that the league SlamBall had.
A TV Writer Thinks Up A New Basketball Game
It was 1999, and a former television writer for the shows Kenan & Kyle and Cousin Skeeter came up with a new sporting idea. This writer’s name is Mason Gordon, and his idea was basketball played on trampolines.
Sounds crazy, right? Well, Gordon pitched his new sport to his boss, movie and television producer, Mike Tollin.
“One day he came to my office with a napkin and said, ‘Dude, check this out,’” Tollin said about first hearing Gordon’s idea. “I politely patted him on the shoulder and said, ‘Thanks, I’m going to make a movie. I’ll see you in six months.’ Lo and behold, when I came back from the shoot, he was still sitting on the couch, still showing off his napkin, still insisting this is the next big thing. And, I finally paid attention long enough to realize he’s on to something.”
Tollin not only loved the idea, but he decided to finance it. Soon, a new basketball league would be born.
SlamBall: Trampoline Basketball
How does one come up with the idea of playing basketball while bouncing on trampolines? As you may be thinking, this idea sounds far-fetched, and it was. So, how did Mason Gordon come up with the idea of SlamBall?
“SlamBall really began with this idea of creating a sport that was like a real-life human video game,” Gordon explained.
Gordon needed to test his new idea, so he needed to find some players. He searched for local streetballers in the Los Angeles area.
The first five players recruited were Sean Jackson, Jeff Sheridan, James Willis, David Redmond, and Michael Goldman. Along with Gordon, two teams were created: The Chicago Mob and the Los Angeles Rumble.
The games played were a success, and this success led to the league earning a TV deal with The National Network (which would become Spike TV).
SlamBall was a hit when it first aired. Fans witnessed the Los Angeles Rumble win the inaugural championship in 2002. SlamBall, unfortunately, would go on to spend only two seasons on Spike TV.
The reason it only spent two years on Spike TV is because the network had a different plan for the show compared to Gordon.
“The ratings were great,” Gordon said. “But ultimately, they wanted to go in directions we weren’t totally comfortable with. We didn’t see SlamBall as a packaged entertainment product like the Harlem Globetrotters or professional wrestling. We saw SlamBall as a legitimate sport.”
SlamBall would return in 2007, where the league put on the “POWERADE SlamBall Challenge”. The league would also debut in Italy in 2007, where they put on special events.
In 2008, the league made a full return, having their first season played since 2003. Unfortunately, the new season would be the last for SlamBall. The league returned in 2018, but they’d go on to host tournaments and events instead of actual full seasons.
The Rules Of SlamBall
The game of SlamBall is a mix of basketball and football played on trampolines. In SlamBall, players are allowed to hit their opponents.
Of course, the biggest part of the game is the fact the players jump on trampolines. Toward a player’s hoop, four trampolines surround the basketball goal. The players then use the trampolines to try to score and try to stop the other team from scoring.
Here is the rundown of the official rules of SlamBall via rulesofsport.com:
– SlamBall is played on a specially designed court that features four trampolines in front of each team’s net.
– Games are played in four quarters lasting six minutes each with a ten-minute halftime break.
– The start of each game is marked by a bounce off, in which the ball is bounced into the air.
– Each team aims to score as many points as they can by placing the ball through the opposition’s net with each team also simultaneously defending their net.
– Two points are scored for a successful throw through the hoop with three points being scored for a slam dunk or a throw outside of the three point arc.
– A fifteen second shot clock is utilized in SlamBall.
– At the end of the game, the team with the most points is declared the winner.
– If the game is a tie, a series of face-offs are played and the team with the most number of points from these are declared the winner.
– The game is overseen by two referees and a number of table officials who are there to keep track of the score, fouls, and shot clock.
The positions in SlamBall are a little different from what’s in regular basketball. In SlamBall, you have the Handler, which is the primary ball handler on the team. They act similar to a point guard, as it’s their job to get their team into their offense.
Next, you have the Gunner, which is the primary scorer on the team. The Gunner will be the player who attacks the basket and jumps on the trampolines.
Finally, we have the Stopper position. The Stopper is the primary defender on the team. They can trail the offensive players and try to score, but usually, they stay put and defend their hoop.
It’s been rumored that the league may be making a comeback, as the official SlamBall Twitter page mentioned back in 2021:
Hang time legend. #slamball #bringbackslamball pic.twitter.com/99buNl6BGe
— SlamBall (@SlamBall) July 2, 2021
It would be great to see SlamBall officially come back and play as a real sport and not just a TV special. As basketball fans, I think I can say we’d love to see more high-flying, trampoline-jumping basketball to entertain us when the NBA is enjoying its offseason.
