What’s New! (Covid-19 updates)

Covid-19 and NTL

posted May 2, 2021

Hope is in the air. As vaccinations are in arms of more people and infections rates decline, basketball, both indoors and out is being played more and more with a greater sense of security and safety. At NTL, we have always put players’ safety first. That used to mean don’t hurt the people you are playing with (they gotta go to work the next day! They’ve got families!) but these days it has meant let’s be super-careful not to pass the Covid virus around.
In April, in Boston, NYC, and SF, we continued what we had started in NYC in the fall: small group Outdoor Workout and Skills Clinics. No defense, no scrimmaging. All skills, all the time. As more people are vaccinated, we are inching closer to being able to work on skills while guarding one another.
Later this month, we expect to add clinics for vaccinated players only; that include game play in our NTL locations. We also have scheduled two NTL Weekend Camps, once again for vaccinated players only: Santa Barbara, October 15-17 and Sheffield, MA, November 5-7. Additionally, we are hoping that gyms will be available and indoor basketball, in one form or another will be safe to play and will be played, NTL style, come September. Hang in there: Hoops is in the Air!

posted January 6, 2021

As of March 15, 2020, the day the music of basketballs bouncing off floors and swishing through nets at NTL practices died, NTL Weekly Practice Programs in Boston, NYC, and SF, and the various Weekend Camps, and Boston’s Play Forever League (PFL) have been on hold. Basketball games and drills with defense require players to be in close proximity to one another. Couple that with playing indoors where there’s likely lack of ventilation and you have a situation that’s decidedly unhealthy. Starting in mid-summer, we ran one-on-one individual outdoor workout sessions with players in Boston and NYC. We did close to 150 of those workouts. In NYC, we ran small group, no defense, no scrimmaging outdoor skills and drills sessions for 14 weeks. All the individual and small group sessions will start up again (in SF, too) as soon as the weather allows and as soon as the infection rates subside. (Check the NTL website for updates.)

When we will play indoors again for our clinics and camps and league depends on gym availability and gym availability and safe practicing and playing depend on how successfully vaccinations and safety measures drive down infection rates. Low community and national infection rates along with availability of rapid, on-the-spot testing should allow us to begin our programs again. The earliest we can realistically hope to get in gyms is this summer. We have booked gyms and hotels in the hope of running camps beginning this spring. Likely that we could only run spring camps if we tested and created a bubble situation. More on this and all the NTL basketball that is to come will be updated here and via email to players. Please do what you know you need to do to keep yourself and those around you healthy and safe. And get a ball in your hands at least a few times a week, some dribbles, some shots, some running around. You’ll be better than ever!

Film Sessions, à la, Never Too Late Basketball Camps: Practice Like a Pro

posted December 14, 2018

Other than the fact that the players who come to the Never Too Late Basketball Camps aren’t pros, never were, never will be and never anything in between, we still treat them as if they were. Um, do we pay them? No, they pay us! Do they arrive with an entourage? Only if you count all the campers as each other’s “posse”. Do they come to each practice session ready to improve skills, expand their knowledge of the game? Seriously do. One of the goals of the camp is to provide a genuine basketball experience. A piece of that experience, a pro’s routine (and for them a daily routine) is to practice like a pro, and to practice intentionally. One of the ways we do this is to film the “controlled scrimmages” that take place Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon and then have players sit with their coaches in film sessions to review what went wrong, what went right, what each player and each “team” can do better next time. Rasheed Wallace when aggrieved by a foul call and when the fouled player then missed a free throw used to say “ball don’t lie”. As we know, film don’t lie either. We watch for proper spacing, timing of cuts, angle of cuts, delivery of passes, readiness to shoot, defensive positioning. Are players running hard? That’s a good one! We began these film sessions with this past year’s camps to great acclaim and, as coaches, look forward to getting back in the film room with players once again at the 2019 Never Too Late Basketball Weekend Camps.

Play Forever League (PFL) Boston: Ready, Set, Game!

posted August 30, 2017

Saturday morning basketball. You wake up, throw on some shorts and sweats (you slept in your Adidas socks and PFL jersey so that’s all-set), grab your sneaks, get in the car or ride your bike and through the haze of early morning traffic head on over to the PFL Garden, the Nineteenth Wonder of the World. Into the parking lot and enter through Door #9; there’s the gym. That’s the sound of the ball on the floor. You are where you belong.

You say “hi” to Charlie, Josh, David Hartjes, Derek (wow, he’s here early), Mariah and Maria. Kashawn is hitting 3s from half court with his girl friend guarding him. You pick up a ball and do a little ball handling, maybe the Steph Curry warmup, take a few 8 footers for form, back it up a little, then a little more, then a little more. Feels good. You are ready. Of course you are. Someone tells you your jersey is on backward. Whatever. Horn goes off. Ref throws the ball up, clock starts counting down. Another Saturday morning, another game of basketball. You move, you run, you breathe. You are reminded what it feels like to be alive. You play a little defense, some coy move where you pretend you are not paying attention and you slip into the passing lane (“where do you live?” “in the passing lane!”), tip the ball away, one dribble, glance behind, easy layup. You make the layup; not everyone in this league makes layups. You were cool the whole way. Everyone in the gym noticed.

You move the ball, Steve says ball movement is good and wears down the defense, in this league THAT DON’T TAKE LONG. Sometimes, because Bird would do it, you stop and hit the transition 3. You prefer the right wing but would never admit it. It is a game of baskets and whistles and stops, subs in, subs out and occasionally picking someone off the floor. More baskets. You win. You lose. You sweat. You smile. Game’s end you look at the stat sheet just a little too long; in fact, you take it home with you. You are one of those.

You are one of the people and players who make Saturdays at PFL a very good place to be.

Fall/Winter Season kicks off with Draft Day, Saturday, Sept 23. Games start the following week, Sept 30. You know the story: league has been selling out for years now, Wait List and all that. Get yourself signed up to play PFL ball and then tell your friends to get going. There are basketball stories ready to create and be told, and told again for years to come.

Play Better/Play Forever.