27. I Scored During a Professional Basketball Game

Day 27

Location 6: Prague

Nov. 27, 2022

Here are the facts:

• There was a professional basketball game happening from 2-3pm.

• At about 2:30pm, I walked onto the court where the game was being played.

• At about 2:31pm, I shot the ball, and it went in.

Here is what happened:

A few nights ago at a bar, I was talking to this really tall kid. He was 6'6". "Do you play basketball?" A yes would have sufficed, but he ratcheted his answer up a few notches: "Yea, I play professionally here in Prague." Ok, damn.

Later, I was dancing on a stage and spotted him in the crowd. I started doing a really slow free-throw routine as everyone around me was dancing and he loved it. Dribble, dribble. Breathe in. Breathe out. Look up at the rim. One more dribble. Shot. Repeat. Unfortunately, there's no video, but you need to just take my word that this was a great bit. I had an audience of one, but it was killing.

Anyway, he told me about a gym he plays at, and in an effort to fulfill my side quest of playing basketball in every city, I ventured out to the gym. Unfortunately, it wasn't an open gym. It was where he played...as in, where he played his professional games:

At halftime, though, I was able to get onto the court and shoot around which was nice. So technically, I shot and scored during a professional basketball game, but not in the professional basketball game. Sorry to disappoint.

While leaving the basketball arena, I stole a basketball so I could play at a nearby court outside. My first international heist of the trip. Many more to come!

Just walking on the court got me overjoyed. I shot around for a few minutes and then decided to take a quick video of myself. Here's me making seven 3s in a row on the first take:

That's a fucking lie. The truth is that wasn't my first take. And my real goal was to make 10 3s in a row. After a bunch of tries and many close calls, I made 10 in a row. Thank god! I was cold and tired. One problem: the video was completely out of focus. That was probably the worst moment of my week.

No problem. I did it once, I can do it again. But at this point I was extra cold and extra tired, which made it extra hard to repeat. After like an hour of shooting and extra close calls, it was extra dark and time to go home. So the above is the video you get. Sorry to disappoint.

Oh also, I saw this famously, beautiful view of Prague (the end of the video is the famous bit).