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5 Things You Must Know About Choosing A Basketball Hoop

When I was growing up, we had a pretty decrepit basketball hoop. It looked to be a pretty good make. It was a Huffy basketball hoop, but it was setup all wrong. First of all, it was about 12 feet up. Secondly, the basketball hoops rim was sideways. It angled downwards at a substantial slant, with the result that it was very difficult to shoot into. It would not even hold still when we hit it with the basketball. The hoop itself would bounce around.

It wasn't like we were poor or anything. My father could have afforded to get new basketball hoops. He could have afforded to have the driveway fixed as well. I guess he didn't really care about the game. For him, it didn't really matter. The basketball hoop could be 3 feet off the ground or two stories high and he would not notice. No matter how many times I asked him, he would declines to get the basketball hoop fixed. It was fine, he would say, and the matter would be over with.

The problem with having a sideways basketball hoop is not just that it is no fun to play with. You can learn to play with basketball hoops at almost any height if you really want to. The problem is that it messes with your shot. If you are used to shooting on a basketball hoop that is 12 feet high, angled about 12° downwards, and prone to swaying in the wind, you shot will be different than if you're playing with a regulation basketball basket. It is a matter of muscle memory. Your body gets used to shooting way up high, and suddenly you can't make a shot on a normal basket.

I always thought that I couldn't play basketball, but it turns out that I was just practicing on a hoop that threw off my game. When I finally had a few years to practice having a basketball hoop in college, it turned out that I was pretty good. Don't get me wrong – even if I had played on a decent basketball hoop growing up, I probably never would have made the pros. Nevertheless, I definitely could get a good game together given the chance. We played against a few neighboring dorms, and I even won a few games. I was a pretty high scorer too! I guess all those years it would have been better for me to have no basketball hoops at all than one at the wrong height.