It was only five minutes before the championship game of the 45th Annual Live Oak 3-on-3 Tournament when Bill “Missile” Austin got the bad news from a park ranger: his beloved little dog Stogie – a Pug-Beagle-Chihuahua mix who had spent the previous three hours turning strangers into new friends — would have to leave. No dogs allowed in the park.
Stogie’s ejection before the biggest game of his owner’s hoops career wasn’t quite as dramatic as the goat that was ejected from Wrigley Field back in 1945, causing its owner to cast a curse on the Chicago Cubs that lasted 71 years. But it did prevent Stogie from witnessing his owner’s moment of basketball glory as Missile helped lead his team to the championship and almost claimed the Joe Straight Most Valuable Player award, named for the beloved Live Oak founding member who passed away last year.
In the end, the MVP award went to 6-foot-4 baller supreme Kwesi Fulton, the best player in the entire tournament. He was simply too big, too strong and too skilled for the rest of the field. But even Kwesi admitted the MVP award could have gone to Missile, who played above his usual level in the championship game, or even to the third member of their team, the versatile glue guy Jake “Cross-fit” Delgado.
“I thought we all deserved it,” Kwesi said moments after the game. “It could have gone to any one of us.”
Tournament director Scott “Syracuse” Talbot said he was about to award it to Missile if he had hit just one more jump shot after several early buckets in the championship game took the pressure off Kwesi to do it all. But Kwesi closed it out with a flurry of hoops that made picking anyone but him impossible.
It was a fitting end to a tournament that started out with more questions than a presidential debate.
Would Randy “Random” Lee make a successful return from Wisconsin, where he had temporarily moved back home to help raise his baby boy and pursue his ever-expanding acting career with his new-found fly-over status as Randy from Hollywood?
Would Chris “C-Pal” Palisan, a two-time Live Oak champion and the head varsity coach at La Quinta High, be able to lead his team to yet another title?
Would Zander “Man Bun” Mora, the 2011 Mira Costa graduate who has injected youth and athleticism into a rapidly aging Friday afternoon crowd, bring home the coveted championship in his very first try?
Would the Chosen Ones, three Jewish ballers – “Dangerous” Dave Sherwood, Jeff “Commish” Goldstein and John “Hookshot” Arfin — who shocked the world three years ago by winning the title on the eve of Yom Kippur, be able to replicate their miracle on Valley Drive?
And would Mitch “Money” Sagowitz, the 60-something baller who was representin’ for all the Live Oak legends who didn’t play but were milling around on the sidelines yelling advice and encouragement – guys like Mike “Bionic Man” Foley, Eric “Sky Pilot” Goldbach, Jon “Shoot” Straight and Jeff “The Plumber” Rich — be able to win one for the senior ballers?
The answer to all those questions turned out to be no. But everyone sure had a lot of fun getting the answers.
“The best part about this tournament is the camaraderie,” said Mora. “It’s a great bunch of guys. I’m really grateful they made me feel so welcome.”
After more than three hours of banging, pushing, shoving, posting up and throwing down, two teams emerged for the Championship Game: The team of Kwesi, Missile and Cross-fit against C-Pal, Juan “Juanzingis” Moreno and Stuart “Wolf of Walk Street” Waldman.
Everybody in the crowd circling the court knew the challenge facing C-Pal’s team: how to stop or at least control Kwesi and force his teammates, the 5-foot-10 guard Missile and the 6-foot do-everything Cross-fit, be the ones to try to beat them.
Conventional wisdom dictated that the 6-foot-3 Juanzingis should take Kwesi, as he was the only one with the size to physically match up with him. But the clever C-Pal – a former coach of the year in Orange County — came up with an unorthodox strategy that worked, at least at first: put the scrappy, 5-foot-11 Wolf of Walk Street, a fierce defender and rebounder who plays like a poor man’s Dennis Rodman, on Kwesi and thereby free up C-Pal and Juanzingis to shut down his teammates. It was a high-risk, high-reward tactic that almost worked.
Kwesi opened the first-to-11 points game with a 10 footer from the right side, but Juanzingis answered right back with a power drive. When the Wolf nailed a 20-footer to give his team a 2-1 lead, there were rumblings in the crowd of a possible upset.
Missile quieted the buzz with a 12 foot jumper from the left corner to level it at 2-2, but Juanzingis banked in a tough put-back over Kwesi to regain the lead at 3-2. Alas, that was the last lead they would have.
As Kwesi continued to look for his teammates, Missile answered with another corner jumper to make it 3-3. If only Stogie could have seen his owner now!
Kwesi started to assert himself and drilled a 10-foot elbow jumper to grab the lead at 4-3. That was followed quickly by a Cross-fit 15-foot jumper, a Kwesi 12 footer, and another Kwesi foul line jumper. When Missile nailed a 15 footer from the right side, it was suddenly 8-3 and Tournament Director Talbot started talking excitedly about giving the MVP award to Missile because of his unexpected contributions.
But Kwesi finished with three straight buckets to win the game and in the process earn the Joe Straight award, confirming the consensus prediction from the start: it was Kwesi’s tournament to lose because no one else in the 8-team field had the size, strength and skills to match up with him.
While the championship game lacked any real drama, most of the earlier games in the double elimination tournament were highly competitive. The semi-final game that delivered C-Pal’s team to the final was especially hotly contested. It was a high-octane match-up that featured C-Pal’s signature move – a fade-away jumper that invariably goes in – against the long-distance bombing and brutal defense of Phat Phil “Barbeque” Ortiz and his teammates, Money Sagowitz and Man-Bun Mora.
C-Pal got the fun started with a muscular post-up that established his intention to go right at the hoop every time. Barbeque, who typically prefers to hang around the top of the 3-point circle and hurl long-distance daggers while playing little or no defense, instead answered with two consecutive post-up moves to grab a 2-1 lead for his team. C-Pal drilled 3 straight post-up fade-aways that got his team a 4-2 lead. Man-bun used his quickness advantage to get to the hoop on a drive, Money chipped in with a still-got-it power drive to the hoop, and now it was 5-all. They battled back and forth all the way to 8-all, when C-Pal took over for the stretch run. He hit a left-side fade-away and then yet another right-side fade-away for a 10-8 lead. Juanzingis finished it off with a left-handed flip that drew oohs and aahs from the gathering crowd.
Barbeque sounded a familiar refrain as he came off the court. “It’s rigged,” he said. “Everything’s rigged.” And he explained why he plays ferocious defense in the tournament but typically refuses to play any D on normal Friday games. “I have to save my energy for offense,” he said. “If my guy scores 10 points but I score 11, that’s a win for me and my team.”
It was an epic semi-final win. But the problem was that C-Pal had put forth such an all-out effort out-muscling the much heavier Barbeque – combined with his advancing years – that he had very little left in the tank for the final.
Indeed, C-Pal did not score in the championship game, setting the stage for Kwesi and Cross-Fit and Missile to cruise to the championship. As the victors prepared to head for the Shellback Tavern to celebrate along with all the losers – although after a few hours at the Shellback everyone feels like a winner — there was only one sad note.
“I really wanted Stogie to see us win,” said Missile, who lives with Stogie on a boat in Marina Del Rey. “We’re very close. It would have meant a lot to him.”
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