Slamball, The Sport That Needs A Comeback by Edward Stefaniak

     Last week Pat wrote about Rock N Jock, frankly I do not remember it. But What I do remember was the sensation that swept the nation, Slam Ball. The full contact sport with Dunks like Shaq and hits like Scott Stevens (New Jersey Devils Defenseman and an unlicensed weapon). 

    I remember the first time i watched Slam Ball. Picture it Frankfort, NY 2002. A young Ed finds out the code to un-block the channels to watch what my parents deemed inappropriate. I remember that code to this day. They used it to block the cool channels of the early 2000’s comedy central, Spike TV, G4, the Playboy channel. Well this day I got on Spike TV cause Ren and Stimpy or something I liked was about to be on and I stealthily removed the block on Spike TV and watched Slam Ball. I was captivated, high flying captivated dunks, monstrous hits, with 4 fucking trampolines at each end! This sport was unreal! Now at the time I was starting my journey as a hockey player, really not understanding what I was watching on TV outside of goals, fights and huge hits. This sport had the huge hits. And they were fucking huge, no pads, no protection, but fucking brutality. With no regard to the safety of themselves or their opponents, players acted in what I describe as self abuse, freely launching themselves at their opposition to retain a lead. 

     Ah yes the lead, a frequently changing aspect of the game. Not just 20-2 runs like in normal basketball like we today, no. Dunks were 3 points as well as normal 3 point shots. The frequency of dunks was like seeing Steph Curry hit a 3. Daily highlight packages on ESPN at the time kept me drawn to the sport. In fact my friends and I tried to recreate Slam Ball once on his back deck and a trampoline. That all ended when one of us actually got hurt, we were second or third graders at the time. But if given the chance now, I totally would give the sport a try. ​

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