Now Ward Ball is done by neighborhood. Whoever is in your neighborhood is who you get. The only exception to this is if you bring a friend who is unaffiliated with any other Ward Ball teams. Bringing in a Ringer can be really nice, but things can get pretty ugly pretty fast with someone with real skill.
Why is that?
To understand that, I need to delve back into a little history. This is the kind of history which is studied in Cultural Anthropology. Each man was once a boy and boys tend to have big dreams. Believe it or not, those dreams never really go away. This dream, among the hundred, is to be a major basketball star.
Looking at the NBA today, the smallest guys on the team make up the largest guys on the team in Ward Ball. This does not stop these "big men" from thinking that they really are 7 foot tall and can play at an extremely high level. They think this...
The dream continues to be there, but life happens too. Fast forward a few years and now you have a lot of pent up rage. Family life, job stress, no exercise, eating too much. All of this is bottled up inside the Ward Ball player. He steps on the court and suddenly becomes a completely different human being. It's time to re-live the glory days. Only problem is, there are 9 other guys out there thinking the exact same thing.
Conflict is inevitable.
But generally speaking, most of the guys handle it pretty well. There are the hotheads. The team keeps an eye on them. There are the elbow-throwers, cheap shots, dirty players, and it's weird because these guys are supposed to be these great, spiritual examples for others to emulate. But Ward Ball just switches them on like they are sleeper cells.
When bringing a friend to play, it can be very enjoyable. The competition is good enough to keep it fun and interesting. However, when the friend is a Ringer, that is a problem. There is a certain betrayal. We have these neighborhoods with a bunch of short players. Everyone knows each other from every other year. Suddenly, someone brings in this 6'6" guy who is 280 lbs of complete muscle and can dunk it and is used to playing with the pros.
It's kind of like having a group of friends and you all end up marrying the girls from the town. But then there is one guy in the group who has to go score a model from LA and it changes the dynamic. What's that all about?
It gets ugly when the Ringer shows up and all those guys with big dreams are now standing front and center with him. They start hacking him, hitting hard, fouling. He starts hacking back. Pretty soon, fists are flying, people are yelling, cussing, spitting, red faces. Should have stayed home and watched all that on The Bachelor.
There probably should be rules against Ringers. But I suppose Ringers are people too.
