"Back on the Block…" Basketball 2010.

I’ll start right here: “BBall.”, “Hoops.”, “The Pill.”, “The Rock.”, “Square Up.”, “Box – Out.”, “Swish.”, “Pop – Out.”, “Shake ‘N Bake.”, “Pick and Roll.”, “Gotcha.”, “Face.”, “And One.”, “Down Low.”, “Trap.”, “Press.”, “Coast to Coast.”, “In the Paint.”, and back “On the Block…”

NFA guard Will Williams gathers his thoughts during varsity basketball practice at the high school in Newburgh, NY on Thursday, December 2, 2010. Defending Section 9 Class AA Champion NFA opens their 2010 – 2011 season at Minisink Valley on December 9th. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-RecordMichael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls flips the ball over his head toward the basket in the closing seconds of the 1998 NBA All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, February 8, 1998. Jordan was named the MVP of the game. © Chet Gordon/The Journal News

Photographing basketball is probably my favorite sport to shoot. I mean besides football, baseball, boxing, track & field, swimming, lacrosse, hockey, tennis, soccer, field hockey, horse racing, car racing, bungee jumping, hang gliding, wind surfing, marathon running, weightlifting, etc… Well, you get the idea.
Basketball offers more opportunities for good pictures ata given game or venue, and sometimes even great pictures.Within the boundries of the rectangle of hardwood we know as the court, there are literally unlimited possibilities of viewing angles, shooting positions forme, as well as for remote cameras, and ways to cover a game. From the pee-wees and youngsters in neighborhood playgrounds and gyms, all the way up to the big boys in the NBA, I’ve been around basketball my whole life. 

MOMBASA, KENYA. A Kenyan boy watches a basketball fall through a netless hoop in the Miritini Estates neighborhood of Mombasa, Kenya on Sunday, April 9, 2006. © www.chetgordon.com/blog


At one time I was a pretty decent player through high school and like other sports, I have a deep appreciation
of the game with all it’s nuances and intricacies. Basketball offers a working photographer a means to get close to the players and coaches, where one can usually freely approach the team benches (or locker rooms) for good feature or “B – roll” images from games and even practices.

As I begin my fourth season here covering basketball at this newspaper, it’s always a good time to sort of look ahead while looking back at the work at the same time. This will of course include a fair heaping of high school games, as well as college games at area universities and the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. One good thing in looking ahead is that I’ve become familiar with the area gyms and arenas these past seasons, and am really looking forward to trying a few new things, as well as tweaking some of my dependable routines.
Anfernee Hardaway (#1, center) of the NY Knicks drives to the basket between Kenyon Martin (left) and Rodney Rodgers (right) of the NJ Nets in the first half of their Game #1 playoff game at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ on Saturday, April 17, 2004. Hardaway led the Knicks’ scorers in a losing effort as the Nets defeated the Knicks, 107-83. (Photograph by Chet Gordon for The New York Daily News)

I am working now to add a slideshow of some of my career & recent favorites in covering basketball, so please check back on this post again soon… ~cg.

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