L.B.L Madness

With March Madness upon us once again, the fun will start up to see who can out-do who in the greatest guessing game known in the wide world of sports. All of this is crazy fun, and somehow has transported me back to the days of the LBL with my older brother Kevin. The L.B.L, otherwise known as the "Long Basketball League" began in 1991 in St. Anthony, Minnesota on the Long brothers home court off of 35th and Harding Street. The LBL was a fictional world of NBA Players joining together in what surely was one of the first fantasy basketball leagues in the world. The creators? Myself, then only 12 years old and my brother Kevin, 15. Not in an electronically dominated age just yet, and forced to many a summer day of babysitting our younger brother Dave, we put our energetic and sports obsessed minds together and invented the LBL. Some may see this fictional league as weird or nerdy - but for three consecutive summers of our youth, it was simply the best form of entertainment and action we could ever have dreamed up.

Competing against my older brother was just something I always felt compelled to do. He was not opposed to to this constant desire, but welcomed my young and naive thirst for victory. Despite being heavily out-skilled and out-smarted, I thrived on pulling the upset special and being able to give myself a pat on the back for a job well done. The first two seasons were mostly filled with temper-tantrums and bitter defeat, day after day after day. How Kevin continued to put up with me is still a mystery. I know he enjoyed delivering a whooping on me, and despite my usual comebacks and even temporary leads, he would inevitably drill a three-pointer to seal the victory or squash my momentum. Ahh, the memories. Even though I could pretty much assume a losing record to him, what made the LBL so much fun was keeping our statistics and playing "pretend" together. What do I mean you ask? I kept all of our records and I will give you a sampling here:

LBL Season 1991

Miami Fire (3-4)
Texas Guerrillas (3-4)
Minnesota War Pigs (2-5)
San Francisco Terminators (2-5)
New Mexico Pythons (4-3)
Los Angeles Predators (3-4)
Louisiana Cobras (6-1)
New York Death (5-2)

These were our teams that we created. We each kept track of 4 teams of 6 players. We held a draft every year and assigned our players a number and position - and although we played 1 against 1, we did play by play while battling and made sure that after each point scored, we announced "who" had made the basket. And when a certain player just wasn't cutting it or was having an off day - no worries, we could bring in our substitute to give him a rest. We played to 35 - we called our own fouls and shot free throws. We had a make-shift three point line and could even use the brick embankment and garage door to pass off of. I can tell you're getting excited just reading this - and you are not alone. Looking back, I realize just how good we had it. There was no telling us how to have a good time. Here's some more stats, now that you're hooked:

'91 All League 1st Squad
PG: Kevin Johnson
SG: Mark Macon
F: Tom Chambers
PF: Dominique Wilkins
C: Hakeem Olajuwon

Top Scorers: Mark Macon (82 points), Dominique Wilkins (67 points), Reggie Miller (66 points) Low Scorers: Terrell Brandon (10 points), LeBradford Smith (10 points), Mark Randall (14 points), Dale Davis (16 points)

Man, Dale Davis was terrible for me. I remember we used to joke about him often and just how he could not make a shot to save his life. And then there was Kev's Mark Macon. What a stud - he probably averaged at least 80% from the 3 point line. The next season, we stepped it up and added more teams and more games. It resulted in some truly dominating performances and team records - David Robinson carried the Houston Warthogs on his back, amassing a league high 127 points and totaling 7 Player of the Game awards, en route to winning the '92 Championship. There were also some downright awful teams, like the Alaska Kodiaks - winning 1 out of 9 games. Yikes - but, at least they had a bright star to make them at least watchable - Tracy Murray - of course, he was the substitute player of the year, which should tell you something about the Kodiaks.

By the time our final season of '93 rolled around, we had wisely returned to our original format of 8 teams and 7 games. Kevin and I were now a little more evenly matched, which resulted in an intensely fueled competition level, as the tide had turned and we both knew I was now able to win some games. This then ultimately led to a few more outbursts of anger and bitter temper tantrums when defeat was stolen at the last second or mistakes were made that could have been avoided. Again, Kev put up with me - although there were a few times I had to persuade him out of early retirement (thanks Kev... ) Yes, I did win some more games that year, and even accomplished a first ever scoring title with Clyde Drexler. We can honestly say that the LBL was worth it - and even though all those statistics mean absolutely nothing, well, we know it gave us a lot of joy and brought us closer together as brothers.

Although a formal resurrection of the LBL never took shape, once Dave was of age, I passed the older brother basketball dominance on to him and he and I competed on the Harding Street home court once again. Terribly outmatched - I cannot tell you how many times I swatted his feeble shot attempts, but Dave showed up to play and we continued in our pretend fun. Although, Dave always insisted on being Charles Broccoli, which kind of killed the "team" play I had in mind, but we had a good time nonetheless. And now, several years later, Kev and I must bow to our younger sibling's skill on the basketball court. Apprentice has now risen to defeat master(s), and the cycle has come full circle.

Thanks for the memories bro's.