We have reached the end of our 100th season. It has been a wild ride, beginning in 1988 and ending...who knows when. Last week's semifinal games were mostly amazing. We had several overtime games and a couple that went double overtime. The Side Loaders, our absolute favorite team (they have had multiple seasons where they don't win a game, but they keep signing up because they enjoy getting together to play a game on Sundays), are in the championship game of their Division! That is so cool. In other games:

--Flashback and JAK staged a classic, with the former eking out a 58-57 win. It is the third straight season that JAK has lost by one point and/or at the buzzer in either the semis or finals in their Division. For someone who runs the League and loves competitive games, that's magnificent. For them, I'm sure it sucks.

--The game between The Hawgs and Cool Arrows went right down to the wire, with The Hawgs pulling out a 58-55 win. The Hawgs will take on Average Joes in the finals. The Joes got by Anybody Can Do It, 58-54.

--This is actually quite strange. The aforementioned three winning teams all scored 58 points in their respective victories. Skoden did, as well, in their 58-47 win over Hoop City. And Tucson Cyclones beat Air Jesus, 57-56. Bombardier beat Ham, 58-55. Phantomz scored 58 in their win and the The Avengers scored 57 in theirs. That's just weird.

I wish it had been a perfect season, but it was not. We had a stupid fight in a playoff game that resulted in both teams being banned forever from the League. If I live to be 1,000, I will never understand fighting in a game. You have two groups of people who have agreed to engage in a sporting contest. Both groups know the rules and have agreed to abide by them. What is there to fight over?

Over the years, I have mentioned (ad nauseum) that I grew up in a rough place (it was about a mile from where the LAPD beat up Rodney King). But, growing up, I learned that sports was where you went to get away from the ugliness and violence. That's the way I have conducted my entire life and that's the way I want the Tucson Basketball League to be now and forever. We occasionally get the incident where two knuckleheads will square off, point fingers, talk some shit. But, those things are quickly defused by teammates and the two knuckleheads almost always apologize to each other and the refs and their teammates. Those things do happen, but actual fights are extremely rare. We have had three of those in 100 seasons. Three in 37 years. Three fights in thousands of games. If you doubt the number of games, please know that this season alone, with regular-season and playoffs, we had over 400 games. In the old days, when we had 36 or 40 teams, there were fewer games, but since the Pandemic got over, we've been at or above 100 teams per season. That's about 5,000 games in the past four years.

After this Sunday's championship games, we will be off for three whole weeks! We usually take off two weeks for the Holidays, but this year's calendar was unique. I hope everyone has a great Holiday season. I hope the UA football team gets to play (and win) in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. I hope the championship games are as good as the semis were. I hope my beloved Los Angeles Rams regain the top spot in the NFC, get home field throughout the playoffs and win another Super Bowl. And I hope that our 101st season is our best one ever.

Please contact me via text or email as soon as possible if you're interested in joining the League for our Winter 2026 season. Thanks.