While the style of play is different from American streetball (there is much less one-on-one play), that is not the facet of the game that catches my eye.
The most striking part about is how they choose who gets to play in the next game. Unlike all other courts in the world, according to a guy I met, waiting for a long time doesn't guarantee a chance to play. Instead there is a person, ha-mazmin (the inviter) that decides who plays the next game. Ha-mazmin is the person that has been waiting the longest to play.
After a game is over, he can choose any two players to be on his team, even if they just finished playing a game, while people who have been waiting for a few games continue to wait.
I found myself in a quandry during a pre-Shabbos game on the courts. After playing in one game (and losing 7-2), I sat on the sidelines and waited with my teammates for our next chance to play. However, one of my teammates was chosen to play in the next game by ha-mazmin. Therefore, my teammate (an old man named Aaron) and I had to find a third teammate.
We had two candidates: a young yeshiva bukher who just finished playing a game and a middle-aged guy riding a skateboard. THe yeshiva boy had played in the last few games and showed that he had some game (relative to the talent level of Gan Sacher). He also smoked between games, which only seems to bother me. The skater had not played yet and was waiting longer.
Aaron wanted the young yeshiva bukher to play, but I thought that the skater should play. In the end, I won out. It was all for naught anyway because Aaron suffered cramps in the middle of the game, and we had to call the yeshiva bukher off the bench to join us.
We ended up winning.
Jesus Shuttlesworth would never have to wait at Gan Sacher. Then again, Jesus Shuttlesworth never loses.
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