If you aren’t familiar with the sport of “SlamBall,” you are missing out.
SlamBall takes the excitement of dunking from basketball, the hard hitting violence from football, the plexiglass walls from hockey, and the super-bouncy trampolines from gymnastics to create the ultimate entertainment product.
It’s dangerous.
It’s exhilarating.
It’s SlamBall.
Similar to the original run of the XFL, SlamBall was a sport that burst onto the scene in the early 2000s before disbanding. The sport was televised in 2002 and 2003, and the inventor of the high-flying form of basketball recently said in an interview that SlamBall will return this summer.
In an interview with TMZ Sports, SlamBall creator Mason Gordon spoke in an interview about how it felt like it was the right time to bring back the hoops and trampolines:
“Pretty much every couple of months, there will be an opportunity to bring SlamBall back in some form. And my partners and I have always looked at it and said, ‘We’re not gonna come back until the market conditions are, like, really optimal,’ and the alternate sports marketplace is just on fire. And there’s a reason for that.
Younger audiences are really out there looking for, like, what sport can I call my own? Because a lot of them aren’t watching two-and-a-half-hour, three-hour long broadcasts anymore.”
The idea is to bring back SlamBall in a form of condensed 20-minute games. The dwindling attention span of the younger demographic is a driving force in the decision to play shorter games than regular basketball.
SlamBall plays most similarly to the game of basketball, but there are countless twists and scoring tweaks to the game. There is no word on if they will keep the same rules and guidance from SlamBall’s original run, but as the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Considering the league disbanded, that might’ve meant it was broken, but that’s beside the point.
I unfortunately was only able to appreciate the sport of SlamBall through YouTube videos years after its original run ended. I absolutely fell in love with the idea of the sport. I did as any kid would naturally do and immediately asked for a trampoline and a used basketball goal for Christmas.
I can’t even count how many hours of trampoline basketball I played in my youth, and how many injuries occurred while playing with friends, but the trampoline basketball eventually stopped.
Now that SlamBall is coming back, the trampoline basketball never has to end. The league is set to return in July with a six week season and one week of playoffs.
In order to get ready for the thrilling basketball spinoff, I suggest you watch this video of SlamBall’s greatest moments:
