Love and Basketball is one of those movies that I’ve seen countless times, but I continue to watch over and over again. I won’t act as if Anthony and I’s relationship has any similarity to the two main characters, Monica and Quincy. What I will say is that Anthony and I absolutely LOVE basketball. It’s my favorite sport. My mom has always been a huge Magic Johnson fan, and her obsession with Magic was passed down to me. The Lakers have been my team since the early 90s. Although I adore Magic my favorite bball player ever is none other than Kobe Bryant. Listen, it’s TOUGH watching the Lakers play without him this year. Let’s face it, it’s tough watching the Lakers play period, because well…we’re struggling! Anthony is a Boston Celtics fan and surprisingly they are actually good this year. His favorite player is Kevin Garnett.

Our love for the game goes deeper than the NBA. We are also rivals when it comes to college basketball. I believe in the magic of “The Wizard of Westwood” (John Wooden), and I’ve been a fan of UCLA men’s basketball since 1995. Anthony on the other hand bleeds Kentucky Wildcat Blue. UCLA and KY actually faced each other two times this season. The first game was on Anthony’s birthday and I surprised him with tickets to the game. My UCLA Bruins came through with the W, but KY got their revenge by beating us in a Sweet 16 match up in the NCAA tournament. With both of us being so enamored with basketball it was only fitting that we have a basketball themed date.

This week’s edition of Weeknight Date Night was selected by Anthony and we played four rounds of basketball. I say rounds instead of games because we had a free-throw contest, played horse, around the world and an obstacle course. The YMCA close to our house has an outside basketball court so we headed to the Y for some bball. The weather was great that day! The first contest was the best out of ten free-throws. Neither of us shot well, but Anthony was able to pull it out by making 6 out of 10 shots. That event earned him one point.

We moved on to a game of horse, and again our shooting was off. After a few back and forth terrible misses we started to get into the creative shots. I found that I’m better shooting with my left hand than Anthony, (we’re both right handed) so I used that to my advantage and started shooting all left handed shots. When you figure out your opponent’s weakness…USE IT! I won the game of horse and earned three points.

Up next was around the world. I refuse to admit how long it took one of us to make 10 shots to complete the game, but just know it was quite some time. Anthony won around the world and earned himself two points. We were all tied up heading into the final round.

In the last round we had to dribble through cones, make a layup at each end of the court and then finish it off with a free- throw. We both did fairly well, but Anthony won that round and earned himself two points. Hutch won The HutchStew Basketball Classic by a score of 5 to 3.

We had a great time on this date. We were both sluggish all week due to just getting back from Cancun celebrating our first anniversary. I’m going to use that excuse as to why we both played horribly. I don’t think Anthony has EVER beaten me in anything basketball related so this one was a tough loss for ol Stew! Basketball is near and dear to my heart so be on the lookout for a rematch!