BASKETBALL
Age is no object at Macker
Thousands come downtown to play in hoops event
The basket was good, but Tom McMahon was not. Out of breath, flush-faced and bent over after putting in a layup, the 47-year-old called for a sub.
And the new blood — 58- year-old Paul Hejmowski — could not come in fast enough for the Buffalo Socratics during Saturday’s Gus Macker 3-on-3 hoops tournament downtown.
McMahon underwent heart surgery three years ago. Hejmowski has an artificial hip. Brian Byrne, 49, recently had knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. And 52-year-old Joey Scapello was playing with a partially torn Achilles tendon.
“We’re guys rising up from the grave to play,” said Scapello, a scientist at CUBRC, a Buffalo research firm where Mc- Mahon is president and CEO. “Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. And we, having examined our lives, wish to play basketball.”
So did some 4,000 other ballers who flooded the streets around Niagara Square as Buffalo’s 18th Macker tipped off early Saturday, many similarly looking to reclaim past basketball glory.
The stars displayed the center- court flash. Jason Rowe and Damone Brown, Buffalo natives now playing professionally overseas, and suspended Syracuse receiver and Riverside alum Mike Williams brought big crowds to the showcase courts on Delaware Avenue.
But there were so many more just trying to capture a dose of the past, so many more just thrilled to still be playing the sport that abuses the body while rejuvenating the soul.
Take 45-year-old Buffalo native Damien Goodwin. He has played in the Macker tournament for 25 years and all 18 years in Buffalo. In fact, he plans to hit at least four Macker tournaments this year.
“The competition, I love it,” Goodwin said. “It keeps us young.”
Or take Tony Maroney and Heather Turner, former local stars in professional limbo.
The 7-foot-2 Maroney, who is 36 and last played competitively in 2003 overseas, was using the tournament as a gauge to determine whether he should make a professional comeback following a recent hernia surgery.
“Today showed me that I still got a little of what I had,” said Maroney of Lockport.
Turner knows she still has it, having just graduated from the University at Buffalo. She does not even want to think about a professional career in Europe yet.
“I’m just having fun,” Turner said. “It feels great to be back out here.”
And then there’s those like the Socratics who thought their Macker days were long over.
The four friends had played in several tournaments over the years, but the 2001 Buffalo Macker looked to be it. Scapello was moving away to Texas. And, well, the boys weren’t getting any younger.
But a funny thing happened near the end of a night of beer and wings last month. Hejmowski proposed that the gang play in one last Macker.
“And they drank enough that they said, ‘Yes,’ ” he said, laughing.
So there they were Saturday, playing in the 40-and-over division.
The Socratics lost their opening game. But who cared?
“We had fun and nobody got hurt,” Byrne said.
“I better call my girlfriend to tell her I didn’t tear anything,” Scapello said between games at Club W, conveniently located next to their court.
After a loss in the second game, it was on to the “toilet bowl” bracket, where they will play this morning. That, too, was a victory. “The benefit of losing is we have a later game tomorrow,” McMahon said, laughing. “That’s more time for rest.”
