An Education by Marvin Gaye

By Mike Hall, October 8, 2026

We were a pretty good collection of players with two brothers and a bunch of white guys whose genes required them to play paint by the number basketball.

Warming up against Phoenix College, it was an eye opener as we readied ourselves to play against Mo Layton and his band of brothers.

The Bears had a jive like warmup featuring dunks galore to the rhythmic beat of I Heard It Through The Grapevine by Marvin Gaye.  The Mavericks team had no dunks and quickly realized this was going to be tough sledding.

I can’t recall the final score but remember Layton having 29 points without playing in the fourth quarter.

Maybe it was the music or the fact that our somewhat robotic play didn’t match up with these terrific athletes.

Had I known then what I know now…we’d have started our next game at home to the music of J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton.  Roll on and They Call Me The Breeze might have awakened those stiff bones of ours and made our play more like a dance fest than a game of chess.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

***   The picture is of two of our now fossil players still locked into chess mode.

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