In the annals of odd sports juxtapositions, a Jamaican national basketball team descended on the sleepy Seattle suburb of Kirkland last week. They practiced for an international tournament inside the lone full court at Eastside Basketball Club, which shares that space, even, with other businesses—hence all the groups of toddlers … being led by teachers … tiny hands holding the same string … up the court’s sideline … right by practice.
“They” meant four players and three coaches, all of whom gathered inside the Bridle Trails Shopping Center, in an area of Kirkland that’s exactly how the name sounds. EBC sits between a chicken joint and a martial arts studio, nearby a hardware store, a bubble tea spot and a grocery market.
Kirkland is 11 or so miles by car from Seattle, which looms across Lake Washington like an older brother—the annoying one. The distance between both cities can be shortened for anyone with a boat. Kirkland is cozy but increasingly less cozy, with construction cranes all over the place. It’s home, Kirkland, to some 90,000 people. Mostly families. Like my own.
When someone asks me to differentiate Kirkland from any other greater-Seattle suburb, I start with that stuff. When their eyes inevitably glaze over, I invoke three facts, almost always. Kirkland is … 1) the first home of the Seattle Seahawks, 2) home to the original Costco, and 3) home to the nursing home where COVID-19 kicked off its ferocious U.S. tour. (Fact No. 2 isn’t even true, turns out. The first Costco was in Seattle—come on!—and the company headquarters moved Kirkland in 1987.)
This leads to a rather depressing realization. The Seahawks built their waterfront palace down I-5, in Renton, moving there for good in 2008. But, “Hey, at least this fair city really sparked COVID’s spread!” cannot become Kirkland’s motto.
Anyway, the text message arrived in early December. Rick Turner, longtime international basketball coach and, like me, a Kirkland resident, had invited the Jamaican men’s national 3×3 team, which he coaches, to train in … what’s definitely not the home of the original Costco. Which is how those players and their other coach flew in from all over the world to practice for a basketball national team in a country where track-and-field towers above all other sports. Distance from Kirkland to Kingston: 3,265 miles.
All arrived during the coldest week of 2024 so far. Let that be a lesson about first impressions. I saw Turner’s text and thought, regrettably, . Jamaican hoopers saw Kirkland and thought, . It’s not that, cold, not here. For all the rain we get, lack of bone-chilling cold days marked a benefit. But these tall, athletic gentlemen nearly had to purchase winter coats before temperatures warmed this week.
Turns out, those fellas have a story of their own.