This week I got most of the pieces ready for my Bruce Pearl costume. I figure most people will recognize who I am when they see me dressed in a loud orange jacket and orange tie. I’m also going to have a UT emblem on the jacket for further clarification. However, in case some people still don’t get it, I wanted to buy one additional prop – an orange basketball.
I didn’t want a full-size one… too hard to carry around when I’ll be carrying a beer most of the time as well. I wanted a mini-basketball, something I could easily hold in one hand. I went to a couple of sporting goods centers and struck out. Oh, they had mini-basketballs, but they were Grizzlies basketballs or they were red white and blue. I wanted a basketball that looked like a basketball that would be used in an NCAA game.
Then I went to Target and found this:
“That’s as close as I’m going to come,” I thought. “I can get a Sharpie and paint the black stripes on the Nerf ball.” So I bought it.
Today I took it out of its case and this is what I found:
WTF????? Why would anyone produce a basketball that looks like this? Half orange, half blue? Except in Florida Gator country this thing is useless. No one has a real basketball that looks like this. I can’t take this out with me – I’d look like a bigger idiot than the real Bruce Pearl! Nerf should be brought up on truth-in-advertising charges for their packaging of this product.
If anyone knows where I can get a mini-basketball that looks like an official NCAA ball (or close enough, orange with black stripes), let me know.