SlamBall founder Mason Gordon takes sports to the next level

Slam Ball celebrates a comeback!

The sport that was founded in 2000 by Mason Gordonis a form of basketball and is played with four trampolines in front of each net and cushions on the sidelines. Although considered a form of basketball, like soccer, it is also a contact sport as the game involves blockages, collisions and tough physical play.

The 2023 season begins tonight, July 21st ESPN and the fans love it.

Recap of Mason Gordon’s incredible SlamBall game

Gordon, who founded the sport with a group of friends in 2000, subsequently played the sport for twelve games. During his time he was a shooter who is the top scorer in this sport. In the video above we can see Gordon practicing this sport and making an incredible shot.

The California native recently spoke about what it means to him to have SlamBall back after all these years, describing the event as “living the dream.”

“SlamBall is something I started 20 years ago in a warehouse on a plaza built from spare parts, and we’re just a few weeks away from reintroducing it on ESPN,” he said United States today. “I’m still pinching. The relaunch day will not only be a sporting event, but also a cultural event.”

What inspired SlamBall?

Gordon went on to explain how SlamBall came about and paid tribute to the UFC, because he was a big fan of the UFC as a kid, but he’s also a team player, so how was Gordon able to pull all of those elements together? Slam Ball.

“The UFC has really inspired me. The UFC blew me away as a kid,” he explained. “The concept that they could take all of these fighting styles and mix them up into something new, fresh and fun. I was a team athlete. So I wanted to know if you could take the best elements of basketball, the best elements of soccer and hockey and combine them all together.”

He continued, “But the secret was that I played video games. I’ve played NBA Jam and NFL Blitz. Those were two over the top sports. Bodies were flying all over the place and bodies were hitting extremely hard because it was a video game.”

“So I wanted to know if I could create an environment that had all of those elements and the video game aesthetic. And that’s where the idea of ​​the SlamBall court came from,” he concluded.

#BringBackSlamBall

After several years, SlamBall is making a comeback, which fans were excited to see as even the hashtag #BringBackSlamBall started trending.

“We’re fully focused on this relaunch right now,” Gordon said in reference to the 2023 SlamBall season, which will air on ESPN. “That’s because the #BringBackSlamBall hashtag movement started all by itself a few years ago. I haven’t posted anything. Jayson Tatum posted. Overtime Elite. Sports bar stool. ESPN. Those were the people who drove the movement forward.”

He continued, “We give people what they want.” People at the time were concerned with SlamBall as a real sport, which it was, and a real league, which it wasn’t. It was a TV show. And we gathered all the teams and played the games. We published it three months later. You can’t build a real sport like that.”