Signs of normal, pre-pandemic life are slowly but surely coming back to Greensboro – even if that pandemic is still not contained – and one sign of normalcy that has delighted area basketball lovers is that the locks on public basketball nets around the city have been removed and now those courts are apparently open for use again.
At the start of the pandemic, over two months ago, the City of Greensboro put up signs on public basketball goals in the city stating that those courts were closed due to the threat of COVID-19. At that time, city workers tied or locked the nets so as to make them unusable – or at least, it made it so that the basketball couldn’t go through the net. Which is, after all, the fun part of the game.
However, in recent days those nets have been opening up. Popular basketball courts such as those at Kirkwood Park and Johnson Park were, on Thursday, June 18, open and being used by people who wanted to play a pickup game or a socially distanced game of H-O-R-S-E.
Over the last two months, the pandemic has made it virtually impossible to play or shoot basketball at a public court in the city. Some courts next to schools stayed open since school facilities workers didn’t close off school nets. However, some schools, such as Irving Park Elementary, have been sites of daycares during the pandemic – which meant those school courts weren’t open for public use on weekdays even though the nets were not locked or zip tied.
One basketball court off of Dellwood Drive was on school property but a good distance away from the school – so that court was available for public use. Since it was one of very few public courts without locks on the goals in the city during the past two months, and since many people had their days free during the pandemic, that court, which was hardly ever used before, became an extremely popular sight and, on most days, it was in use from morning until night.
One resident who lives close to the court said she works at home and heard activity at the court all day long for over two months. She said it drove her nuts and she had begun simply asking people not to play there. She will no doubt be pleased that basketball players in Greensboro now have other options.
