Is Slamball the new hotness?

Ever heard of Slamball? Neither had I until recently, but the sport based roughly on Basketball has had a big boost this week after featuring on One Tree Hill.

Slamball was founded in 2002 by Mason Gordon and is described as a mix of basketball and ice hockey. The basic gameplay is like basketball and included a basketball itself and basketball hoop, but the physical play and regular player substitutions come from ice hockey.

Slamball is played on a 100’X62′ court with the floor including shock absorbent panels and trampolines. Each end of the floor is nearly completely covered by four trampolines, allowing players to reach huge heights and perform massive dunks similar in style to play seen in computer games, which were the inspiration for the sport.

Professional Slamball games were aired on television by Spike TV for two seasons in 2002 – 2003 and today are shown on Versus and CBS.

Here’s some footage of a Slamball slam dunk challenge. It looks entertaining.