Metropolitan Diary: The Other Basketball Game In winter with no wind, the ocean and the sand lie flat, lie parallel and only the poor patrol the boardwalk. Here, meandering, the refugees from nursing homes, or homeless, trudge or sit on benches in clothing not warm enough for the cold, pressing the occasional passer-by for change. On the beach a man plays a solitary game of basketball, shooting and mostly missing the wire garbage can. Here, in Far Rockaway, the solitary player enjoys his own shoot-around, with only the floating gulls flapping and clapping for him.