SPOKANE, Wash. – For identical twins Jayden and Connor Girbau, they’re locked into Hoopfest hours before they tip off.
“It’s a great feeling,” Jayden said. “It’s fun to come out and support your family and friends and just have a good time, play a lot of basketball and stuff. So it’s really enjoyable. I really enjoy the environment and just being around basketball everywhere. It’s amazing.”
“I just like the atmosphere,” Connor said. “I like getting heated and happy, you know, good shots falling. It’s a good thing to see.”
The brothers stayed early, cheering on friends competing this morning, including their own barber.
“Watching games gets you in a different atmosphere,” Jayden said. “Watching friends. It gets you more into it. You really want to win like it is for a t-shirt, but not for me, it’s for…”.
“Bragging rights,” Connor said.
“Bragging rights. I want to win,” Jayden said.
The Spokane natives have always been competitors as former football-turned-basketball fanatics.
“It’s very competitive,” Jayden said. “Yeah,” Connor replied. “We’re always going at each other, always trying to do better than each other,” Jayden said. “And it’s always a great competition with each other for sure.”
“Yeah, he’s the reason I’m as good as I am, and really, the same for him,” Connor said.
“Yeah, I would agree.”
Their squad played a chippy and competitive game against bone boys, getting heated a few times, but that fiery spirit is what the guys love.
“Hard work, having an open mind, and just being more mature than the average person,” Jayden and Connor’s friend Rashad Crandel said. “You know. It really is just love. We all love each other. So it’s a bonding. These are really my brothers.”
“At the end of the day, it’s basketball,” Jayden said. “We’re just going to have fun, play basketball, and then go home? You know, safe. That’s all it matters, really.”
They didn’t pull out a win today, but the Girbau twins and friends felt all the same passion for what comes next.
“Catch us winning the losers’ bracket,” Crandel said.
“We need the t-shirt, that’s what we need, we’re coming back for a t-shirt,” the Girbau twins’ friend Cole Kyle said.
“I’m here for fun, man, I’m just here to have fun, man, truly,” Jayden said. “I just love my guys, that’s all it is.”
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