Customer Reviews

Lifetime 1225 Pro Court Height-Adjustable Portable Basketball System with 44-Inch Backboard

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This basketball goal is a good value for the money. It is sturdy and relatively easy to put together (my wife did it in under 2 hours, though I should mention she is mechanically inclined). With nothing in the base, I can carry it. It also has wheels on the base for portability. I filled the base up with a hose to anchor it. It was very easy to fill with a hose.

So far, the goal has stood up well to some rough play, including lots of dunks. Here are the three negatives:

1) the backboard is a little small.
2) As mentioned in the product description, the base takes up a lot of area. There is no getting around this. It's a tradeoff for making it portable.
3) Even at the lowest setting (7 ft), it's too high for my 7-year old daughter (even with one of the smaller basketballs). It takes almost all her strength to make a basket. I plan to get around the height problem by getting a soccer ball or something lighter for her to shoot with. She is not very strong so if you have a strong 7-year old, it should be fine.

If I had it to do over again, I would probably get one of the cheaper, smaller goals, but this one is made well enough so it will still be around when my daughter is strong enough to easily shoot at a 7 ft. goal.

Update 3/19/2009 - still going strong 3+ years later.

Although I don't own this specific hoop, I have owned a lifetime hoop just like this one for over ten years and there's nothing rusting or breaking off. The only thing I had to replace is the net. Even though it's not the biggest hoop with a breakaway rim, it would last much longer and withstand decades of use. If you're looking for an economic hoop for the beginner basketball player buy this hoop.

Good overall, took quite a while to put together and needed two people. Getting enough sand to make it stable took a long time with a funnel.

I purchased the Lifetime "Street Court" model that appears very similar to this over 10 years ago for my husband and daughter. She was only 7 at the time. It helped the father-daughter bonding, and when we moved 1000 miles away it helped our daughter make new friends in our new neighborhood. It spent years in Massachusetts and saw so much snow, we've photos of our daughter standing on a snow bank, behind the goal, dropping her basketball down thru the hoop. It moved with us to North Carolina and has withstood Tornado force winds. It has withstood all types of severe weather. It withstood years of delivery people and even our daughter learning to drive and no incidents. Unfortunately, yesterday a workman backed his truck into our portable hoop at the edge of our driveway and demolished the bottom pole, braces and base (not to mention his chrome bumper!) Husband and daughter are devastated. The Workman is very apologetic and wanting to replace it. Daughter is grown and off to college and husband is retired. I am trying to find replacement parts. It's like losing a member of the family! I highly recommend the products from this manufacturer.

For a beginners basketball hoop, I really have no complaints. The system is solid and well built enough to stand up to my 9 year old and his limited dunking skills. The price was well within reasonable expectations for quality and peformance. Don't expect easy, one handed height adjustment or true bounce off a rather thin, molded plastic backboard. But for shooting around with the kid, you should be happy. My biggest complaints were two-fold:

First, the product took about three days until it even began shipping. I'd expect more from something shipping directly from Amazon (as indicated by the page) and not a third party.

Second, and the main reason I only rated 3 stars, the box was missing 2 bags of parts. I still don't understand in modern assembly line production how 2 large bags of parts don't make it into a box with roughly 10 components. It was disappointing to get half way through assembly and tell my son he wouldn't get to play today because Lifetime couldn't QA their products. Regardless, they were nice enough to send out the missing parts bag (minus an apology) and it sits fully assembled in my driveway.

As it recommends, you'll need two people to put it together.

This product worked out perfectly for my two kids and me. We live in an area that can get VERY windy, so the smaller, lighter backboard works out great for us. I've seen my neighbors' basketball goals blow over, but ours hasn't blown over once, and we've had it for years now. I love that I can adjust the height as the kids grow. I put it together myself and have had no problems since. We still use it almost everyday, and have moved it from one home to another. It has stood up to snow, wind, rain, and everyday use and still going strong. Excellent product for the money!

I took less than an hour by myself to put this together. I felt the directions were clear. I use it daily and have no issues with it. It was a good price and with free shipping it was wonderful.

Putting it together right was a challenge, but is has served us well. It has to be very portable for us, so we use water in the base and put large rocks in an old cooler on top of the base to make it more stable. I was impressed by the fact that the base returned to shape fairly easily after the corner got run over by a car. The plastic was warm from the sun at the time.

We bought this for my son and his family. The fact it is adjustable makes it possible for our grandchildren to use it as well as our son and daughter-in-law. While there were a few frustrating minutes when it would not go together as it should, they have definitely enjoyed having it as a means to 'family togetherness!'

A bag of assembly parts was missing and it took three -- not the advertised two -- adults to put this contraption together. But once it was together, the kids -- and adults, too -- loved it. They can't get enough of shooting baskets.