Lifetime Adjustable Shatterproof Fusion Portable Basketball Hoop, 44-Inch Backboard

Perfect for us!In hindsight, I recommend preparing the sand in advance for the assembly. You will need at least 6 (50pound) bags of play sand plus a long neck funnel. I cut about an inch of the skinny end off mine.NOTE: the sand needs to be *completely* dried out to run smoothly into the holes of the base. When you buy it in bags, it's damp and won't flow.It helps to buy it way ahead and dump into bins or a tarp, and keep out of the rain. It should be the consistency of freshly opened sugar when it's dry - no clumps.I used an oval plastic water pitcher to dump the sand into the funnel. But during this long process, I was imagining it would be better to have about 6 strong young men(basketball players, of course) hold up the tarp while I pushed in the sand. HahaLifetime recommends sand over water for a number of reasons, although you can get by for a bit with water.We've had the pleasure of having a fire ant colony under and around our old water-filled hoop, so this time we used bone-dry sand plus some fire ant granules. Lol

Great hoop and great price, my son loves it and plays with it all the time. Glad we opted not to spend more.

2/8/2015 Update:Changing this rating to 5 stars. This has become a regular part of our family's activities. We recently had a family gathering and it was used by all the kids and adults alike - a great time for all. I was able to get 200lb of sand in it but it was a very tedious task due to the filler holes being so small. I also put an extra 50lb bag of sand on the base for extra stability. Our driveway slants a bit, so I also used tie-downs to secure it to eye-bolts on the roof. I am very happy with the quality of this product as well as the quality of the company, Lifetime - they stand behind their product. I would not hesitate to recommend this purchase to anyone.12/30/2014 Update:I am adjusting my rating from 2 to 4 stars. I just received the missing part from Lifetime - much quicker than the January time frame I was originally told. This company deserves 5 stars for its customer service. I will make one more update after I have assembled it and tested it with my kids.Original review (12/26/2014):The low rating is not about the quality or usability of this product as I was not able to get that far. Amazon was great and promptly shipped it within 2 days in early December. After Christmas, when I tried to assemble it, I discovered that it did not contain the correct parts. The pole is comprised of three unique pole sections. Our package contained a top and two middle sections. Needless to say we were unable to assemble this Christmas gift for my 8 year old son. I contacted the manufacturer and they were nice enough to correct the problem with no hassle. However, the missing part won't be able to be shipped out until January - not very happy about that since the kids are out of school now and could have really taken advantage of it now.

No assembly instructions included! You have to dig online for instructions. The online instruction mentions filling sand in the base for highest security and stability. They mentioned that water may leak out and the unit can fall. Once assembled, it works well. Build quality is reasonable. It's sturdy and well-built enough for it's purpose. It's heavy enough to be secure even with water in the base. Love that it's portable. To avoid blinding the kids with morning or afternoon Sum, we move it around depending on Sun's position. Kids love it.

The directions were pretty clear. I did almost the entire assembly. There were a couple times in the process when it was a little hard to do without any help. I wish they had warned me earlier in the directions that a couple metal bars were meant to bend: I freaked out when I took a brief break (and therefore let the partially assembled thing rest on the ground) and found that one of the pieces had bent. Well, that was the part meant to be bendable.For now, I have used the option to fill it with water. With water in it, it is fairly hard to move (yes, it has wheels, but the wheels engage only if the pole is partly tipped, and it is hard to tip it. That's the point, after all: when it is fully loaded, it should NOT tip). I would not recommend sand for anyone on the smaller size (like my wife and I) if you have any intention of ever wanting to move it. As it is, when I need to store it more safely in winter (when the winds pick up where I live), I will have to drain off some of the water (which won't be the easiest thing, but I imagine that removing sand would be far worse).It vibrates a little when the ball hits the backboard, but it won't interfere with playing. So while I give only 4 stars for each of "easy to assemble", "maneuverability" and "sturdiness", it basically does what I want (for my son), so I am happy for the cost.I have not had it long, but I will downgrade the rating only if something goes wrong.