Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

[Incandenza]

Kevin Durant dropped 66 points at Rucker Park...perhaps even more astounding was the uniform choices for the two teams, though.



Orange and red. In the videos, it's even harder to tell the two teams apart.

Do watch the videos, though, especially the third one at the last link. Just insane.

[ursus arctos]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

Given the general level of defense, I think that some of the red guys thought Durant was on their team.

[Levin]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

Do both teams have the same logo on the front of the shirt as well?

[Incandenza]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

Yes. A bit of an explanation--Rucker Park is a legendary park/public basketball court in Harlem. Many famous NBA players played there when they were young, and it has a lot of "streetball" games. During the summer, there is a Rucker Park summer league with different teams, but I'm not sure how organized it all is--EBC, whose logo is on the jerseys, organizes the league, but their website is shut down. Kevin Durant showed up there, something no one in the crowd was expecting.

Durantula has been busy this summer--he also had this dunk in LA's Drew League.

[ursus arctos]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

It's impossible to understate how important Rucker is to the mythology of New York basketball.

It's sort of like the Sun Studios in Memphis, or the Cafe Deux Magots in the 20s.

There are a lot of oldtimers who are upset at how commercialised it has become, but it is still very much hallowed ground.

[Incandenza]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

Basketball in general, I'd say. No other public court can compete to the legend of Rucker. Basketball heads, including non-New Yorkers, speak about it in hushed tones.

[Reed John]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

It's all spiffed up and has stands and so forth. It's not gritty and urban with chain baskets and so forth. Was it ever?

It's certainly the only specific basketball park that I've ever heard of, although I don't care much about basketball and certainly am not plugged into the street ball scene. One hears of the courts in South Chicago or South Philly in general, but nothing specific like Rucker.

[ursus arctos]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

Nets? The greats didn't need no stinkin' nets.

[Reed John]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

But when was that? At least 30 25 years ago, judging by the uniforms.

I've found that without nets, it's often hard to tell if the ball went in. The park behind my house has nets made out of some kind of canvas/nylon straps. Clever.

[ursus arctos]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

When Rucker was Rucker.

60s or 70s.

[Reed John]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

I'm thinking 60s because everyone has very short hair.

[TheFourMarys]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

I know next to nothing about Bball but I once had it very animatedly explained to me by a fellow passenger on the R train to Stillwell Avenue that the courts at the projects on Coney Island beach were legendary for streetball and had produced a fair few pro talents.

(He didn't actually identify them as Coney Island courts specifically, so it could have been Brighton Beach he meant. But unless I've missed a sudden resurgence of the Hakoah movement, I doubt it. I don't recall that many Odessa Jewish superstars in the NBA recently).

[Reed John]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

He Got Game is about a star from Coney Island. There are some good players from there, I think.

[Incandenza]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

There's a book from 1994, The Last Shot, about Lincoln High School in Coney Island, and the promise of basketball in the projects there. One of the main people in the book was a kid named Stephon Marbury. Lincoln has won a lot of NYC high school basketball titles.

[ursus arctos]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

It's Coney Island.

Marbury and Sebastian Telfair are the area's two most prominent players, but there are lots more at lower levels.

To give you an idea of how the demographics of the area have changed, Marbury and Telfair went to the same high school as Neil Diamond, Marv Albert, Harvey Keitel, Leona Helmsley, Joseph Heller and Arthur Miller.

[Sam]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

What's the general setup there? Would the other guys (who clearly, just from reading this thread on the venue, will be very good players indeed at their own level) have turned up that evening just wanting to play? Because if so, much as it's obviously competitive, I can't help thinking his team-mates might've been a bit pissed off. A lot of those vids just show him taking the ball up the court on his own then nailing a ridiculous three-pointer. Maybe it's just me, but I'd have bloody hated to be on his team (not that I'd have enjoyed being on the opposing team)...

[Incandenza]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

I'm sure some of them would have known that he was going to be playing that night...I think the guys on his team would be thrilled to say that they were there on his team that night.

[ursus arctos]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

I'm with Inca. The teams are set, and participate in a league, but there is a tradition of NBA stars dropping by for guest appearances.

Rather like Springsteen dropping in for a set with a top flight house band somewhere.

[Incandenza]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

Fuck it, I'm making this the streetball thread. It might as well have it's own thread, since it looks like the NBA won't be coming back any time soon.

In a streetball game last night (where Durant also happened to be playing...that guy doesn't take a break), bozo Michael Beasley shoved a heckler in the face.

In the second half, Beasley began jawing with some fans under one of the baskets, at one point shouting “I get paid to do this!” to a section of the packed house.

One of the fans, Garland Quince, was involved in the chatter. Beasley approached Quince, who was standing behind a portable metal barrier. Beasley then “mushed” him, as Quince described it, placing both hands on his face and shoving him backward.

“He just mushed me. He mushed me in my face,” Quince said. “I was arguing about a Kevin Durant call and he just mushed me in my face.”

The game was stopped briefly as security guards helped the situation cool down.

I guess Beas was still pissed off about this.

[jason voorhees]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

Had anyone seen my post about Durant's 66 in the NBA thread, I wrote Durant is Doctor Funk.

The story behind the "even Pee Wee Kirkland couldn't handle this...my team didn't even have to win a game to win the championship" that made it onto Fat Joe's immortal "Lean Back"...Fat Joe vs Jay Z in the Rucker.

(edit - it's an hour long, but I watched it and give it a *** star out of **** review and find it very good viewing. Interesting history, and it goes quick. Even more interesting being that Jay Z went from owning a Rucker team to owning an NBA team.)

[ursus arctos]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

jv is right, as is almost the case.

Though in the real world, Durant wishes he could be Doctor Funk. And Nike wishes that they had a frontman like Durant.

Is the lockout the Blink-like inflection point between sport and performance art?

Dunno, soz.

[jason voorhees]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

The guy who filmed the Durant vid was named Thanasis Petrakis, which was the maiden name of my grandmother when she was in Darsoniskis, Lithuania, where her father had 26 kids in the late 1800s, which is 6 km from Kaunas, where Zydrunas Ilguaskas was from, whom many people say I have a strong resemblance to. I hope one day to get the DNA tests.

[Come along, Min]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

Inca, Ursos, good thread. JV, good heads up on the film. Thank you to all.

The Blackout DVD was fascinating, I watched it because I like my hip hop.

The only thing I knew about the game is Hoop Dreams and The Globetrotters, all this Rucker history talk has opened my eyes to a sport I've had no real interest in up until now.

A few points..

* "Franchise" Strickland died at 38, how?

* What was the thing about winning the toss for the bench?

* My favourite piece of footage. So much flair & showboating, is streetball intrinsically different from NBA in this way or is it just the way the film was edited.

[Incandenza]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

atlanticjaxx wrote:

* My favourite piece of footage. So much flair & showboating, is streetball intrinsically different from NBA in this way or is it just the way the film was edited.

Funny you should ask that with that clip...not sure if you know, but that's Lamar Odom of the LA Lakers, a model NBA professional (who also happens to have his own reality show since marrying [strike]Chyna[/strike] Khloe Kardashian). He grew up in New York, played streetball, and is a great player in the NBA who can fill different roles--center, power forward, small forward, even shooting guard.

Streetball is very different from NBA or college basketball. It's sort of the id to the superego of how coaches try to control players and have them run plays, set defenses, etc. It's all about swag.

And as ursus alluded to with Rucker earlier, it's become a business. And 1, a basketball clothing and shoe company, started putting on tours and selling DVDs of streetball, which is how a lot of people (myself included) got sucked into it. Guys who never played in the NBA became well-known because of the videos.

Very few players have made the crossover from streetball to the NBA. You can look at it two ways--Rafer Alston is a servicable NBA point guard, not a star, but he can get the job done for you but probably not much more than that. But on the streetball court, where he is known as Skip 2 My Lou, he can do some of the most amazing things you will see with a basketball. On one hand, he's an average professional player, but on the other he's a legend in a specific world. I think there's something beautiful about that.

Excuse the music, but here's a good video of Rafer Alston:

[jason voorhees]

Uniform anarchy: Streetball edition

HFS.

Grande Hilarity.