How does Kevin Durant bridge the gap between one of the most phenomenal seasons for a 21 year old in the history of the NBA and getting prepared to lead Team USA in the FIBA World Championships?
Remember, the cat averaged 30 points, eight rebounds and three assists while leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to 50 wins (a badunkulious 27-game turnaround from last year!) and a memorable first round duel with the Lakers in the playoffs.
So, how does he segue and get ready to take on the world, stating his case as best player poised to run things in the NBA for, I don’t know, the next 15 years or so?
Some people may agree or make up any reason just to disagree with Antwan “Anti-Freeze” Dobie winning the 2010 Nike Player of the Year hardware. This is the only time you will get to hear my opinion on any subject matter I put on the Bouncemag.com website. “Anti-Freeze” won the award in my eyes. “Anti-Freeze” had a great summer putting up numbers in an array of Street ball tournaments across the Big Apple.
Offensively, he gives you 48 minutes of “how can I stop him?!”. “Anti-Freeze” is accustomed to getting 20+ per outing. My only issue with him is defensively at times. “Anti-Freeze” you had a great summer homey. Keep up the good work across the water and rep to NYC to the fullest ya dig! Read More »
* God Shammgod on Cover of Issue 25
* Corey Homicide Rocks the New Jordan Outdoor Kicks
* LeBron Loses a Game of H.O.R.S.E.
* Old School Feature: Oscar “Big O” Robertson
* Street Dogma: “The Newness” – The Modern Playground
* Shane “Dribbling Machine” *
sean@bouncemag.com
To: The World of Playground Basketball
Re: The Evolution
September 1, 2010 10:10 AM
My people -
To AG the voice of Harlem (still chanting and repping the mic hard in NYC) to Lil Rah (Sean Bell All-Stars) to Joe Pope (Voice of Watson Tournament, we recognize at Bounce no doubt! ) to Paul Rivera (Nike NYC in Turkey worldwide) to ATL Dirty South – the US rep at Quai 54 and my 19U brothers united in China, PR and Brasil, to Bobbito Garcia announcing the Elite 24 on ESPNU, and to my enemies: Toni “Rocky Horror” – I love my enemy, gotta do it according to the Word – and The JC Select Team, who is about to get Tex-Mexed by the area – a present for you all – The Evolution Issue. See Manu and Danilo do the “Shammgod” in the NBA, see kids at the playground do the “Sham” in China, France and the Netherlands, see 44 year old men do the Shammgod to win a 3-on-3 tournament. Read More »
ESPN writer Ronnie Flores came out with a Top 24 Rucker Park list to match its Elite 24 at Venice Beach that I gotta give an “A” for effort but a “C” for a few glaring omissions. Article at ESPN RISE.
When measuring a legend in Harlem there are some factors that are obvious: overall game, crowd impact and NBA/College pedigree which Flores captured, but the one thing he missed was the players that impacted Rucker in ways that made them the most feared playground performers in NYC history and predecessors to the new style that everyone now thinks is the pinnacle of the street. And check it, the three players (really four – you know how we add peeps at the last minute during big playground games) nicknames alone matched their games, in an era when you had to earn one the hard way. Read More »
Just getting back from a dizzying weekend of hoops out in Cali, where the Boost Mobile Elite 24 took center stage on the famous outdoor courts of Venice Beach. Between the scrimmages, workouts, dunk contest and the actual game, there was plenty of premier ball and upper tier skills to digest. Want to get a feel for what I was treated to? Read More »
The 2010 Nike Tournament of Champions was about one thing – Namesake. I had a convo with Corey “Homicide” Williams a few weeks before the game and he told me two important things about the city game. “It takes a long time to build a name but only a second to lose it,”Homicide said. Makes sense.
Watching a player kill summer after summer only adds to their legacy. It’s why players like the newly retired John “Franchise” Strickland, the master of post finishing for several years in New York City, are so revered in playground basketball – he owned the game in his prime and now in its 4th year, the Nike T.O.C. can bite that rep and now be called “The Franchise” of NYC tournament ball.
Read More »
Photo: Sean Couch. World Basketball Festival at Rucker Park.
A 12 year old kid dribbles a ball outside his Polo Ground apartment building and heads over to Rucker Park Saturday morning, August 14, 2010. As he approaches the park, Kobe Bryant is conducting a Chainlink Fundamental clinic on a hardwood NBA-sized floor. He then signs up and works on his game. After the work out he runs up and down in the Converse Open Gym Program (yes, outdoors on the wood) and then sits his butt down and watches his older international basketball playing brothers compete. A 19 year old Chinese player punches it on one of New York’s finest early in the NYC vs China 19U game and its on, pure comp at the highest level.
The best of all basketball times converged on NYC that day, a groundbreaking event that brought international teams to Rucker Park to compete in a series of exhibitions that brought a new era of international professional involvement to worldwide tournament outdoor basketball. Spain, China, Brazil, Puerto Rico and France came uptown, and the city, for a moment, became the property of Nike’s World Basketball Festival. Read More »
Team Mustafa Shakur -2010 Chosen League Champions.
The Chosen League played its championship Wednesday night. Past
participants include Kyle Lowry, Donte Greene, Gerald Henderson, Wayne Ellington, and Mustafa Shakur. Now in its 8th season, the tournament is the featured “young boy” league in Philly. Shakur’s Markus Kennedy, a 6-9 forward headed to Villanova, had a double-double for a vic in the chip. For stats, all-league teams and final standings Read More »
