Bounce Magazine is on a mission to catch all the greatest moments of park/pick-up ball around the world. My personal favorite moment as a player was up at Dyckman Park when my 12-year old biddie crew beat the Gauchos by 20 points and I dropped 30+ on ‘em. After the game, the ‘Chos director came up to me and asked me to play with them. As a fan, the greatest moment I ‘ve seen was out in Pro Rucker when Dr. J entered the park. I never heard a crowd get so loud.
So many good moments have occurred over the last 3 years in NYC. AND 1 and Ball4Real playing the street, EBC America featuring Seattle’s Jamal Crawford, Brandon Roy, and Little Nate Robinson against NYC’s Skip, Reem, Speedy, Lance, and BJ Beast, the Nike Pro-City Championship rounds, and my personal favorite - Nate Robinson’s “crosscade” on Reem up at EBC two summers ago. Back in 2004, we did a Hook Mitchell Cover with him dunking over a caddie. I gave it to homeboy below and he stilled for a straight 15 minutes checking out Hook’s playground resume, his ups and downs, and what he did to get it right in life.
Locale: MLK Playground aka ‘park in the front of the Kingdome’ - 114th & Lenox Ave
Reading Bounce stills you and gets your playground right.
In 2006, we put Brandon Jennings on the cover, which featured the first Elite 24 High School All-Star game, and one of the things he said ’bout the city player still sticks in my mind. “He’ll put on a show, try to embarass you, you better be up ’cause he finna break your ankles.” He then went out and got the nickname “Doo Bee Doo” at Rucker Park which evolved into “The Takeover,” showing his signature moves in front of the blazing
criticism of the Rucker. I’m telling y’all, our on-line store is poppin’. (Click on Dime on our top menu, then their online store to view our full back catalog.)
Let us know what your greatest playground moment is whether you play in the tournament or just crush in pick-up. Tell us what you did and how you did it or what you saw out in the park and how it went down, and our on-line editor might give you some extra run at his next pick-up game with a biscuit on syrup!
February 27th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
40 cal says:
My greatest playground moment came in the chinatown YMCA our team was 3-4 in the YMCA tournament they were holding we just lost 3 in a row and i was hurt for the three games we lost. I got to the game and the stands were packed, somone around from the hood told everyone that we were playing and that i was back, at the time I didn’t know that everyone was there for me until they started making pigeon sounds, I was about 14 at the time thats when they used to call me birdman, my coach walks up to me and says we need this to get in the playoffs so I was more HYPE than a HYPE Williams music video. I came out over anxious and had only 2 points in the first half and i missed about 7 or 8 shots and the Flatbush YMCA was up by 30, second half I just got foucused and started putting on a show from the arc, I went 15 for 17 from the 3 point line in that second half and uplifted my team to a victory by 10, to top it off the dagger was a throw down on some cat, the whole hood flooded the floor and carried me out of IS 131 that day, There are more relavent moments i had throughout the years but that day still feels like yesterday true story! And bob I got your 100 word paper on the way Im just doing some research and interviews and im about to finish up certain interviews, you gonna like this article im writing it has alot to do with whats going on with feelings about nyc streetball now
February 27th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Sean Couch says:
15 for 17 from three…. No doubt! Feeling the sound effects also.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
love life says:
DEMETRIUS “”HOOK”" MITCHELL
McCLYMONDS HIGH SCHOOL
WEST OAKLAND
balled with ANTONIO DAVIS @ McCLYMONDS
balled with and against a who’s who
from the BAY AREA!!
j-kidd(ST JOES)..b-shaw(BISHOP ODOWD)..greg foster(SKYLINE)..j.r. rider(ENCINAL)..brent merritt(SKYLINE)bernard ward(LEON POWE’s longtime friend and advisor)(OAKLAND TECH)..BOBBY FULLILOVE(ALBANY HIGH)..scottie thurman(NOT the 1 from ARKANSAS!!)..paul brown(OAKLAND TECH)..the glove(SKYLINE)..etc etc etc etc!!
from the late 80’s into the 90’s…playground/gymnasium/pickup ball was DA ****!!
MOSSWOOD PARK..UC BERKELEY GYM..SF PRO_AM..HOLY NAMES COLLEGE..COLLEGE OF ALAMEDA..WASHINGTON PARK/ALAMEDA BEACH..damn near A N Y W H E R E in the BAY AREA..if the weather was nice….it was on!!!
HOOK?
yeahyeahyeah..he MOST DEF went thru sum hardships..but if ya ask the BAY AREA NBA’ers…….HE SHOULDA MADE IT!!!
hops..could shoot..could pass!!
1 game?
sum dude was on sideline bitchin and yappin that all HOOK ever did was DUNK!!
he told HOOK…”"BE A ****IN POINT GUARD AND MY ASS WILL RESPECCT YOU!!”"
HOOK?
14pts(5 for 9 shooting)
11 assists
3 steals
2 turnovers
and his man ONLY SCORED a 40ft 3 pointer at the end of a quarter!!
DEMETRIUS
HOOK
MITCHELL
?!?!?!?!?!?
straight baller indeed!!!
February 27th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
couch-
great post, my brother. mad love to hook. we ran together two years ago out in the bay. his legend is real. i could tell how he pushed the ball and knew the court vision boombastic. plus he kept feeding me and i’m like ’shoot, bro! i wanna see you score!’ but that’s how unselfish he was. i’m sure when he was younger with all the boing boing he might’ve opted to honk it on dudes more, but a pleasure to have chilled with him, and mad blessings for whatever he’s up to now. word.
February 28th, 2008 at 2:19 am
Jeremiah says:
My favorite moment was a moment that I didn’t even play in. It was back I think in 2002 when my family and I was at Orchard Beach for the Hoops in the Sun summer league and it was 4th of July Weekend and on that day we were there, we saw Tracy McGrady who was with the Orlando Magic at that time. It was amazing. I was trying to find something for him to sign and when I did, I saw the line was crazy bananas. I mean there was a game going on at the same time and there was a line next to the court all the way onto the boardwalk. It was my first time seeing an NBA player up close and personal. T-Mac is one of my favorites too so it was great. Seeing one of my favorite players there at Hoops in the Sun was amazing. I stood to watch the game after to see if T-Mac was going to play but he didn’t. He stayed for a bit though which was cool. So yeah, BOUNCE, Tracy McGrady at Hoops in the Sun in 2002 I would say is my favorite streetball moment.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Mr.Sunset Park says:
My Personal favorite moment as a fan (Sean Couch you prolly remember this since you were at the EBC game 2 years ago) Seattle was playing New York in the EBC America Final Jamal Crawford comes down n goes by his defender n does a 360 layup it hits da back of the rim n bounces up, then it just as it looked like time stood still n he just throws it down da whole play just looked like sumthing outta a video game it was just something u had 2 b there 2 witness
February 28th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Sean Couch says:
Sunset Park
Yeah, I looked around at the crowd reaction and it was bananas, and my man Jeremiah - when a pro enters a playground it is a moment that freezes time. Maybe next
time T-Mac might suit up and play.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:05 am
Eric R. says:
Hitting a jumper at the buzzer to beat Riverside Church at Laguardia House after being cut by them a month earlier and getting kicked to the Church’s step cousin, Stone gym.
Still holding the follow through til this day…
February 29th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Sean Couch says:
my man, what year was that?
February 29th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Saku 39 says:
I guess as a player my best moment was pinning a dude’s layup, think Jordan on Ron Mercer, to preserve the win in the championship game of a league I was in.
As a fan, I use to watch games at West Fourth and one time I saw Booger Smith play. This was around the same time he was on the cover of SI and even though he was the smallest guy on court he dominated (his team lost though). After the game he came around cageside and just was hanging out, like normal people do. It’s at this moment that I realized how much more real and raw the playground game is than the pros.
February 29th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
ShawnKemp4Prez says:
Hey Sean man, i’ve never heard about Nate Rob’s “Crosscade” on Reem Reid…gimme a little more details because it sounds crazy!
My favorite moment was in 02 when i went to a And1 game in Beantown and Future was playing on the opposite team and i chatted with him for a bit and then watched him light em up for 30 plus! Ever since i saw “On Hallowed Ground” i’ve wanted to see him on the court and i finally did. No disrespect to any And1 players but he is a legend.
February 29th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Sean Couch says:
Nate was at the top of the key and ‘Reem was guarding him. Nate got real low on the dribble and reem was low. Nate got lower and reem got lower, then Nate went at him with one hard right-hand dribble and crossed him so low it looked like his chest was on the cement. It was a “ninja turtle” cross. Both of them are under 5′9″ so to get low like that is a like scraping the ground. ‘Reem got left on that move.
February 29th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
ShawnKemp4Prez says:
word that sounds ill, wish i had that kinda ball in my area!
February 29th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Eric R. says:
Sean, you caught that? Sort of dated myself with that reference, but circa 1986. I was a Dome Project teammate of KBL in ‘88 back in the day.
Love the site, keeps me plugged in on the daily.
One.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Sean Couch says:
Eric:
Ball in 88 was serious. The guards of that era were always on the attack. Term, Pookie, Master Rob, Tip Dog and Mike
Boogie, Steve Burtt, Kev Williams, Al Lott, and then you had
NBA’s Rod Strick and his brother Byron, Mark Jackson, Ken Smith, Pearl Washington, Beetle Washington, Ed Davender, Elmer Anderson - the list goes on. All those dudes were
D-1 primo except for Pookie and he held the EBC Record
for scoring up until last year.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Eric R. says:
Yeah, we were definately point guard heavy back then. I went the D3/NAIA route myself, but it seemed any tourney that summer had big names and if you were sleeping….