With March comes the hint of sunshine and a little warm weather. Peeps are looking at Rick Rivers’ Fireball (Baruch College) and Ken Du’s D&D Invitational (Queens) to hold down tournament street power until the heat of the summer. From the East though comes a claim of “grando.” The “grando,” in the words of my daughter Kolby’s mom Kelly D. Scott, is the claim that you got “the minerals” to shine, the hard assets that don’t fold to maintain straight brilliance. Bounce guest blogger, the UK’s Nhamo Shire, brings a squad of Brits every year to France’s QUAI 54. He calls this tournament, “Rucker Park X 2.” (See Bounce Issue #12)
This claim goes with other comp that has EBC looking over its shoulder:
1. The rise of the Tri-State Classic.
2. The continued grimy presentation of pure street ball up at Dyckman.
3. The in-the-cut word of mouth of the Dog Show on Amsterdam.
4. The Watson Tournament in the BX.
5. The consistent strong ball at Gun Hill, West 4th and Kingdome …
6. EBC at Rucker Park is facing the gauntlet. Check the youtube and hear it for yourself.
Personally I haven’t been over to see the QUAI 54 outdoor tournament, but after hearing Lil Rah - one of the top street ball coaches in the city and winner of 2 of 5 of the full circuit (West 4th and Hoops in the Sun) - say it’s, “a more physical Rucker Park,” the street needs to see these French crews Uptown.
For streetpower in the spring view these sights:
www.funsportinc.com
www.myspace.com/ddinvitational
For info on QUAI 54: www.lequai54.com
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Reggie MIH Peters says:
What made EBC special was the fact that music stars used to come to the games. Some even sponsored and coached teams. It was a great give to the hood. The basketball was just a by product. Today there are no rap stars and the tournament is run of the mill. They need a new look.
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
i did halftime shows at quai 54 back in ‘05 when the EBC champs Terror Squad were invited out. yes, the games are physical, but that’s because the level of reffing then was poor. in ‘07, they brought out Dyckman head of referees Eric Weaver to clean it up. as for the crowd, it is bananas and one does need to experience it firsthand. but nothing can compare, ever, to the feeling you get in a crowded rucker park. it’s incomparable. shout out to ebc for keeping it going 25+. if half the tourneys out there can have that much longetivity and still matter, let them talk then. and that’s not a diss to nhamz at all. that’s my brother, but he’s from england and never really got to witness rucker in its heyday to make a fair assessment. i think he was just trying to give an analogy to help people understand that this outdoor tournament phenomena has gone worldwide . . .
March 4th, 2008 at 2:18 am
Nhamo Shire says:
Hype is an amazing thing. Shout out to all the guys over at Quai 54, it is a great outdoor tournament. However, as I see this may quickly get out of hand, let me set the record straight right here, right now. There is only 1 Rucker Park. It is peerless, in my opinion. Rucker originates what everyone else duplicates. No disrespect to any other tournament in the world, but there isn’t a summer tournament in the world that doesn’t use Rucker park as it’s reference point when starting out. Looking at that clip, I think they are taking my quote out of context a little - as Bobbito said, I was using Rucker (the standard) as a reference point to let people know that there are ALOT of people over at Quai 54. At no time did I, or would I, say the tournament is better than EBC - that’s absurd and, in my opinion, disrespectful.
I was at the finals of EBC International in 05 when LA beat NYC and I can tell you first hand that the level then (in what many were saying was a down year) was far superior to the best I’ve seen at Quai 54 so far.
I’m a lover of the game and refuse to disrespect anyone, whether that be tournament organiser, tournament, player, coach, fan, announcer or whatever - as we’re all in this together. Don’t read too much into marketing hype.
March 4th, 2008 at 5:28 am
kevin couliau says:
E.B.C, kingdome, west 4Th….all those tournaments are specials because New York is special.It’s obvious , like Nhamz said that it’s our reference point.
However the Quai 54 is way more internationnal than Rucker, teams from all Europe & USA are competing there. Different bball cultures, languages, players, that’s why it’s unique - also because it’s real physical.But I agree that the referees are not whistling a lot, it’s the “Paris” ballin culture.
In New York you have tons of tournaments and bball is a real culture, in Europe, soccer is dominating the sports market, the streetball rebirth is starting thanks to the Quai 54 and other european initiatives but we’re still suffering from the lack of mediation, marketing,and brands investments in streetball.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Ken says:
the only comp EBC has to worry about really is hoops in the sun, dyckman and maybe tri-state since its brand new…as far as tri-state being #1 as far as comp that ebc needs to be looking after, i duno about that, tri-state only been around 1 summer, i went there last summer, it was cool, mousey is cool but just cant see it going str8 up so quick, even when they didnt even have a championship game, how can tri-state be #1 in t’ments ebc needs to be looking after if it didnt even have a championship game…ebc should be worried about hoops in the sun and dyckman, those r prob the 1 best tments out there because of their venue, crowd, uni’s, joe cruz, randy cruz and ken stevens are real cool dudes and i respect them alot, always go to hits and dyckman, but hits isn’t even mentioned in your top 6 list but gunhill, dog show, kdome and gunhill are up there……west 4th i love always but theyre becomin nostalgic and pro city never changes teams so its always the same, kdome had a dip last summer cuz of timing constraints, so if you ask me, hits and dyckman and maybe tri-state (well see after this summer) are the ones that may succeed ebc
March 4th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
BJ Da Beast says:
Was up Bounce this is the BEAST writing you from argentina, just wanted to put the word out on my tournament that i’m having in queens this summer, 2 weekends thurs-sunday double elimination, cash prize and the winner also get’s the invite to quai 54. Only 12 teams are invited and i’m hosting it, straight overseas style uniforms the whole 9, i’m trying to bring something good to my neighborhood where i grew up playing the game, so i would appreciate all the media coverage or whatever you can do to help me out. DnD holds it down in the winter and i’m trying to put us on the map for a good summer tournament. See you in the summer when i start feasting hahaha
March 4th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
jaquam says:
yo that tournament is something serious man
March 4th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
BJ-
no doubt, love hearing players getting pro-active to create new opportunities for themselves. you have our support, hit me up with the info when you have it and we’ll get it up on the site for sure.
you playing in it too? that’d be like david stern suiting up for the lakers man! haha!
bless,
bob
March 4th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Sean Couch says:
Couch
It’s always good to hear, see, and feel what’s going on. I was extremely excited to see France rocking. Everybody has respect for EBC but as times change there is nothing wrong with a little talk about how the street feels. If you know who you are and what your about in your heart, then all the words are puffs of wind…
Power to the street and those who represent good, straight up comp!
March 4th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Sean Couch says:
Nhamz:
I see your words and i feel your respect for Rucker Park. Big up to Bob and all the heads who understand that the “words” of the street make it real. EBC has the tenure, but there are so many good tournaments in NYC that to hear a street tested coach from the city give France props makes
the game of the street so much bigger. My bad on giving you a French address instead of the UK and I look forward to seeing you soon.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Nhamo Shire says:
Sean - as ever, it’s love peace and basketball my brother.
For those who know me, you know I take my squad to play in tournaments worldwide as the opportunities arise and over the past few years we’ve done summer circuits in NYC, Chicago, Paris and LA. There’s alot of good ball being played in cities in all those places in the summer - no doubt. However, speaking first hand, the best we’ve seen so far is probably NYC. That’s not a knock on the other cities, because they all represent to the fullest and will each hand you your ass if you don’t come ready to put in major work - but the edge has to go to NYC because the players know the game that much better. Everywhere has athletes now - getting over comes down to strong fundamentals and knowledge of the game. NYC has that.
Hey, maybe I should be putting this in my blog?…haha…
March 7th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
chris says:
damn i will die on that court if we playin basketball like that we rather play arena basketball