Packed house at EBC’s opening day 2007. Photo: Bobbito Garcia
Has the EBC at Rucker Park lost its swagger?
I happen to be one of the guys who made the first ever EBC Dream Team, and got experience of what the league was like when Burtt Jr. dropped 68 on us. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in uniform ‘til the season’s third game due to politics with new guys who hadn’t even tried out. I spent my time on the bench looking around, and realized there was a lot of empty space in the park for a tournament that was packed when I watched it on NBA TV years past. Then I noticed certain teams were missing key all-stars ‘til the play-offs. It made me wonder if the EBC had fallen off somewhat. I interviewed a few players about where they felt EBC stood among NYC’s elite spots.
Blue, who was known as Black Wall Street’s enforcer, wrote:
“In my opinion, Nike at Hunter College is the most professional. West 4th is always strong, and is a true streetballer’s version of playing at the Garden. Dyckman is consistently ghetto, but it’s real because the crowd and energy is streetball. Rucker Pro-Am is growing, and because it’s inside (at Medger Evars College), it is attracting more players but they just have to get more organized. I’m torn between EBC and Kingdome because Kingdome was about to be #1, but Greg (EBC’s director) brought the heat down on them. EBC was the best but it is falling off. Without Mousey, Puff, Jay, Irv, and Me it will never be what it was a few years ago.”
“Mookie,” who is notoriously known all over NYC playgrounds, had this to say:
“EBC didn’t really fall off; its just the players that people come to see are not there . . . like Fat Joe, who brought Kareem Reid, DP, or NBA players, or our real Black Wall Street: me, Murder, Junie, Speedy, Crabby, etc. I played one game last year with X-men Miss Jones, but it wasn’t the same. It’s all about the personnel up there. It’s still a good tournament, but now Greg has competition in Harlem with Mousey’s Tri-State Classic. The EBC has tradition and Greg is smart, so Uptown needs to make room for two good hot spots. Brooklyn will be in the building.”
So now I ask myself what’s going on and why certain guys aren’t showing up to EBC. Part 2 of the EBC report coming soon . . .
40 Cal plays all over NYC, and once went 15 for 17 from three in a league playoff. Between games, he eats pizza with extra garlic so his breath can be nasty.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
i think people spend way too much time trying to find out what is the best tournament. they all dope and all have pretty much the same core 30 players.
i don’t think ebc has lost its swagger at all–the crowds have–and that’s at no fault of the players, tournament directors, anyone. you want to point a finger? look at the nba . . .
think of it this way: pro rucker had its heyday in the early ’70s because the top pros like julius, charlie scott, and tiny archibald were mixing it up with playground cats like hammond, kirkland, and helicopter herm. in the last 10 years, people talk most about ebc days like when kobe showed up, or the ‘03 chip with fat joe and jay z that never went down but had like a bus load of nba dudes ready to play, or lance stephenson getting the ebc america mvp while knick jamal crawford ran as an opponent.
so ebc hasn’t lost its swag, apparently crowds get most amped about seeing pro dudes on the asphalt. although understandable, i think that’s wak. nothing against our multi-millionaire ballplayers out there, but i’ll just as soon support a game featuring 10 no-names if the joint is intense.
games all over nyc last summer were ill–where was everyone? attendance was down across the board. period. every tournament. just cuz you don’t see mookie’s face on espn means you don’t care enough to go check him on the regular? all the die-hards are out there regardless. the hype followers will jump on any tournaments bandwagon if the stars are out, but that doesn’t mean it’s gonna necessarily be the best game (although the energy of a packed crowd will inevitably raise the level of play).
i say this to everyone . . . don’t complain, instead do something positive. if someone thinks ebc has fallen off, then instead of pointing the finger, why don’t you try inviting 20 people to roll up there with you to peep it. we all have the responsibility to make these tournaments continue to pop, for the benefit of everyone in the community.
simple solution is someone convincing lebron to play in ebc at rucker this summer. you wanna see that park get filled up with a line down to 145th St. in two seconds?!!! hahahahaha!
March 12th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Mr. 718 Sunset Park says:
Whats good 40 Cal feelin da article lookin forward to readin da next one keep me posted 1
March 12th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Sean Couch says:
Summer Basketball in the city is always about who is going to be in the Park. While it always is about players for me personally, others like seeing celebs in the park. At the end of the day, even if Fat Joe is in the park if there isn’t a basketball player that the crowd wants to see, they’re going to go where the players are.
I was at Kingdome a few years ago and I wasn’t feeling the game and then Reem Reid came in the park. He made it exciting. Last year i was watching a so-so game at the dome and then Mike Glover came in and changed the whole rhythm. The best games I saw in the last 2 years was the EBC America finals in 2006, the Pro-City playoffs (2006-2007), and TNP’s performance in the Tournament of Champions last year at Goat Park. I didn’t get up to Dyckman for the finals but I heard from many sources that the atmosphere was electric.
Bob said it right, players make long lines. The hope is that exciting younger high school players and college kids like
Edgar Sosa, Tony Pena, LaVance Fields, Ronald Ramon, Kyle McLarney, and others will play against the regulars on the circuit to test their skills in rhythm and pressure.
As far as the benefits of playing in the summer, Mike Dunleavy played at the nike pro-city and really looked good this year offensively, Stevie Nash is known to
play pick-up in the city often during the summer. This is where you get better.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Jesse Washington says:
yo 40 — this is a great article. keep bringing that heat! can’t wait for the next installment.
i have to disagree with bob about people spending too much time figuring out which tournament is Number One. (i feel you trying to spread that Kool Bob Love, but still.) Ball is all about competition, and we all know the various tourneys compete like crazy because there’s a lot of sponsorship money, reputations and pride at stake. people want to go to the hottest tournament, period, with the most excitement. and what makes a game exciting? the best players! the prospect of seeing some nba dude get his lunch money tooken by a streetballer! intensity doesnt matter–i can get that from 10 burgers at the Y.
why aren’t some guys who people want to see showing up at ebc? where the pros be at? that’s the real question. 40 cal, give us the answer!
March 13th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Jesse Washington says:
Aiight, I just got off the phone with my EBC sources. Here’s one perspective: attendance is down because we’ve been watching the same top players ever since the 90s. these are the guys being courted by all the tournaments. this is all well and good for the purists and old heads who want to watch them, but the young kids want to watch their era come up. remember when iverson took out jordan? the streets are waiting for that type of moment. when it happens, on a small or large scale, the crowds will return. EBC may benefit from other tourneys trying to lure players away, because that will create room for the EZ Passes and Lance Stephensons to come up (although we’ll see if Lance comes back home after he’s in the NBA)…
March 13th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Ken says:
have to agree with what jesse said in his last reply…the same top players from the 90’s is still playing in most of every t’ment, most pple think theyre on a decline and want to see a new array of talent, younger, fresher, more athletic etc..the junies and stricks and mike campbells are the 90’s era, need new players thats goin to take over for the next 5-10 years, people like k-sat, steve burtt jr, adris, lance, c.fisher, glover, dwight hardy, burrell, kiki, those are the players people wanna see now a days, and whats good about that is that these guys are now playing in most of the nyc t’ments, adris is always at dyckman, lance goes to ebc, sat,burtt,kiki,adris,fisher,burell,glover,hardy all played at hoops in the sun last summer, even had fisher,satt and barrett on the same team up there which was crazy…its kinda like using a professional wrestling reference, where monday night raw was going up against wcw nitro in the ratings and raw took over nitro eventually because nitro had the same wrestlers day in and day out and people wanted to see new younger talent, no1 wanted to see hogan, savage, piper, flair all the time, they wanted to see the rock, steve austin, triple h etc….2008 should be the beginning of new fresher younger talent being displayed in nyc summer basketball, those 90’s plyaers should either hang it up or be coaches
March 13th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
ken-
i think you’re a little off the deep end by saying, “those ’90s players should either hang it up or be coaches . . .”
huh?
all of them still dominate the playgrounds. if heads just wanted to see young players go against others their age, they’d go to rumble in the bronx or some other aau affair. the whole point is ez pass, burrell, etc have to dethrone these dudes. it hasn’t happened yet, adn until then, mookie, murderkill, junie, speedy, crabby, etc should still be out there. (besides, they have a couple of years before they can qualify for the pelham fritz 38 and over league, which is really the best games you’ll see anywhere, so they might as well keep playing outdoors).
kemba won an ebc chip his first campaign out, just like i’ll be right back did almost 10 years ago, so props to him. but think about adris, mouse, ki ki, burtt jr, even bone collector . . . love watching all of them, but none have yet to win a major chip or get mvp. yet. it’ll happen.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
40 cal says:
Whoa! let me get started by saying thanks for commenting my post yall. I think both you guys got a point, If you watch NBA teams close you’ll see that on maybe 22 out 30 teams have at least one or 2 expierenced players on the floor, thats what you need to win a championchip cause what is the student without the teacher and half those old heads from the 90’s are still good producers on the court take guys like strickland,crabby,junie,murder etc, ive watched these guys lose steps over the years but you gotta love how they play with heart if anything. Jesse has the right idea though but if you want to see the pros go at the streetball specialist’s then you gotta go to Pro City at hunter college cause thats other than that the investigation continues from my camp over here trying to get you guys the answers
March 13th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Jesse Washington says:
bob mentioned ‘i’ll be right back’ … whatever happened to him?
March 16th, 2008 at 1:57 am
Daryl says:
in my opinion, ebc has taken a slight step back, but it has made way for alot of new and upcoming t’ments to establish themselves. i am a basketball head, i attend all t’ments in the city, been to each numerous of times, i must say that the players from the 90’s era are still effective at times but they need to realize that their hey-day has passed and have to accept a lesser role in a team concept,i personally have become a fan of the new wave/generation of players such as burtt jr, mouse, satt, lance, jiggy josh, kemba, adris, glover, kiki, hardy, burrell, etc…these people have brought a new and exciting brand of basketball to the streets and i look forward to many years of watching them play and grow and becoming “tomorrow’s streetball legends”
if youre a fan of streetball like i am, and u wanna catch a glimpse of the new wave/era/generation…i suggest you visit the following venues:
1-dyckman, 2-hoops in the sun, 3-kingdome, 4-tri-state classic…and occasionally the watson t’ment…
if youre interested in the same ol’ pre-historic geriatric brand of basketball, you should visit:
1-nike pro city, 2-west 4th street, 3-ebc, 4-gunhill (where in these t’ments, the year changes but the things inside the t’ment never seems to change)
if thats what floats your boat then be my guest, but its time to usher in a new era, we’re in 2008, not 1998.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:04 am
Daryl says:
and also, the best games ive seen in 07 were dyckman’s 07 chip between TNP and bingos all-stars, seeing glover in the chip destroying TNP but couldnt get the W…the allan ray/homicide matchup at hoops in the sun when ray left at halftime…the hoops in the sun all-star game when burtt jr broke the all-star scoring record with 51 points and the kingdome chip between murda pringle and T2, both had crazy dunks in that game
March 16th, 2008 at 2:48 am
Bradley aka B-Rabs says:
i was recently reading your mag wit burtt jr on the cover, where it says UNSTOPPABLE, and was going through the bounce 1st, 2nd and 3rd teams for summer 07….
after reviewing it, i found some things that i tend to disagree with, as far as the 1st team is concerned, 3/5 isnt bad, the 3 that are correct are satterfield, burtt jr and phillips, mookie and campbell shouldnt be on the 1st team…seemingly you forgot the criteria that you listed…such as the participation in multiple t’ments and who were there for an entire season and that goes for mike campbell, where i think he only played at pro city and west 4th, last time i checked, there were more than 2 t’ments in nyc…as for mook, i just felt there were other PG’s that had a better summer than he did…
2nd team…4/5 is good, i felt that speedy shouldnt be on the 2nd team just because he won the last man standing tournament, doesnt equal to having a great summer…thats a 1 on 1 t’ment to be quite frank….
3rd team…1/5 is proposterous…with the exception of “the undertaker” corey underwood, the later 4 shouldnt be there at all, flat out joke…junie..what did he do all summer besides winning dyckman and pro city? as for crabby, he didnt have one of his best summers that we’re used to seeing from him so he couldve been left off this entire list, kreid was a phantom from june through august, and when someone sees chud grey actually do something or appear…you let me know…
those who shouldve been on the list were the problem, mike glover, T2, pringle, kemba
your top player, newcomer and “book bag” awards were shockingly accurate 100%….
if basketball is your canvas, then i suggest you go back to the drawing board….
March 17th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
TanyaDaBallaAllDayERDay says:
Yo im feelen this article 40! You seem to know alot about the behind the scenes of the best sport ever! Keep up the good work! Make all the TrUeBallAZ proud! MuCh ReSpEcT!