Now a construction site. Yes. What you see above is the exact grounds were the mighty Basketball City once stood on 23rd St. and the West Side Highway. Inside were six full courts with wood floors and fiberglass backboards, open from 8am until 10pm. It opened in the late ’90s, and closed its doors last year. In between that time, a lot of crazy ball went down under the balloon. A lot! I was a super-regular, especially once current Bounce publisher Justin Leonard starting running the youth programs there earlier this decade. I got to play with or against Walter “The Truth” Berry (Spurs and two-time Naismith College Player of the Year at St. John’s), Charles Jones (Bulls), Theresa Witherspoon (Liberty), Reggie “Hi-Five” Freeman (U. of Texas), Tommy Hill (Duke), Tim “Headache” Gittens (And 1), Mike Campbell (Nike Battlegrounds 1 on 1 Champ ‘02), Chudney Gray (St. John’s), Shawnell Scott (Spurs), Amal McKaskill (Sixers), Jack Ryan (Nets free agent camp), Jimmy “Soul Man” Tate, and the list goes on and on.
My two favorite experiences there were unforgettable. The first was in 2003 when we were playing Knockout. I went hard left on my defender, put the brakes on and crossed the ball under my legs back to my right, and boook! Homeboy fell, hand and waist touched the ground. He was a very well-known player in the city, and at that point was playing pro overseas. And I dropped him. To this day he denies it, so I won’t throw his name out there, but we know what time it was. And Paul “PR” Rivera was on the sideline to attest to it. In fact, he called up John Strickland a.k.a. “Franchise” right then and was like, “Yo, Bob dropped ________ !” Word. Means nothing to him, but everything to me. My other grand BBC memory was at a early morning Saturday run that agent Joe Charles used to bring his players to. One day he brought a scout from Poland to check out his newest signees. Not for nothing, I happened to catch flame-on, hit nine 3s in a row over two games. Duke came up to me and said, “Who are you? And how old are you?” For real. I was 35 or 36 so that ended that conversation real quick, but I was flattered like a Cuban sandwich to a hungry stomach. Just the fact that he had interest for a milli-second was more than enough. Oh, wait . . . there was also the time I put the whip whop bong bong on Team Footprintz’ Mark Williams and he swept the floor just inside the paint below the charity stripe. He’s my man, but I couldn’t help start giggling. I wound up shooting an airball! And it was a semi-final in a 3 on 3 Tournament for dough! Aaaaah!
Ahh, good ol’ Basketball City. I heard they are building a new one, but the original 23rd St. one will be forever missed.
Anyone else have memories there?
For info, check www.basketballcity.com
April 29th, 2008 at 11:54 am
mr. k1x says:
Ball City had a lot of dudes come out of there. on the ball and business side. there is an endless list of players that coached during the summer that played college and pro overseas. Smush was a regular in the open runs and a few years later was a starting guard in the league.
on the business side j.leonard of Bounce started there. Bobbito was a regular and is now the top sneaker god. paul PR rivera put some hours in and is now at Nike. i was a young intern for j.leonard and now I’m @ K1X.
ball city had a nice run (and kept my pockets nice a couple of summers)
does anyone remember the name of that hot asian receptionist???? hahaha
April 29th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Shoo_b_doo says:
Is the second most important thing to happen to you there when you met me in the corporate league when we used to light those bums from The Shark Bar up on the regular?
April 29th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
shoo b doo-
i loved playing in that BBC morning league for restaurant/club people. 1st season i averaged 25+. comp was the best, it was a ton of fun and i made long lasting friendships out of that, including you!
Mr. k1x-
dag, b, i’m trying to remember her name now. jennifer? yeah, that was it! i heard she had a baby recently. super nice peoples, always had a smile at the door (and never not once charged me to get in)!
April 29th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Randy Millard says:
P.A.L. Citywide Playoffs my Junior year of High School.Fly Williams coached us and we beat every team by 15 or more that year too. Hot as ever in there.
April 29th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Jon says:
BBC was home of the Boys’ Club of NY’s Holiday Classic tournament that brought Christmas cheer to many a high school star. The one and only Coach K was on hand once to see Blair Academy’s Luol Deng go to work. And boy did he and his teammate Charlie V. go to work! It quickly became dunk city in there! Other notable stars & coaches who were at BBC by way of the Boys’ Club’s Holiday Classic include Jarrett Jack, Ryan Williams, Joakim Noah, Mike Jarvis, Andre Blatch, Rob Thomas, Paul Harris, Shamari Spears, Craig Moore and a host of others. That facility was off the hook. BBC presented the basketball ambiance like few other facilities could. There’s something about hooping with nothing but basketball all around you that got the adrenaline going non-stop. BBC is definitely missed!
April 29th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
team footprintz says:
WOW…bob, i thought that was between US…okay, i would be the first (well maybe not the first)to admit it did happen…but as you mentioned, you shot an air ball (not cuz you were laughing but rather cuz i recovered and contested the shot)…a million dollar move and three dollar finish!…LOL…
BBC was a great facility…i am honored to be in KOOL BOB’s greatest highlights at BBC…
p.s. Just cuz you threw me under the bus, let’s talk about the many times Team FOOTPRINTZ beat your team’s at BBC events…see that’s the problem with these kids today…alot of flash(sizzle)and NO wins…it’s about the WINS…like in music, a lot of SINGLE record success but no ALBUM legacy…thanks BOB for help creating an environment of singles……………….and it was a “whip, whop, bong, bong, AIR BALL, check” move…….LMAO…
April 29th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Dan G says:
Sad to see Basketball City go but cool story. If I’m not mistaken I’ve seen clips of you playing at the BBC events. Aside from that I’m located in Queens, what parks you play at nowadays? lol
April 30th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
bobbito garcia says:
mark! you’re officially hilarious! yes, your squad has taken many 3 on 3 chips while i sat on the sideline daydreaming about my one or two little highlights, but i’m good with that. it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. a coach told me that in my youth, and yeah i may have tweaked teh meaning a little, but i’m good my brother!
July 16th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
lenny says:
To Shoob first of all how many times did Shark Bar win? Can you say twice? So just hop off and reminisce about the good times WE all had. Big shout to Chuckie, CJ, Kyle, Chris, and all the rest of them cats that made it fun all the time. What up Mesa Grill?