Young Malik asked me to take a photo of him after the game. He’s the son of playground legend Gerald “Dancing Doogie” Thomas, and is developing quite nicely. Doesn’t have the wiggles yet, but he can shoot. We’ll be watching . . .

For the last two Septembers, Amber Lyons of All Elements NYC has organized a ’90s revival in Goat Park, complete with cats rocking Girbauds, Reebok Ex-O-Fit classics, etc. A big part of the day is the open invitational Battle Of The Boroughs. My block, The 97, took it last year, and did the same again! Kirk Rodriguez proclaimed, “We may be the best one day tournament squad around!” (The 97 also took the Joe Pasta Classic the last three years, and the Nike 3 on 3 back in ‘95.) I arrived late, having come straight from JFK after being in Toronto the night before for a DJ gig. Nonetheless, the smell and atmosphere of the court I grew up in never fails to inspire me! With no warm-up, I missed my first three shots, then went en fuego and hit the next seven, all from behind the three-point line, one from half court (it’s short like West 4th)! I had just announced the Nike TOC a couple of weeks prior, so it felt real real nice to hear a crowd root for me inside the lines instead of at the scorer’s table. The best was when I hit my fourth three in a row. It was on a break, I pump faked my defender in the air and watched him fly by, then dribbled back a step four feet behind the line and boom. The crowd of 50 or so were all like, “Oooh!” I don’t know what it’s like to dunk, never have or never will, but I’m imagining the adrenaline drawn is similar. Simply, it felt real, real nice!

That’s me all the way to the right. Shout out to Tone Greer, Kirk Rodriguez, Kadi Amin, Steve-O, Rick, Craig Batch, Malik “Little Doog,” Danny Bubba Lips, Sticks, and the whole rest of The 97!