photo of Joe “The Destoyer” Hammond ripping down a rebound for the Milbank squad in the Rucker Tournament back in the day: flickr.com
Thus far, we’ve used this space to touch on the magic created by the transcendant talents that have touched something inside of us. Whether it be Pearl Washington, Len Bias, Dennis Rodman, Earl Monroe, Big John Thompson and The Georgetown Hoyas, Tark the Shark and the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels, the ‘85 Final Four and everyone else featured to this point, they’ve all made a contribution to our beloved game that have been appreciated and cherished the world over.
Today, we hit on yet another chamber of “The Playground Gave Us…”, the one reserved for those whose talent was just as prodigious, whose skills dropped all jaws that witnessed the genius, who forever impacted the lives and mental archives of those who only saw them in the parks.
Now, we peek into the 36th chamber to examine that class of men who never made it past urban legend status. They didn’t play on national TV and get enshrined in the Hall of Fame, but the ripples they sent into the cosmic force of the universe will be felt forever. They may not be in the game’s shrine in Springfield, Massachusetts, but they should be, simply based on sheer skills and craftsmanship. They’re unequivocally on the first ballot of the Asphalt Hall of Fame because they ripped the greatest players to shreds, even if 99.9% of the world never witnessed it.
We initiate this quest with Joe Hammond, a.k.a. The Destroyer.
By the age of 13, Joe dropped out of school after spending all of twenty seven days in the 7th grade. His mom passed away when he was very young. Most nights, he slept at his grandmother’s and on others, he curled up in project hallways. The majority of his time was spent drifting the streets and searching the parks for runs. Neither rain, snow, sleet nor time of day could keep him off the court. He could be found shoveling snow off the asphalt at Cooper Junior High on 120th and Madison at 8:00am on frigid winter mornings or getting in some jumpers in the stifling summer humidity at 4:00am. He shot the rock from sunup to sundown, with duct tape holding his Pro-Keds together.
“Joe was a young man, virtually homeless,” Howie Evans, the legendary sports editor of the Amsterdam News, told Vincent Mallozi in his extraordinary book Asphalt Gods. Evans, the former basketball director and coach at the Wagner Center in Harlem, became a mentor to Hammond in the days before he became known as The Destroyer.
“By the age of eleven and twelve he got real serious about playing, and he would just wander around the parks and just shoot for hours at a time,” said Evans. “By watching the older guys play and constantly practicing, he taught himself a lot of different skills. By the time he was thirteen, Joe’s knowledge of the game was uncanny…I’d never seen anyone his age doing the things he was doing.”
At this time, Hammond also developed an affinity for shooting dice. Known as a craps genius, he often made enough in one night to pay his grandmother’s rent. He stuffed thousands of dollars in pillow cases, socks, under the mattress and in books. Between playing ball and dice, his hands stayed filthy and he acquired his first nickname, “Dirty Hand Joe.”
As a 16-year-old, he regularly dropped 50 and 60-point gems at the Rucker and other city leagues on cats like Connie Hawkins. By 1969, at the age of 19, Hammond was playing pro ball with the Allentown Jets of the old Eastern League. During the summer, he was annhialating college All-Americans and NBA All-Stars at the Rucker.
No defense could contain him. To this day, of all the greatest players the world has ever seen, uptown old-timers will tell you that no-one had a better long distance backboard jimmy than Joe Hammond. His high vertical, butterfly release was physical poetry. He could bang from deep, scoop defenders off the dribble, go to the hole and slam with ease. With his insane handle and an unmatched offensive repertoire, he grew out of the “Dirty Hand Joe” moniker and into “The Destroyer!”
“He owned that backboard,” NY Post columnist Peter Vecsey told Mallozi in Asphalt Gods. “He loved to put on a show. Anything anybody could do on a basketball court, Joe could probably do it better, and I never saw a guy shoot more accurately outdoors, especially in the wind.”
People thought he had ice water coursing through his veins because they never saw him sweat. Literally!
the streets of NY: joe’s stomping grounds
In the summer of ‘69, on a rainy Saturday at Fordham U’s gym, he scorched Tiny Archibald and Dean “The Dream” Meminger for 51 joints, taking MVP honors in the first game of a Rucker double header. In the second game, the coach of the New York Pros summoned Hammond to the lay up line for their game against the Philly Pros. As the City of Brotherly Love’s Earl “The Pearl” Monroe was lighting up NY’s Pablo Robertson, the coach sent Hammond into the game.
“Pick up Monroe,” he was told. On his first trip downcourt, he fed Connie Hawkins on the post. “The Hawk” gave the rock back and yelled, “Do what you do best young fella!”
The Destoyer proceeded to drop 50 and win yet another MVP trophy. Here’s how Mallozi describes one of the game’s more memorable sequences in Asphalt Gods - “With Hammond leaping high over Philly defenders and burying his patented jump shot, NY began to take control of the scoreboard. Frustrated, Monroe and (Archie) Clark began trying to trap The Destroyer in the backcourt. On one trap attempt late in the third quarter, as Monroe and Clark closed in on him from either side, Hammond spun as if he were heading out of bounds, spun back inbounds and whipped the ball around his back and through his legs in one fluid motion, splitting Monroe and Clark like bowling pins before dribbling out of traffic. By the time both defenders lunged for the ball, Hammond was past them, and Monroe and Clark bumped heads and fell to the hardwood, bringing the game to a halt for several embarrasing minutes.”
There’s also the disputed story of the Rucker match-up between the Milbank and Westsider’s squads in ‘71. As the story goes Hammond jumped out of a limo at the start of the second half, checked into the game for Milbank and gave Dr. J’s Westsider crew about 40-points in the second half, winning yet another MVP trophy.
And then there’s the validated story of the Lakers, in town to play the Knicks, offering The Destroyer a tryout at the urging of Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain. Joe made 18 shots in a row during one torrid stretch, with Wilt yelling, “Shoot young boy, keep shooting!” After practice, Laker coach Bill Sharman matched him up one on one with a promising rookie named Pat Riley, whom he humiliated like Bernard Hopkins did Kelly Pavlik in the ring this weekend.
The Lakers promptly selected Hammond in the hardship draft and offered a $50,000, one year deal. He balked, knowing that he destroyed pros making five times that amount in the parks. The fact that he’d invested his craps fortune into the drug business didn’t help either. He was ‘hood rich and at the time, could sneeze at that type of money. Unfortunately, the world never got to see him play with Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Wilt, Gail Goodrich and the rest of that Laker squad.
He continued to be the king of the streets, dropping 73 at the Rucker in the summer of ‘77 while being guarded by Mike Riordan, one of the NBA’s top defenders. He gave the Knicks Cazzie Russell 56 that summer as well.
photo of playground royalty Joe “The Destroyer” Hammond and “Pee Wee” Kirkland: espn.go.com
But Hammond’s illegal activities caught up with him and after numerous prison stints, he got caught up in smoking crack, becoming a ghost of the one-time and all-time legend of The Destroyer.
But regardless of how the story ends, no one can dispute what he once was, what he once did and how his name, to this day, rings out from Harlem to Holland and everywhere in between. The playground didn’t save his life, but it made his life, it made his legend, it made Joe Hammond. There’ll never be another called The Destroyer.
THE PLAYGROUND IS NOT THE PROBLEM. IT IS THE SOLUTION!
October 21st, 2008 at 1:32 pm
kenny Patt says:
Before my time, but my older Uncles Co-signed his greatness. Thay raved about him back in the early 70’s when I didnt even know what streetball was.
October 21st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
illest says:
My pops told me how ill he was. How he embarrassed everyone.
Asphalt Gods is a must read by everyone who comments on this site.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
ali says:
I heard about the great Joe Hammond coming up as well. From the barbershops to the street corners to the older cats around the way, the reverence in which he was held was obvious.
Billy Rieser, aka White Jesus, went on and on about those great games in the Laguardia House and other playgrounds when he ran with helicopter, the destroyer and others.
and he told me something i’ll never forget about the talent these guys had. he said that, yes they did most of their work in the street, in the parks and they were showmen. but unlike today, they could go against the world’s best and hold their own. he said watching kobe reminded him of joe hammond, in terms of his dominance and ability to do anything, anytime he wanted.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Blk Caesar says:
Good joint as always Ali… Definitely before my time as well, but my boy’s father is Larry Cheatham and I got the low down on how ill Hammond was… I have seen Mr. Hammond a few times around Harlem and the last time I saw him he did not look in the greatest of conditions, but I showed my respect to that god of the asphalt…
Side note: Ali, I was at the Hopkins fight saturday and man did he show Pavlik what a “boxer” can do.. He dominated every round in my humble opinion. Not bad for 40+!
October 21st, 2008 at 8:37 pm
ali says:
blk caesar,
yo! i was there too. ringside in the first press row behind the tv tables. he whipped that young fellas a–! i’m a huge fight fan and i don’t think i’ve seen such utter domination before. pavlik is no joke and could rule the middleweight division for a while. but the pld man gave him a true lesson. bernard is one of the goat’s. 43 yrs old, doing that to the young lion. amazing!
October 21st, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Blk Caesar says:
No doubt!!! What had me dying was all the “Kelly, Kelly” chants died down real quick after the 3rd round.. I love that BHop wore the executioner’s mask to the ring(classic)… I was telling the guy sitting next to me that he can’t be this aggressive all night b/c Pavlik was going to sneak in a heavy one. But round after round Hop just kept coming at him.. I was really impressed.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:22 pm
ali says:
masterful defense blk ceasar and he took it to him from the outset. didn’t think he could carry that pace as well, but he was determined. and i could hear him tell pavlik during the last round, “…i told you i was gonna whip that a–!” it was classic.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:35 am
funkalot says:
Ali,
It is interesting that Bounce ran pieces on the Destroyer and Fly concurrently and it begs the question: Who was nicer? and Did they ever face off at Rucker? If so, who emerged supreme?
If we asked either man, they would render cursory responses, referencing their greatness but can anyone vet this query wiyh “actual factuals”?
’cause Funky minds want to know, ya dig!
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:51 am
ali says:
funky minds need to know funkalot. that’s a great question. i’ll check a few sources. bobbito, where you at? i need some back up on funk’s research project.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
sorry guys, been on the road . . .
couple of things:
joe’s rucker park single game scoring record still stands unbroken 30 years later. pookie wilson and steve burtt jr come in 2nd and 3rd.
that ‘71 lakers team went on to break the nba regular season wins record, not to be broken for decades, arguably the greatest team ever. and they wanted joe hammond. think about that.
my man butch purcell, rucker hall of fame coach, told me that in his estimation fly was a better all-around player, but joe goes down as the greatest shooter harlem has ever seen.
for anybody who wants to see a great piece on joe, find the 1 love documentary directed by leon gast. incredible.
bless
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
oh, and it’s concievable that fly could’ve broken joe’s single game record, however mr. williams was a hot head and was notorious for leaving games with time left after having 50+ already in teh books . . .
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
ali says:
thanks bob,
i knew you’d have some background to add a little clarity.
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Gerald says:
Great read Ali! Didn’t realize Hammond was so dominant. Also didn’t realize how caught up he was in other activities. Even though the NBA is not for everybody nor is it the standard of worth for a player, I still find it sad that guys like The Destroyer or Hook Mitchell never got to showcase their skills on the main stage.
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
ali says:
gerald,
i love your last sentence. the league is not a standard of worth when it comes to a players talent, but it is sad that we didn’t get to see these guys on a night-in, night-out basis against the best. and yes, joe hammond was a legend in more game than one.
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:02 pm
John says:
We need a playground gave us fly williams
November 6th, 2008 at 11:53 am
ali says:
don’t worry john, it’s coming. “Fly is open, go Peay go!”
that’s the all time greatest college chant in history.
December 14th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
MARC says:
I live in NYC now but I’m originally from Newport News, VA and I’m a big street ball fanatic. Last week on my way to work, I got off the #4 train and I started walkin’ west from 125th in Lexington ave. As I crossed the street on Park ave., I saw Joe Hammond chillin’ on the corner by the Metro-North Station…I was shocked. I went up to The Destroyer and introduced myself and showed my respect. I told him that my father (who is born and raised in NYC a big streetball fan as well)use to talk about great streetball players back in his time and Joe Hammond was #1 on his top 5. It was a great moment for me and after we talked for a little while, I offered him anything from the coffee stand and he said “Nah…I’m aight!” In less then a minute, he changed his mind and I got him a cup of coffee and a donut. Alot of people from Harlem might see The Destroyer often, but it was truely a moment for me.
December 15th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
ali says:
thanks for sharing your personal moment with one of the all time greats of the game MARC. Sad he wasn’t able to take that talent to the worldwide stage. my man Bill Rieser, aka White Jesus, played against him back in the day and said he was an offensive assassin on par with kobe.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:38 pm
mel says:
Heard he would hang in the air and wait until the defender would smack him on the forearm of his shooting hand before he would “kiss one off the glass”.
March 7th, 2009 at 3:09 am
Ranimal says:
First I wanna say whats up to an old nemesis Kenny Paterson…….I know he got to see at least one game with Joe and Fly as we were at IS 72 watching the roosevelt roadrunners play !!! This was the summer of 81 ! And Joe didnt miss a shot the entire game !!! And he put up like 50 and as kool bob noted……fly dam sure came in got 40plus and left before the game was up !!! Jocko jackson also played for bk usa as did lloyd free but fly was the show !!! That is until Joe just took over….
On another note……..Kenny aguably one of the better pg’s from the hood always played hard…..but he had one flaw and Im not talking his J….Man did he get under the younger guys skin !!! (lol) At that same game I mentioned above…he told myself and Mark Jackson to get ready for queens college !!! Myself …….i would’ve loved to play at queens college if that had been my only option and we all know what became of Mark Jackson !!! Both of us have amazing Kenny P stories !!! Mark is two or three years younger Im a year younger. My cousin played with Kenny in H.S. so i had seen him play in an organized setting as well as the streets..Mark locked horns with Kenny while he was still in junior high !!! as a 7th grader and kenny was in 9th ! I remeber evrybody runnig to the school yard to see both these dudes going at each other HARD !!! And this was Mark Jackson when he was street !!! To this day no one knows who won……My own story came in summer league 81 elmcor in St Albans Park…My Park. Kenny Played on a high powered team that had Ice reynolds, chris mullin, and other dudes that played major D1 ball…..they were coached by my man Joe bostic. Joe had always told me….Son, I wish I had of got to you earlier……..I didnt start playing until 13….I was now 16. Having been 5′3″ and now I was starting to grow…I was feeling myself. The previous spring I had watched Mo hicks now the coach of RICE HS in harlem torch Kenny …..in the wheel chair classic. Before that even though he was a good PG and player he was considered marginal. After that game…he wanted to rip his letter of intent to loyola up !!! I figured if he could do it…why can’t I ? Kenny actuall played center for a team in a converse tourney in lincoln park in 79 with myself and the flyest handle EVER seen in queens Ray Fernandez…..No one wanted to check ray…to quick to small and his J was money in da bank……when we locked horns kenny being bigger and stronger I knew I had to change up….so I went Mo hicks on him !!! In and outs, i was shooting lefty due to a broken right hand and tha threw him off. By the time he figured it out we had beat the best team in the tournament and all the attention was with me !!!! I believe that was where my college coach found me….I went to UMES a d1 in the MEAC not depaul or the st johns….but I was happy nonetheless !!! The summer after my freshman year Mark Jackson and I played the backcourt for Joe Bostic….Playing alongside Mark…I knew I had a lot to learn. Kenny P vs Wendell Owens….classic matchup ! KP vs Beatle washington Classic matchup ! I would have liked to see him go head to head with Steve Burtt and Kev williams…they were the beasts at guard back then……but kenny was certainly tough ……1 thing sticks out in my mind…….Michael Jordan specifically asked for kenny patterson during a game in which he was playing against Isaih Thomas !!! To this day…everyone in chi town still says kenny had the best handle….did I mention Tim hardaway copied the crossover for KP !!!
April 9th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Smooth says:
I thought Joe Hammond dropped 50 points on Dr.J
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:17 pm
bu74ny says:
Joe didn’t score fifty but he came close. I can remember Joe playing in West Fourth St tourney for Segarra’s squad in the 1980’s and holding his own with the young boys. I can still hear that distinctive sound of his backboard shot ringing in my ears.
By the way I hear Kirkland’s son is quite a player.