Read first : A French in New York – City of New York, Parks & Recreation – Saved by the ball
25th September, I woke up excited like a kid buying his first pair of sneakers. In fact I was about to buy my first real Fish-eye lens for my Canon camera. Why this lens in particular ? Because I grew up watching skateboarding videos where the fisheye is a religion. A few basketball photographers are using it, to me it’s the best lens to capture action in the paint and dunks of course. So I went to B&H megastore, always funny to see all those jewish people selling high tech and handling lots of cash. I did a first stop near the Madison, maybe not the most beautiful building but I just needed to try my new toy.
This was a cold thursday, I waited for Romain and after my first chicken roll in Sbarro we moved up to Goat Park on 99th St. and Amsterdam Ave.
Bobbito invited us to his “Anytime Anyday, work-out/open run”. Once on the spot we saw Bobbito, Andre & Ramon Perez doing a pass & shoot exercise. The ballers arrived one by one, first Bang Lee, Jimmy burke and later a Bounce contributor Geroy Grant. We played 3 on 3 games, I was with Ramon and Bang and after loosing a couple of games against Bobbito’s squad we succeeded to win some battles thanks to Ramon’s accuracy around the paint. A tall kid arrived, a lazy copy of Mike Beasley, he joined Bobbito’s team and started to guard me. Bobbito shout “ Kev, you’re in trouble”. Unfortunately for him this kid arrived at the wrong time, I was starting to get hot. I crossed him several times, put some threes & lay-ups on his nose and we ended up this session winning the last games.
We spoke a little bit with Geroy who friendly drive us up to Spanish Harlem, I took a shower quickly and we went down to Times Square for a special night session. Of course we did some shopping but we took many pictures like this funny one of the Vitamin Water advertising, CP3,Kobe,Dwight, Lebron & Deron in various advertising.
On the 26th September we headed to Fulton Street in Brooklyn, always fun to see those “Jewels-sneakers-cellphones-hairs-records” stores selling fake New Era or overpriced sneakers. We had a plan for the night, my boy Sami Ameziane was doing a stand up comedy show , Joe Franklin’s Comedy Club at Charley – O’s on 8th ave. & 45th street. Sami is a serious baller, besides playing in France and winning the QUAI 54 in 2006, he played in Uconn basketball team with talented NBA’ers like Charlie Villanueva, Josh Boone, Rudy Gay, Marcus Williams…As a french teacher in Connecticut he learned about the United States system and turned all his lessons into a comic show where he’s opposing European, mainly French & U.S culture. Right now, Sami is trying to live his American Dream, performing his show in Paris & New York’s famous comedy clubs, you can check a preview of his documentary :
We did a break of 2 days in our bball addiction, and on the 28th Bobbito asked me to play with the Bounce Squad on the Sunday Basketball League. We played in Park West High School gym on the 5th floor. Bobbito, Bang, Shu,Andre, Matthew and I, were playing against the N°1 that night. Unfortunately I didn’t succeed to play as I wanted to, my basketball short was too big and had no lace to tie it so it was falling down on each of my moves. Anyway we lost on the second period, they went too physical for the exhausted people we were.
On the 29th, I bought a new flash for my camera so it was time to test it. Romain and I went in Greenpoint, on a nice playground to do some night shots & portraits.
to be continued…
December 21st, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
kevin!!! sami played at uconn? i don’t think you mentioned that. really cool, hopefully when you move to new york finally we can all meet up and get a run in. that last bounce photo is craaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy! oh, it’s roman perez, not ramon, and you failed to mention that the sept. 25th was my birthday, and at age 42 i owned all of you at the goat that day! none of you were stopping me! i was even hitting reverse layups which isn’t my game at all! haha!
get a draw string for your shorts next time we play in sbl! i always got a spot for you, kev. you my man. great write up.
December 21st, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Rasmus says:
Great post. And really nice pictures. I especially like the collage (the one with colors) from Goat Park, it’s my wallpaper now, ha. The last shot is sick too.
December 21st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
roman aka da gift says:
Yoooo bro!!!! Nice article!!! Yea man bobbitos team dat day beat us several times they had da chemistry, plus bobbito was goin extraaa hard on me wif moves and shots, and it was his bday so u noe he was smelling victory!! But u know once we got to know eachothers game, dat was gona change! Jajaja…
Take care bro…
December 21st, 2008 at 11:19 pm
bang says:
Hey Kevin!
How’s it going?
I remember Bob’s Birthday workout.
He went to see KG after that right?
I really loved to play with you.
Take care-!
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:24 am
Casey Lee says:
Kev,
My fellow photographer…did anyone ever tell you that you’re THAT DUDE?! Photos are elusive, yet display the right touch of creative attitude that makes you say: SHA-BAZZ!
We def need to link up for a dual-photo shoot sometime!
hah..and for the record, Bob always shake the young boys on the playgrounds of NYC (I think he gets better with age!)
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:21 pm
g says:
Peace Kev! lol @ Mike Beasley look alike! you called that one dead right! Bob and I just knew we were gonna be able to go lite that game cause he was gonna stretch out on you. man did we get hit with the crossover on that one! you piffed his eyes out and was boppin’ him something terrible! Bob and I were on his team and had to shake our heads a few times! even dude was muttering “What the Hell!” every now and then. i must say i was impressed. we had to let him eat the workout on his own,couldnt even help. we have a stereotype of the euro ballers,good shooters,not athletic or tough,shy away from contact and driving. you shut those down for a few ticks,cause you fed him the biz real easy like! lol!i didnt peep you took a pic of me either otherwise i wouldve applied the censorship laws and blacked my face out like a witness protection participant!
its said that music and math are the universal languages,seems like ball is superceding that,cause we vibed on everything BUT ball!! tell them about the black milk instrumentals!!! lol!!
be safe,we’ll collide again soon enough!
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Kevin Couliau says:
Bob :
Sorry if I forgot your Birthday
Thanks again for the SBL game, great memory, next time we’ll kill the oponents and It will be my turn to put reverse layups at Goat park
Rasmus :
Thanks a lot
Roman :
Hope you’re fine.
We know each other now, so next games will be a different story
Bang :
I’m fine, I’ve enjoyed to play with you also man.
I’ll come back soon
Casey :
Let’s organize that shooting on my next trip…nyc,philly…anywhere,anycourt I’m always down
Geroy :
Bro, thanks a lot for the cool words on my game, maybe I was born in NYC but nobody ever told me the truth on my fathers
Those Black Milk instrumentals were dope, my boy Romain discovered something he didn’t know about : real hip hop
Was it the Popular Demand instrumentals ?
Anyhow thanks for the small trip in your car, I’m sure you enjoyed drivin’ with two white fellas in Spanish Harlem
Hope to see you soon guys !
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
g says:
ball players are born everywhere playboy,and in ny,a native ny’er doesnt necessarily mean he was born here,ya dig! it aint where your from,its where ya at! you are now an official/transplanted native ny’er! lol!
yes sir,that was popular demand instrumentals. got to check out his Tronic album too,tough!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFiVRMbk75o
any time on the ride my dude! people see my car and think im a cop anyway,so im sure people seeing the 2 of you along with me in the whip just confirmed that for them!!! lol!
meant to ask you,what camera was that you were using? i was looking at a nikon,10.3 mega pix,but i wasnt sure if that was comparable to yours. your joint was cooking!! hope to get my pic game up to yours!
ps.15 pounds off and counting,we’re gonna run hard next time you touch ground out here!! lol!!!