What is the current state of playground ball? The Latest / Sep 28, 2009 / 10:05 am

By Trevor Kapp

40 Cal recently made the claim that ’09 was the worst Summer for playground ball yet. Hyperbole? Perhaps. But it definitely drew several responses.

For more opinions, check out this piece that ran on the Macleem Web site.

What are your thoughts?

Tags: Macleem, Playground Basketball

8 Comments » | Posted in The Latest |

8 Responses to “What is the current state of playground ball?”

1. September 28th, 2009 at 1:10 pm

   Madmark (BX all day) says:

   Trevor,

   I don’t know who Macleem is, but fo real, they’re selling tees that say Harlem 116th St, Harlem 155th St, and West 4th St. I’d be real mad if I was Greg, Huncho or Kenny Graham and saw these dudes making money off of what they created. What’s even worse is, the damn shirts don’t say Kingdome or Ruckerpark.

   Macleem should get booed for this one.

   As fans of TRUE streetball, We as a communty should never spend a dime on anything Macleem sells. They are just trying to repackage their tour for the changing times. How can they get mad that someone beat them to the punch?

2. September 28th, 2009 at 5:01 pm

   Kenny Patt says:

   Except for the violence, It was better when the Alpo’s of the world sponsered streetball. Not to mention there are too many now.

3. September 28th, 2009 at 5:13 pm

   Trevor Kapp says:

   mardmark- you were so real with everyone the other day on the “who’s your favorite reporter” post, but i didn’t get an evaluation from you. curious to hear your thoughts either way, man.

4. September 28th, 2009 at 6:46 pm

   Madmark (BX all day) says:

   Trevor,

   I’m flattered you value my opinion that much. I’m a Summer Tournament guy that HATES fronters and fakers. If I haven’t BLASTED you, then we’re cool. You remind me of a NBA beat writer. Your facts are usually correct for the most part and there’s only a touch of homerizm. As my Granddad used to say you have good command of the King’s English and you do use it to convey a story factually and objectively which is cool.

5. September 28th, 2009 at 8:46 pm

   Casey Lee says:

   Trevor! Good look on posting this piece…I’ve been mad busy and just about forget to put Macleem’s piece up!

   Madmark speaks truth about you. Beat writer is on-point.

6. September 29th, 2009 at 3:43 am

   Mac says:

   I don’t see any problems with the site as Macleem says. The website is not stealing any tournament names. These are public property these parks and are not owned by the tournament organnizer.

   Now it would be a different story if they selling a shirt with the tournament logo and name.

   Anyways I feel that street ball / playground ball has gotten better over the years. I remember one day dude rolling on the floor, carrying the ball and running towards the rim taking 7-8 steps with no dibble and telling me we playing street ball.

   Right now I almost never see people complaing if they travel or carry, they just agree and give it up, no complain saying it’s street ball. I feel that the playground ball has come back to where it belongs. I blame a certain company for making people think this is basketball.

7. September 29th, 2009 at 9:17 am

   Madmark (BX all day) says:

   Mac,

   You gotta be kidding me about the public park thing. How many people do you think would buy a picture of a basketball court with the “PJ’s” as the backdrop? Maybe a tourist who’s too scared to come to the hood but that’s about it.

   To me, these dudes are nothing but Hyenas. These scavengers are just cruising the plains to eat off the carcasses of the tournaments. They make a lot of noise but, in the end all they are doing is trying to eat off something that they didn’t put in the work to kill.

   The thing that I think is the funniest about your post is that you blame a “Certain Company” for bastardizing the game you love but have no problem with these dudes doing basically the exact same thing. Eating off of something they didn’t kill.

   They’re benefiting off of something someone else created.

8. November 9th, 2009 at 8:06 pm

   haneef saleem says:

   Madmark(BX) thanks for all the positive words of encouragement. lol. Actually we do not put the names of the tournaments because we are not advertising the individual tournaments themselves. Those names are intellectualy property of the Rucker family, Honcho, Ken Graham (who happens to be a family friend).

   Those shirts which are available for sale on our website are actually in stores and selling quite well (must be all those tourist lol). And we aren’t eating off the back of anyone, what we are doing is totally different from what “certain companies” are doing. We are doing youth clinics for young athletes, sponsoring winter, spring and soon to be Summer tournaments. And on occassion we host exhibition games featuring well known playground players. At no point in our events do we promote the inundation of tricks or non-fundamental moves. If you view our youtube channel – http://www.youtube.com/macleem you will see us in Brazil playing against a streetball team and you will see how they do more tricks/moves than us. At the end of the 3on3 game we beat them by 18.

   Once again, thanks for all the positive words, Mark. Continue doing what you do best …comment.

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