The 5th Edition of the “Basket Fever” 3×3 contest took place last weekend in St. Quentin, France on Sunday. Around 100 players fought for the 1st spot in several contests which included a 3×3 championship, three-point shootout, and more. The event’s highlight was the dunk contest, of course. The competition featured some impressive local dudes and the legendary Slam Nation flyers. Kevin Lescot aka “Da Phenomenon,” who now plays in third-division Italy and has been touring with Slam Nation since age 17, won the contest with dynamite jams. The best was his unique version of the “cartwheel tomahawk.”

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Back in 2008 some students from SupInfocom Arles (South of France) reached out to me about a special project built around streetball legend Earl “The Goat” Manigault and Rucker Park. From the Hoop is a short 3D movie inspired by his life on the streets of Harlem. In the short, Earl tries to escape his fears and malaise embodied by two satanic ballers. The chase ends up in the “holy place” of Rucker park where the Goat is challenged on the court by his two assailants. It becomes a furious battle for the small guard’s life as he reaches his salvation thanks to his basketball skills.

Peep the short movie below and the making of on the official website : http://www.fromthehoop.com/

Congrats to Rémi Dessinges, Anthony Arnoux and Guillaume Fesquet for this beautiful tribute to Earl Manigault.

From the hoop from From the hoop Team on Vimeo. Read More »

Kenny “The Blenda” Rodriguez and the Harlem Globetrotters have been invited to the biggest TV show in France : Le Grand Journal on Canal + channel. After a small introduction of the crew and some questions, the fellas from the Globetrotters have shown their skills in front of millions of French viewers. As usual, a journalist asked “is it hard to spin the ball on a finger ?”, Kenny Rodriguez answered practicing the trick on the interviewers fingers.

Kobe Bryant just hit 61 points in his last game against the knicks, and guess what? He was wearing his new Kobe IV , a low cut basketball sneaker. Bryant reached maturity in his game and is constantly searching a way to improve his performance on the court. Nike’s designer Eric Avar has built a low cut sneaker to help Kobe move freely on the court, to get more dynamism and lightness ( Wt. 11.2 oz.). I’m happy that such an influential player on the shoes business is now playing with low tops.

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Last weekend was the Turkish basketball league all star game. The event took place in the third biggest city of the country, Izmir, a seaside resort, one hour far from Istanbul by plane. Around 10 000 people were packed in the gym for the usual ” foreigners vs. natives” game but also for the Slam Nation’s first show in Turkey. The foreigners selection won the game 133 : 122 with a incredible performance from a former NBA warrior ,Robert “Tractor” Traylor, hitting 20 points and 8 rebounds for the MVP title. Even more of a spectacle tho was brought courtesy of the one and only french dunking crew surrounding “the dunkfather” kadour ziani, slam nation! sergio boloko, brice de blaine, habib tiour and yann de blaine ate their wheaties for breakfast, performing 4 times during the course of the day, and throwing down a ton of nasty dunks for their huge turkish fanbase.

Robert ” Tractor” Traylor , Most valuable player of the turkish ASG. Read More »

Last December was the French All Star Game, the best native players against the foreign players of our 1st pro division (Pro A). Around 15 000 fans gathered in Paris, not only for a simple basketball game but also for the main attraction : the dunk contest. As it is broadcasted on National TV, some great dunkers like Kadour Ziani, the De Blaine brothers, Steve Lobel or Guy Dupuy entered in our dunk ” hall of fame” and basketball history. Each year there’s a big emulation on “who’s gonna compete ? what each guy is able to do…” , this edition was special because two great well known high flyers came from the States : Kevin ” Golden Child ” Kemp and Justin Darlington. I went lucky to get in the backstages of this contest so just enjoy the pictures and video below.

Justin Darlington, Nobel Boungou Colo , Kevin Kemp, Max Kouguere, Yann de Blaine

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Dude is everywhere these days, including the nation of hoop. k1x welcomes the new president to washington with this limited tee. the man is gonna have to perform magic to make history, so it’s a good thing barack has the makings of a wizard…

Now available at exclusive streetwear pushers across Europe

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.

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