Throughout August, The Jim Couch Foundation sponsored workouts at Fordham University for boys and girls of all ages. Even though the workouts are technically free, the participants paid in sweat and hard work. The summer may be typically reserved for tournaments but it’s also a chance for players to refine skills they have and work on the ones they don’t. Instruction from experienced NYC ballplayers, including NBA Top 50 Greatest Player Nate “Tiny” Archibald, was just too valuable to pass up for a ton of players. Archibald said that he saw a lot of potential at the workouts and that a main reason he wanted to be apart of it was to give back and help the next generation learn.
Today’s basketball landscape for talent is changing right before our eyes. The next basketball prodigy is currently in elementary school doing extraordinary things that will make you shake your head. Scouts, coaches, and street runners are searching from coast to coast for the next set of phenoms. On the AAU circuit every year hundreds of thousands of kids are competing to survive pool play and make a run that will capture the attention of a scout that can help them get a scholarship to an elite prep school, private school, or college.
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Summer ball in NYC is all about watching our up-and-coming young guys emerge as players and mature as people. Seeing a kid labeled as a hothead take a teammate to the side after he commits a turnover, lets us know he’s growing. Watching a budding-big man grab an offensive rebound and finish strong with two hands means he’s ready to handle anything. This is the process one of New York’s best young talents had to go through. Read More »
Dwight Hardy at Hoops in the Sun – Photo: Randy Cruz and Joe Cruz Jr.
Playground 101: “I have to take my man to the basket.”
The first thing you learn in any park that has serious run is the above words. St. John’s has gone back to basics, signing two playground All-Stars and sitting strongly in the cut with another. Former St. Ray’s standout Omari Lawrence and former John F. Kennedy Knight Dwight Hardy are tremendous scorers, while the fall-out move of the possible addition of Lincoln’s Lance Stephenson would bring the mechanics of the run-and-gun back to the Garden. Lance and Dwight are proven players against grown men in the parks of NYC and Omari has enough skill and AAU-Gaucho/Panther-city stuntman in him to be an effective wing finisher. The three added to Mason Jr, Justin Burrell, and Paris Horne have me hoping Norm Roberts will go uptempo to the fullest. So what do you think, should the Redstorm go 40 minutes of run and press to regain their past glory?
Although spring isn’t even here yet in NYC, as a bunch of basketball freaks, we’re already looking for the best places to play and the best leagues to join this summer.
We wanted to ask our readers – across the globe – where you get your burn during the summer. Indoor, outdoor, you name it. Drop us a line in the comments and let us know the name and location of the leagues you play in, the tournaments you join, the courts you frequent and tell us what the run is like. Who knows, maybe we’ll come through or feature it on the site…
“Because of Reggie Love, I gotta pick Duke” – Obama’s mind
Barack Obama’s personal assistant, former Duke player Reggie Love, has to be in agreement with the President’s final pick of UNC now that they are the ACC representative in the national championship game. Loyalty to the conference is indeed easy for a team player, but how important is it to have a player or person that shows loyalty? Reggie Love was a two-sport player who started out in the mail room as Barack’s low-paid assistant and now with hard work, has advanced to a higher position. Here’s why I feel UNC is like Love – the right blend of personal work ethic and athleticism that should propel UNC to the National Championship. Read More »
Ballers Network is where players live. Ballplayers from around the world, from every level of the game, come to Ballers Network every day to manage their basketball lives, to connect with each other and to share their basketball stories, both on Facebook and BallersNetwork.com.
As a member of our global family, we want your profile to sit alongside the profiles of players ranging from the NBA and WNBA to college, high school and everything in-between. All you have to do is send us a few great pictures of you playing ball, fill out your basketball profile and we will handle the rest.
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