photo: slamonline.com

Basketball, broken down to its simplest compound, is about scoring more buckets than the team you’re playing against. The Semi-Automatic refers to players who leave bodies in their wake with their innate ability to get buckets. And few players can truly say that they are, or ever were, on the same level as the man known as “Mao Santa”, aka “The Holy Hand.” Read More »

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 »

photo: NY Times

With March Madness only a month away, I’m already fiendin’ like Gator in Jungle Fever (”Look Mama, I made this dance up for you.”) So as the current college crop prepares their playground swag for the big dance, I needed to quench my thirst and take a look back, with some added video highlights for your viewing pleasure.

They hijacked the world, took it by storm and forever altered the landscape of the college game. The Fab Five signaled the merging of hip hop sensibilities and hoops, from fashion to swagger to attitude. They took the anti-establishment mystique much further than their Hoya Paranoia predecessors of Patrick Ewing and Big John Thompson in the early to mid ’80s. In addition, they did something that had never been done before: five 18-year-old freshman starters that led their school to the national championship game. Read More »