“Most people get it wrong. History isn’t about showcasing the differences between us
and those who lived before us so that we can feel superior; it’s about revealing the similarities so we can feel gratitude and humility. – Forward written by Quincy Jones in the book: On the Shoulders of Giants.
I grew up in the same projects that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar lived in during his teenage years. Kareem’s importance as a player is obvious as the All-Time Leading Scorer in NBA
history but it is his writing talent as a “MC” of African-American history that makes the book published a few years back titled On the Shoulders of Giants a must read. The book is written in the code of African-American communication – one that calls for a response from the crowd it addresses. Sounds like Streetball to me!
Jazz-inspired Kareem developed his famous hook shot from a never-duplicated inspiration that started with James Couch, his first playground coach. Ask him (At 78, still able to display the pristine hook shot form.) one day to shoot a hook shot and see what I mean.
I highlighted Jabbar’s importance in a piece I wrote in Bounce 23 called From the Dotted Line is Whack…?? Kareem’s dominance caused the NCAA to ban the dunk in ‘67 and the energy of the dunk became an after school project playground experiment back in the day. High School players expressed themselves in the air and at the rim after their seasons finished with a new creative style inspired by the R&B and subsequent Disco craze that swept the nation in the ’70s. Dr. J and David Thompson were children of that generation. That all turned into the greatest of all music phenomena – Hip Hop.
The creativity of the sample and scratch was the inspiration for one of the principle GrandMasters of the Air – Michael Jordan. Bounce 23’s article is a tribute to Kareem’s basketball talent and strong jazz background and shows the connection to the subsequent aerial explosion the NBA saw mature into a beast with Air Jordan.
So all you hip hop heads, feel Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Caz, DJ Hollywood, Jammaster J and DJ GrandWizard Theodore – men who gave RUN DMC, Jay Z, P. Diddy and the rest a way to eat well – as my inspiration for this article if you press Read More »
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 last night, Kobe Bryant added another jewel in the crown of his stellar career by becoming the Los Angeles Lakers all-time leading scorer, thanks to his 44-point outburst against the Grizzlies. Read More »
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 no rookie since the All-Time greats Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe and Wilt Chamberlain did what Brandon Jennings, aka The Takeover, did this weekend. Read More »
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 »
The scam went down like this. A skinny kid named Reggie would be tossing up jumpers at the John Adams Elementary School and other playgrounds in Riverside, California. His older sister, Cheryl, would be at the other end of the court, tossing up bricks. Sometimes, she would wind up and heave the ball over the backboard and into the chain link fence.
Reggie would approach a couple of kids and the convo normally went down like this -
“You guys want to play two-on-two? I’m waiting for my man to show up. Or I can just play you with my sister down there.” Read More »
all photos: courtesy of georgia tech sports imformation
Kenny! No last name necessary. Say it on any playground in NYC and everybody knows who you’re talking about. Even the young cats who are on the come up, if they ball on the asphalt of the concrete jungle’s five boroughs, they’ve heard about the legend of Kenny Anderson.
In the most recent issue of Bounce Magazine, #21, we sat down with Kenny to unearth the story of his formative years. To really understand how the playground gave us one of the greatest phenoms in NYC history and hear from the man, in his own words, you need to cop the issue immediately. Read More »
In the most recent issue of Bounce that’s about to drop, #20, we took the old school flavor to the West Side of things and caught up w/ former UCLA and LA Laker standout Jamaal Wilkes, aka Silk. Read More »
At the conclusion of the greatest opening round playoff series the NBA has ever seen, folks couldn’t help but marvel at the exploits of Ben “Madison Square” Gordon, Ray “Jesus Shuttlesworth” Allen, Rajon “Better Call Us The Big 4″ Rondo, Paul “The Truth” Pierce and the dramatic unfolding of a spectacle that Hollywood script writers would have had trouble fathoming.
But the one element that surpassed all others was the placement of a once in a generation talent, a 20-year-old point guard who earned Rookie of the Year honors, in the epicenter of the hoops universe. And although the Bulls succumbed to the Celtics in the series finale, the play of Derrick Martell Rose – which was consistently succulent throughout the entire year – made even the most exacting aficianado nod in sincere appreciation. Read More »
