Clark “Mr. Backboard” Elie was born into the world on December 20, 1954. Growing up in Manhattan’s Upper West Side neighborhood, he played ball with his friends and wasn’t the best at it. At Brandeis HS, he ran intramurals, not varsity. In the early ’70s, the group of cats he rolled with all got recruited to play college ball outside New York. Left behind, he decided to attend City College. And that’s when the legend started . . .

“We used to tease him,” childhood friend Greg “Elevator Man #2″ Brown reminisced with me. “But when we all went away, that’s when Clark got 20 times better!” Elie wound up taking a couple of CUNY chips at CCNY, but his legendary tear in the parks began when Greg Brown returned home. The two, along with Clark’s little brother Mario, wound up terrorizing every playground in the vicinity. Read More »

Now that the sun is out, West 4th St. Playground is on and popping. There are always many celeb sightings in that area, but this one caught me off guard . . .

Last week, Dave Chappelle came out of nowhere on a skateboard wearing dark glasses just to chill and watch some streetball. I got lucky enough to take a picture with dude:

40 Cal plays all over NYC, and once went 15 for 17 from three in a league playoff. Between games, he eats pizza with extra garlic so his breath can be nasty.