The North Carolina Tar Heels. The legacy of this esteemed college basketball program conjures up words like prestige, championships, class and dominance, along with Hall of Fame names like Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Dean Smith. They’ve won 27 ACC regular season titles, 17 ACC tourney titles, competed in 18 Final Fours and captured five National Championships.
The question that begs to be answered is how did the program ascend to such rarefied heights. 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 »
Wayman Lawrence Tisdale was drawn to basketball by watching his older brother Weldon. Initially, the sport was not welcomed in the Tisdale household as his father, the accomplished Reverand L.L. Tisdale, preferred football. But Wayman’s mother Deborah would not allow her sons to strap on helmets and shoulder pads, regardless of the fanaticism surrounding the game in their home state of Oklahoma.
Wayman, and his older brother William, began playing in their backyard, using a garbage can as their first hoop. Eventually, they outgrew tossing a ball into the trash can, migrating a few blocks away to the asphalt courts at the Immaculate Conception Church schoolyard. Read More »
Rare is the man that can revolutionize the way the game is played, singlehandedly initiating a paradigm shift in thought, strategy, preparation and execution. William Felton Russell was one such man, the greatest defensive force the world has ever seen.
Able to dominate the game like no other before or since, he transformed the simple act of blocking a shot and concept of man-to-man defense into priceless art, utilizing those intimidating weapons to accomplish mind boggling team and individual feats. He accrued championships in the same manner that Stevie Wonder pumps classics, with bizarro regularity, and is recognized without debate as the game’s greatest winner. EVER!!!Read More »
Christopher Paul Mullin was a simple, neighborhood guy from Troy Avenue in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn. The love affair with hoops was a multi-generational thing that began in the driveway of the family’s small row house. Read More »
Tenacious! Relentless! Ferocious! Unrelenting work ethic. The Chairman of the Boards.
Those are the words that immediately come to mind when I think of one of the game’s true pioneers, Moses. He was the modern era’s trailblazer that went from ashy to classy, straight from high school to the pros, and blossomed into one of the greatest big men the game has ever seen. The time has now come to step into another chamber, the one reserved for the big boys who called the paint home. Read More »
During this holiday season, I’ll be dipping into the archives to offer up some updated goodies in the form of some of the most delectable “The Playground Gave Us…” joints from ‘08.
The time has come to pay homage to Tiny, the ultimate point guard.
As a skinny kid that always looked much younger than his actual age, Nathaniel “Tiny” Archibald insulated himself from the worst elements of the South Bronx with a ball and a hoop.
“We paid $109.00 a month rent and got the neighborhood for free,” he once said. “We were overcharged for both.” Read More »
