Air Jordan shoe. stockelements / iStock Editorial via Getty Images.
Streetball is a society unto itself. Its elements have helped to define a much wider culture, making significant contributions through fashion, film, literature, language, music, and other forms of entertainment and commerce. There is a simple three-word expression that sums it up best: “Ball is life.” For there are people throughout the world who have never walked into a ball yard, yet still are familiar with the influences of the game. Let’s take a look at streetball’s far-reaching impact, without forgetting to recognize the originators of it all—the ballers.
Chuck Taylors—Chuck Taylor sneakers go by another name, Converse All Stars. Often, they’re simply called Chucks or Cons. That’s because back in the early 1920s, an American semipro basketball player named Chuck Taylor asked Converse to redesign their basketball shoe to give it more support, better flexibility, and a looser fit to avoid blisters on his feet. The design engineered by Converse was so good that the shoe remains virtually unchanged today—known for its white toe cap, brown rubber sole, and stitched cotton canvas upper portion. By the 1960s, the company had captured the vast majority of the basketball shoe market. Its popularity declined in the 1970s, however, with other companies such as Nike, Adidas, and Puma competing by employing modern-day players to create signature shoes.
Puma Clydes—Perhaps the perfect pairing of a legendary baller and a shoe company came when Puma created a sneaker for New York Knick Walt “Clyde” Frazier. The model was originally released in 1970–1971, a season after Frazier had won the NBA Championship. In addition to his sublime on-court skills, Frazier was known for his stylish clothing. He earned the nickname Clyde, which was inspired by the film Bonnie and Clyde about a pair of well-dressed bank robbers. The low-top sneakers, in leather or suede, were known more for their sharp look than for their performance on the blacktop. They also became the favored shoe of many old-school hip-hop artists and the B-Boy (breakdancing) culture. An earlier model of the shoe was held by US Olympian Tommie Smith during his protest against racial inequality during the medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
Air Jordans—In 1984, Nike produced a basketball shoe especially for the Chicago Bulls’ rookie sensation Michael Jordan. Later that year, the shoe was made available to the public. Over the next several years, the shoes took flight right beside the storied career of MJ. Filmmaker Spike Lee, playing his Mars Blackmon character, appeared in several Nike commercials with Jordan, inquiring about his on-court talents and theorizing, “It’s gotta be the shoes.” For a short time, Commissioner David Stern outlawed the original model, Air Jordans I, which had a black-and-red color scheme, from NBA games for not having enough white on them. That seemed to make the public desire them even more. There are currently over thirty different models of the shoe.
Reebok Pump—Released in 1989, the Reebok Pump was the first basketball shoe to contain an internal mechanism (air pump) to produce a customized fit. Two-time slam-dunk champion Dominique “The Human Highlight Film” Wilkins was the original face of the shoe. Then in 1991, while competing in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, Dee Brown inflated his Reebok Pumps in front of a huge national audience before executing the winning no-look dunk. The next year, Reebok came out with the Dee Brown pump shoe, its tag line “Pump Up & Air Out.”
The Nike Freestyle commercial’s extended cut, which lasts a little over two and a half minutes, has the feeling of a choreographed ballet. It features a mix of pros and streetballers—men and women—displaying their best freestyle ball-handling techniques (no court, no basket, no competition—just ballers and a rock) as they move in rhythm to the music of “Planet Rock” by electro/funk hip-hop ensemble Soulsonic Force. The commercial dropped in 2001 during the NBA All-Star break, inspiring legions of ballers to practice those same moves in the park. Several months later, the ad was spoofed in Scary Movie 2 (2001), increasing its profile and longevity.
McDonald’s has put together several incredible commercials using ballers. It began in 1993 with “The Showdown.” Larry Bird, standing on an empty gym court, spied Michael Jordan about to eat a Big Mac on the sideline. “I’ll play you for it,” said Bird. “You and me, for my Big Mac?” inquired MJ. “First one to miss watches the winner eat,” responded Bird. What ensued was a fantasy-like game of HORSE, played only to the letter H. They keep matching each other’s shots—one more difficult than the next, until the pair are both standing outside the gym ready to shoot the rock through an open window and have it ricochet into the hoop—nothing but net. The commercial became an instant classic, spawning later versions, which included Charles Barkley. The original ad was redone in 2010 with LeBron James and Dwight Howard playing for LeBron’s Big Mac.
In 2012, when NBA star Kyrie Irving aged some forty years through several hours in a makeup artist’s chair, the Pepsi Max/Uncle Drew ad campaign was born. It began as a five-minute online video before going viral and reaching TV in thirty-second spots, eventually culminating in a movie, Uncle Drew (2018). Irving, disguised as elderly Uncle Drew, enters a packed Bloomfield, New Jersey, streetball yard one evening in the company of his nephew. Uncle Drew takes the place of an injured player. After a shaky start and a few bad misses to sow the seeds of doubt, Uncle Drew kicks it into high gear and simply dominates his younger opponents to the delight of the crowd. “Don’t reach [for the rock], Youngblood,” Uncle Drew taunts a would-be defender, displaying a deft dribble before blowing past to the rim.
NBA Street takes the avatars of recognized pros from the bright lights of the arena and brings them to ball yards around the country. They compete playing three-on-three. The winning score is the traditional outdoor mark of twenty-one points. Players can leap to the sky, and goaltending (interfering with the ball on its downward path to the rim) is actually allowed. Flashy plays enable you to get a Gamebreaker, which can not only add to your points but subtract from the opponent’s score. Contests can be staged in hardcore yards such as South Beach, Venice Beach, Route 66 in northern Arizona, Chicago’s The Loop, DC’s The Paint, and New York City’s Rucker Park and The Cages at West Fourth Street. NBA Playgrounds adds a different dimension for gamers by allowing great players of the past, such as Wilt Chamberlain and Magic Johnson, to compete against modern-day pros in ball yard settings.
Street Hoops features real-life streetballers such as Half-man/Half-amazing, Hot Sauce, and AO. Gamers can also create and name their own streetball heroes with whom to compete. There are three different modes of play: World Tournament (you’re on the road), Lord of the Court (defending your home court), and Pick-Up Game (where the winning avatars earn crisp C-notes as if they’d wagered on the outcome). These characters can even talk trash and throw elbows at one another. 3on3 Freestyle, with an avatar of ball-handling wizard Grayson “The Professor” Boucher, features its own cast of characters with particular core skills, including several female streetballers throwing down hard against the boys.
The legendary leaping ability of Earl “The Goat” Manigault has inspired many sensational stories, including one version where the six-foot-one baller would grab a dollar bill from the top of the backboard and leave four quarters in its place. His signature move was the double-dunk, jamming the same basketball twice, without hanging on the rim, in a single jump. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar recognized Manigault, who never played in the pros, as the most talented player he’d ever competed against. “At the time there weren’t a whole lot of people who could do things with the basketball that Earl Manigault could do. He was so agile, so quick. He used to make so many innovative moves to the hoop. Basketball was his total means of expression,” said Abdul-Jabbar. The nickname “The Goat” probably arose from the early mispronunciation of his name, Mani-goat instead of Mani-gault. But fittingly, his streetball tag is an acronym for “the Greatest of All Time.” Sadly, Manigault suffered from a heroin addiction, seriously harming his health and causing him to spend several years incarcerated.
In the late 1960s, shooting guard Richard “Pee Wee” Kirkland was a dominant force at Rucker Park. Sports Illustrated referred to him as the “fastest man in college basketball.” He was even drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 1969. But Kirkland, who was making more money than most pro athletes by financing a drug ring on the streets of New York, passed on a possible career in the NBA. Just a few years later, Kirkland was sentenced to a decade behind bars in a federal penitentiary. Upon his release, the iconic baller earned a master’s degree in human services and, along with help from Nike, created “School of Skillz,” a program that teaches youngsters the fundamentals of both life and basketball. “This is how you play basketball, a game I always won, and this is how you deal with life, a game I once lost,” said Kirkland. “Everything is timing. Thirty years ago, I was part of the problem. Thirty years later, I’m part of the solution.” Kirkland and his journey have been mentioned in the lyrics of songs by Terror Squad, Ja Rule, and Future.
Joe “The Destroyer” Hammond didn’t play in a single high school or college game. But this legendary playground scorer, known for his deadly bank shot and high-rising dunks, made such an impression on pros playing in NYC’s summer leagues that the Los Angeles Lakers selected him in the NBA’s 1971 Hardship Draft. He had a tryout playing one-on-one against then Lakers guard Pat Riley (a session reported to be ultra-physical on the part of Riley, who probably didn’t appreciate a park player who could conceivably make the team and steal some of his minutes). Hammond turned down an offer from the Lakers because he was making more money in NYC’s gambling dens and drug trade. He later declined a contract from the ABA’s New Jersey Nets as well. Like other streetball icons of his era, Hammond eventually did federal time on a drug charge, falling victim to the negative side of street life.
Streetball’s bridge between old school and new school can be seen in the rise of the dynamic point guard Rafer “Skip to My Lou” Alston, whose star eventually shone brightly in the NBA. This park legend had his early ball-handling sessions videotaped (they can be found on YouTube), helping to inspire the future AND1 Mixtape Tours. Alston earned his nickname through a highly stylized hesitation skipping motion with his legs and feet, while still controlling the dribble, often leaving opposing defenders off balance and out of sync. In 2004, as a member of the Miami Heat, Alston, playing in the backcourt beside rookie Dwayne Wade, helped guide his team to the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals, while averaging over ten points and four assists per game. “To make it to the NBA was always my dream,” said Alston. “[But] my style of game, my nickname and my claim to fame would be discovered playing the streetball game.”
The producers of the AND1 Mixtape Tour began by going city to city, looking for emerging streetball stars to form a traveling squad. However, what they found in Philip “Hot Sauce” Champion was something much more. An electrifying talent who could bring fans to their feet in anticipation of his signature collection of “killer” crossover dribbles—the Boomerang, Hypnotizer, Hurricane, and Flintstone Shuffle—Champion truly enjoyed embarrassing opponents. He was a star whose must-see talents mesmerized on ESPN’s Streetball series and YouTube. “There’s more talent than just in New York City,” said Hot Sauce, originally from Jacksonville, Florida. “When they came to Atlanta, my name was just a buzz around Atlanta as far as doing the moves, crossing people over. . . . They were looking for hot handles, flair and people who could pass.” Champion appeared with the AND1 Mixtape Tour from 2000 to 2004 and 2006 to 2008. He also played the character Jewelz in the 2006 streetball genre film Crossover.
Oregon native Grayson “The Professor” Boucher is a ball-handling phenomenon. At approximately five foot ten and weighing 155 pounds, Boucher is the everyman of streetball, making us believe that if he can succeed at such a high level, then maybe so can we. Of course, The Professor has put in an extraordinary amount of time and hard work to maximize his scintillating skills with the rock. “My whole upbringing there was a tug-and-pull with my coaches,” said Boucher, who played at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon, before earning his spot in an open tryout with the AND1 Mixtape Tour. “They didn’t like me going outside the system. . . . I never really got that green light to express myself on the court until the AND1 Mix Tape Tour [from 2003 to 2011].” The Professor has become a strong presence on social media and YouTube, ultimately hiring his own production team to document his streetball career, even while disguised in a Spiderman costume and using his legendary handle to defy unsuspecting challengers.
Sheryl Swoopes and Nancy “Lady Magic” Lieberman both had to overcome huge obstacles at home before they hit the park to hone their future Hall of Fame skills—namely, their mothers. Swoopes’s mom believed the game was too rough for girls, and Lieberman’s mom actually punctured her daughter’s basketballs with a screwdriver to stop her from constantly dribbling indoors during a bitterly cold Brooklyn winter. But both mothers, eventually recognizing their daughters’ passion for the game, became supportive. “For all the girls, if you want to play, play,” said Swoopes, the three-time Olympic gold medalist who first hit the blacktop in her native Brownfield, Texas. “I’ve been playing since I was seven [with my brothers]. When I first started, they wouldn’t pass me the basketball. They would [only] pick me because they had nine players and needed a tenth to make five-on-five. But I took a lot of pride in proving those people wrong, including my mom.” And Lieberman’s mother was so proud of her daughter’s accomplishments, there was no one, no matter how famous, to whom she wouldn’t brag. “So my mother, this little Jewish lady from New York, goes up to [Muhammad] Ali, and tells him that her daughter is the greatest of all time,” said Lieberman, who grew up playing in pick-up games against boys. “Ali just looks at her and says, ‘Lady, there’s only one greatest of all time, and that’s me.’”
As kids, Cheryl Miller and her brother Reggie—the first pair of siblings to become Hall of Famers—used to hustle streetball games for money while growing up in Riverside, California. Their ultimate prize in those days? Taking their winnings to Mickey D’s to buy Happy Meals. “Basketball taught me to be a respectful person, [and] how to select friends,” said Miller, an Olympic gold medalist and two-time NCAA champion.
In 1980, Ann Meyers Drysdale signed a $50,000 no-cut contract with the NBA’s Indiana Pacers to compete against men. And though she didn’t make the final squad that season, it was a substantial milestone for women athletes. “I think the guys were more nervous than I was. Here was a woman competing against them to play in the NBA,” said Meyers Drysdale, the first woman to receive a full athletic scholarship at UCLA. “I was involved in a lot of firsts in my life. Making an NBA team didn’t turn out to be one of them.” That same year, Carol “Blaze” Blazejowski signed a three-year $150,000 contract with the New Jersey Gems of the brand-new Women’s Pro Basketball League. The league folded after its initial season, and Blazejowski claims she never collected a dime for her efforts. But she was certainly never cheated by the experience. “It’s passion about what you want to do,” said Blazejowski, a New Jersey native and three-time Collegiate All-American, who is included as a hidden player in the NBA Jam Tournament Edition video game. “Passion for me was basketball. . . . Everything about the game was part of my life. . . . Chase your passion, not the money.”
Holcombe Rucker was a playground director in Harlem over the course of three decades. Through sheer will he started a humble streetball tournament, which began with oak-tag schedules tied to trees. Today that tournament, known as the Entertainer’s Basketball Classic, is held in the park that bears his name—Rucker Park—arguably the most famous streetball yard in the world. It is hallowed ground for streetballers, a place where pros like Wilt Chamberlain and Julius Erving faced off against legends like Joe “The Destroyer” Hammond and Pee Wee Kirkland. And it’s where a team featuring a trio of New York Knicks immortals, including Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Willis Reed, and Bill Bradley, lost to an amateur squad from a local bar called Sweet & Sour. Jackson Park, located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, is where President Barack Obama used to participate in pick-up games. The pair of courts there are situated behind a high chain-link fence, much like The Cages at West Fourth Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village, which is also known for its less-than-regulation-size court, encouraging tight defense and long jumpers, with boisterous spectators lining the sidewalk outside.
Venice Beach’s famous Blue Court has appeared in movies such as White Men Can’t Jump and American History X. At its location north of the Venice Beach Pier, tall palm trees highlight the scenic vista. Mosswood Park in Oakland, California, helped launch the careers of eleven-time NBA champion Bill Russell and famed point guard Jason Kidd. It is also the yard in which legendary streetballer Demetrius “Hook” Mitchell executed a 360-degree slam dunk over a parked car. The courts at Barry Farms in Washington, DC, spawned the likes of Kevin Durant, while Philadelphia’s courts at Sixteenth and Susquehanna Avenue, which could draw five hundred spectators for a tournament game, are the subject of a documentary titled 16th and Philly.
Spike Lee’s He Got Game (1998) stars Denzel Washington (Jake Shuttlesworth) as the on-screen pops of NBA star Ray Allen (Jesus Shuttlesworth), who was given his name as a tribute to legendary baller Earl “Black Jesus” Monroe. There are several strong scenes revolving around streetball as the father and son work out their substantial problems. Hoop Dreams (1994) is an Academy Award–nominated documentary about William Gates and Arthur Agee, a pair of Chicago teens who dream of playing in the NBA. Ultimately, the film uses the backdrop of basketball to explore the issues of class and race in society. It was placed by the New York Times on its “Best 1,000 Movies Ever” list. Actors Wesley Snipes (Sidney Deane) and Woody Harrelson (Billy Hoyle) portray streetball hustlers in the 1992 film White Men Can’t Jump. Harrelson’s Hoyle character helped promote the basketball phrase “in the zone,” feeling like you can’t miss a shot, among the general public. There is a lot of streetball action, including plenty of comical and in-depth discussion about the mental side of the game. The Blackout, a documentary, details the intense rivalry between Fat Joe’s Team Terror Squad and Jay Z’s Team S. Carter as they vie for the Rucker Park title of 2003, delayed by the largest blackout in the history of North America. Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes characters join forces in Space Jam to defeat the Monstars, an alien squad of ballers that has stolen the skills of some NBA stars, giving the game an interplanetary stage.
Probably the most recognizable piece of music associated with the sport is the new-age theme song “Roundball Rock” from the show The NBA on NBC (1990–2002). Despite having no lyrics, the piece, written by composer John Tesh, captured the feel and excitement of the game for audiences worldwide. NBC continues to use the theme song in many other venues, including its coverage of the Olympics. The hip-hop classic “Basketball” by Kurtis Blow is an homage to the sport. The rapper’s lyrics take us straight to the heart of the game. “Just like I’m King of the microphone, so is Dr. J and Moses Malone. I like slam dunks, take me to the hoop, my favorite play is the alley-oop.” Michael Jackson, aka the King of Pop, used Michael Jordan in the music video of his song “Jam.” Even though the piece doesn’t feature any real basketball lyrics, the song became associated with the sport through its visuals. The extended version of the video even has a scene with Jackson teaching Jordan to moonwalk. And Ice Cube’s classic “It Was a Good Day” ponders the lyrical question “Which park, are y’all playin’ basketball?”
John Updike penned a masterful poem titled “Ex–Basketball Player.” It’s about a guy named Flick who is far past his glory days on a high school court and works at a gas station, remembering those magical moments as he dribbles the innertubes of tires. Updike writes, “The ball loved Flick. . . . His hands were like wild birds.” Foul! The Connie Hawkins Story by David Wolf chronicles the life and times of streetball legend Connie Hawkins. The book follows him from the playgrounds of Brooklyn to his blackballing by the NBA after being wrongly accused in a game-fixing/gambling scandal. It is a riveting and blunt look at basketball and society. Becoming Kareem: Growing Up on and off the Court by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld details the seven-foot-two basketball superstar’s coming of age and dealing with the complex world around him. It is an insightful look at the difficult and challenging journey toward manhood. Heaven Is a Playground by Rick Telander shows the poetic and all-consuming side of streetball as a writer arriving to do a magazine piece on a Brooklyn ball yard gets hooked into coaching a team comprised of the local talent. In You Let Some Girl Beat You? the iconic and groundbreaking woman player Ann Meyers Drysdale details her triumphs and roadblocks in the game of basketball. The book contains a superb forward by Julius “Dr. J” Erving.
Here’s a taste of streetball’s colorful slang: The basketball is referred to as the “rock” or “pill.” Someone who can leap is known to have serious “hops” or “hang time.” A player who can dribble the ball well has a “handle,” and a good passer is looking to “dish out dimes,” assisting his teammates. Scoring the basketball equals “buckets,” while someone who shoots without a conscience is a “chucker,” often putting up bad shots described as “bricks.” A talented player has “skillz.” Those waiting on the sideline to play have “next” game. A tarred court is called “the blacktop.” The rim and backboard are called “the rack,” while the hoop is referred to as the “iron.” And a shot that goes in without touching the rim is a “swish,” even if there is no netting to make the sound. A high-arching shot is a “rainbow,” while a floater with a lesser trajectory is a “teardrop.” Tossing the ball to the rim for another player is an “alley-oop.” And if it’s successful there could be a crowd-rousing “jam” or “slam dunk,” which might result in the unlucky defender being “posterized.” In the end, though, it’s all done to satisfy a competitor’s “basketball jones,” or intense desire to play.