| | Once again, Harlem’s Rucker Park was a stage for the best street basketball on the planet. EBC balers like Bone Collector, Escalade, Prime Objective and Whole-Lotta-Game came to 155th to showcase their skills. And that’s just the beginning... This summer, a record number of NBA players from the hottest teams of the league came to Harlem to do their thing including Baron Davis, Kobe Bryant, Jason Richardson, Stephan Marbury, ...This celebration of a unique, wildly populist basketball event in contemporary America is sporadically thrilling but always boisterous fun, more boastful hip-hop video than even-handed sports documentary. Why not: boasting is certainly in keeping with the spirit of the annual Entertainer’s Basketball Classic at Harlem’s Rucker Park, a summer tournament that pits neighborhood legends against professional players in some very showy, showdown streetball. Some call it a "Second NBA," but others just think of EBC as a very cool thing, where local, non-pro heroes such as Bone Collector, Keithy Keith, Sticks, and Alimoe can play their game their way, on their turf, to a crowd of 1,500 and occasionally steal thunder from the likes of the Trailblazers’ Derek Anderson, the Warriors’ Rafer Alston, and even the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant (whose long-awaited arrival in Harlem causes near-hysteria). Recommended as a touchstone of spectacle and deserved pride. By French Dog |
