Rucker Tourney

[j.hironaka@unesco.org]

"You might think I'm crazy, but to me, this is more exciting than an
N.C.A.A. tournament game," claims former Saint John's guard Ron Artest
in a Village Voice feature this week about the Bronx outdoor tournament
at Rucker Park, a major summer event in the apple where each player is
given a tag (e.g. Stephon Marbury is "The Handler", Ron Artest is "True
Warrior" etc.) and where a street legend named Joe Hammond ("The
Destroyer") once bombed 50 points on Julius Erving in the championship
game.

Why is it that none of my old suburban computer club buddies ever get
invited to do things like this during the summer? I'd have settled for
"Luv Handles", "Snoop Doggie Doo Doo" or any leftover tag just to be a
part of it.

Joe

p.s. Yes, the "Celtics relevancy factor" (CRF) is zero on this article,
but nevertheless I post it below for generic basketball fans out there
(hey, it's SUMMER). Mea culpa, I never had the courage or energy to
subway out to Rucker Park in all my years living more comfortably in
downtown Manhatten. There were quite a few mini-tournaments involving
NBA players at the tiny West 4th Street Cage in Greenwich Village
(anyone can actually go play there the vast majority of the time). The
German tourists would follow the action on their handicams, making you
feel mildly cool and important.

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by Vincent M. Mallozi
Copyright Village Voice (18-24 August 1999)

The Handler sat courtside at Rucker Park last week, straight across from
where the True Warrior was taking in the action. On the blacktop, the
Natural Controller and the Headache did battle with Black Widow and the
Show.
And for hundreds of playground basketball fans lucky enough to be there,
many pressing their noses against the chain-link fence surrounding the
tiny park or perching themselves on tree limbs to get a better look at
the run, the best was yet to come— Air Canada was due for arrival.
"Stegosaurus catches a pass and backs into the paint, taking up more
space in there than a Tyrannosaurus rex," says the man behind the
microphone, a cross between Marv Albert and Snoop Doggy Dogg. "I mean,
this boy's 100 percent beef, you can call him the Tank, you can call him
Sherman. . . ."
Since late June, every player with a name as colorful as his game has
been lugging a duffel bag to the legendary park on 155th Street and
Eighth Avenue, where the Entertainer's Basketball Classic, a descendant
of the old Pro Rucker Tournament, is being staged, filling the summer
air with the sweet sounds of basketball and music.
Since the late '60s, the top high school, college, pro, and playground
stars, all with nicknames straight out of the World Wrestling
Federation, have been soaring above the rims across the street from the
site of the Old Polo Grounds, where project buildings cover the same
earth that Willie Mays once did for the New York Giants.
And Thursday night, two of the 14 teams in this year's tournament will
collide in the championship game of the ultimate New York City
basketball showcase, competing for the city's ultimate bragging rights.
"You might think I'm crazy, but to me, this is more exciting than an
N.C.A.A. tournament game," said Ron Artest, the former St. John's star
who was recently drafted by the Chicago Bulls. "This is all about
returning to your roots, putting your talent on display against many of
the guys you grew up playing against in the parks," said Artest, who has
played in the Rucker Tournament for years as the True Warrior.
Last season, the True Warrior captured both the regular season and
playoff MVP awards playing for Bad Boy, a Rucker dynasty in recent years
that was undefeated (5-0) heading into the playoffs this season and the
odds-on favorite to win it all tomorrow night.
"When I played for the Bad Boy, they called me the Handler," said
Stephon Marbury, the Coney Island point guard prodigy who now runs the
show for the Nets. "I have great memories of my playing days here
because the competition is so awesome."
Despite the absence of Marbury on its roster, Bad Boy is still oozing
with talents like the Best Kept Secret, a/k/a Kareem Reid, the former
Arkansas star; the Future, a/k/a Malloy Nesmith, a New York streetball
legend; and the Black Widow, a/k/a Tyron Evans, who spun his game at Cal
State Bakersfield.
"But they can be beat," warned the player known as High Five, a/k/a
Reggie Freeman, a standout at the University of Texas, who had a brief
stint with the Milwaukee Bucks and is now playing professionally in
Argentina. "We only lost to them by one point this season, so anything
is possible."
The Show, a/k/a Dana Dingle, the former UMass backcourt man who now
plays for the Ruff Ryders along with former LIU star Mike Campbell,
knows what winning a Rucker championship can mean to a player's
reputation. "New York is the mecca of great basketball; this is the
streetball version of the NBA," said Dingle, himself exploring the
possibility of playing overseas. "A championship goes a long way in
terms of respect, because some of the teams in this tournament are
better than some Division I college basketball teams, so winning it all
here means that you played for one of the best teams in the country."
In their quest for a championship, the Ruff Ryders eliminated Team Mary
J from the playoffs. That was no small task considering that the Natural
Controller, who is former Florida State point guard Kerry Thompson, was
playing quarterback for the Mary J's.
¤ Throughout the years, the Rucker Tournament, which has attracted
scouts and big-name coaches like Lou Carnesecca, Jim Boeheim, and Jerry
Tarkanian, has produced a number of magical moments: Joe "the Destroyer"
Hammond once dropped 50 in a championship game on the Doctor himself,
Julius Erving, back in the early '70s, and Marbury once dream-teamed in
the same backcourt with Philadelphia 76er superstar Allen Iverson.
And just last week, one of the fabled tournament's finest chapters was
written during a playoff war between Black Hand Entertainment and Vacant
Lots. The game took place at the Gauchos Gym in the Bronx, having moved
indoors when it began to thunderstorm at Rucker Park.
Undefeated Vacant Lots (5-0), led by C.J., a/k/a Charles Jones, who led
the nation in scoring at LIU for two straight years and played with the
Chicago Bulls last season, raced out to a 10-0 lead midway through the
first quarter. And then, suddenly, the MC, his eyes bulging, blurted out
two words that brought the drenched crowd to their feet and into the
outer limits of hysteria: "Heeeeeee's Heeeeeere!!!"
With the place in a frenzy, the locker room doors burst open, and out
stormed Vince Carter of the Toronto Raptors in a brown and white Black
Hand uniform, waving to the crowd, which included rapper Jay-Z, and
pleading with the guy at the scorer's table to sound the substitution
horn. When Air Canada hit the runway, teaming with a Washington, D.C.,
phenom known as the Prime Objective, a/k/a Lonnie Harrell, the roof
nearly blew off the gymnasium.
After a slow second quarter, Air Canada spread his wings, flying high
over the competition in the third frame with an offensive explosion
still ringing in the ears of everyone in attendance that night.
With 8 minutes 41 seconds to play in the third, Air Canada scooped up a
loose ball in the paint and put down a two-handed jam for his first
basket of the evening. A few seconds later, he buried a 3-pointer, NBA
range, from the left side. And at the 7:41 mark, he drained another
3-pointer from the same spot, giving him 8 points in one minute— and the
reigning NBA Rookie of the Year was just warming up.
With 6:28 left in the third, Air Canada broke into the open court,
slipped past one defender with a right-to-left, behind-the-back dribble,
whipped a behind-the-back pass to a trailing Prime Objective, pointed
north, and as an alley-oop pass came falling out of the sky, turned his
body 180 degrees in midair so that he was facing the opposite basket,
caught the rock, and threw it down with a force that literally shook the
Rucker faithful out onto the floor in celebration.
Shortly after order was restored, Air Canada took off again. With 54
seconds left in the third, he rose to catch another alley-oop pass with
his right hand along the left baseline, about five feet from the rim,
and, still airborne, slammed windmill-style over the outstretched
fingertips of two opponents. It was perhaps the greatest dunk in the
history of Rucker.
The crowd poured onto the court again, and the festivities lasted nearly
10 minutes as fans just had to give props to the man with the most
devastating jam in the game today. After Air Canada and company ran off
the court and out into the night with a 66-64 victory, the Handler
smiled.
"I'm telling you, you never know who's going to show up at one of these
games,"