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While reading through an old Handle Basketball magazine I came across an article on Playground Basketball, "Streetball". The article mentioned, at the end and very briefly, Corey "Homicide" Williams as one of the Top 5 All Playground First Team: "New York's Finest", as compiled by Bounce Magzine: From The Playground. This sparked my interest in reading more about these old playground legends.
Out of interest, here was the Top 5, in order:
Where to start, it really is a huge and interesting topic to me. I have played on street courts when I was younger, school indoor and outdoor courts, stadium courts, wet conditions, windy days, netball courts, home driveway courts where we challenged anyone that walked past, backyard rings, etc, but I can only imagine the level of intensity, competition and street cred given to these pickup games held on the basketball courts in the US, and in particular, some of the toughest neighbourhoods around.
When one of the all-time NBA greats Kareem Abdul Jabbar was asked who his most intimidating opponent was, he wasted no time in stating, The Goat, referring to Earl Manigault.
Brought to my attention by the 1996 HBO movie Rebound: The Legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault, and played fantastically by actor Don Cheadle, Earl was a 6'1" playground legend raised in Harlem, New York. He was mentored by Holcombe Rucker, of Rucker Park fame. (The park opened February 23, 1956, as P.S. 156 Playground and was renamed in 1974).
As an aside, Holcombe Rucker, who was played by Forest Whitaker in Rebound, began holding tournaments in 1946 at a different court and moved it to P.S. 156 Playground in 1965. He was a playground director for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation in Harlem from 1948 to 1964. In the 60's, the tournaments became legendary, to the point where NBA stars like Wilt Chamberlain even came to play. The Rucker Pro Am is currently run by Holcombe Rucker's grandson, Chris, and he continues to campaign to get his grandfather entered into the Basketball Hall of Fame for contributions to the game of basketball.
Manigault wore ankle weights as a youngster to increase his leaping ability to compensate for his lack of height. It certainly worked, as people still talk about his legendary feats on the court, from the double dunk, to retrieving dollar bills sitting on the top of the backboard, to doing 36 reverse-dunks to win a $60 bet.
Earl wrestled with heroin addiction from a young age, resulting in prison time, and eventual death from heart failure at age 53. He did however set up the "Walk Away From Drugs" Basketball Tournament which he set up after being released from a second prison term, quit heroin, and ran until his death in 1998.
Another fixture at Rucker Park, Cornelius "Connie" Hawkins, eventually played in the NBA, and has a fascinating but complicated life story.
Hawkins went to College at Iowa and became tangled up in a point shaving scandal in his freshman year. Despite never being charged or arrested he was expelled from Iowa, no NCAA team would offer him a scholarship and the NBA banned him from being offered a contract.
He took his act to American Basketball League for a season, being named the MVP before the league folded. He then went to ABA, American Basketball Association, playing for the Pittsburgh Pipers in the league's inaugural season. Connie led the team to the 1968 ABA Championship, while being named the ABA regular season and playoff MVP.
After the 1968-69 season, the NBA settled a lawsuit out of court with Hawkins and the expansion team Phoenix Suns acquired him.
In his rookie season he had some big games, including a 44 point, 20 rebound, 8 assist, 5 block, and 5 steal outing in the last game of the season. His team was beaten in the finals by the Lakers, who featured Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. Hawkins only played 7 seasons in his NBA career, finishing after the 1975-76 season but was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1992 after consideration was given to the fact that he was unable to play while in the prime of his career due to the NBA restrictions.
Another name that keeps coming up over and over again but is not on the above list is Joe "The Destroyer" Hammond. Funny thing is, you can't find much info on him. The odd short interview with him way past his prime, the paragraph about him in a story about Rucker Park legends, no wikipedia page, very little info. And I guess that sums him up really. Mysterious, mythical, not worried about NBA stardom, he preferred street ball and hangin with his crew, turning down a reported $50,000 1-year contract offered by the Lakers in 1971, AFTER THE LAKERS CAME TO NEW YORK TO WORK OUT WITH HIM!
A 6'3" guard, who reportedly shot 80-90% from the field in games, and once scored 50 points in a half against Julius Erving in the Rucker Pro Am, Hammond lived life at full throttle. In video interviews that you can find, he barely talks about the drug dealing where he apparently made most of his money at the time. In an interview for nytimes.com though, he is quoted as saying that the Lakers contract offer was good, but he was dealing drugs and shooting dice on the street from the age of 10, and "by the time I was 15, I had my father hiding $50,000 for me in his bank account".
"By the time the Lakers made their offer, I had over $200,000 stashed in my apartment. I was making thousands of dollars a year selling marijuana and heroin. What was I going to do with $50,000?".
Is he the stuff of legend though?
In his 40's, around 1990, he was seen roaming the streets day by day trying to get money just to eat. He was with his former-Homecoming Queen still, though never married, but the money, nightclubs and flashy cars and trophy's had long since been sold. These days, just into his 60's, he is suing Nike for $5mil, who apparently used his name, although misspelled as "Joe The Destroyer Hammon", next to a picture of a rusty old basketball hoop, on t-shirts sold in Foot Locker. Maybe he'll get some of that money back, but no-one can be sure how great he could have been had he chosen the NBA over the blacktop.
The next player of interest to me was Corey Williams. A 6'4" guard currently playing in the NBL with the Townsville Crocodiles, I think we may take him being in our league a bit lightly. I'm not a fan, I can respect his play, but he's not on our team, so he is the enemy. However, he has a massive street reputation, and has played against, and thoroughly beaten some big names, including Smush Parker & Jamaal Tinsley, who would eventually make it to the NBA.
Corey Williams was born in New York and eventually given the nickname "Homicide" by a commentator, "Hannibal", at a Rucker Pro Am game in which he dropped 34 on a cocky defending champion team, Williams ended up playing in China for the Henan RenHe Dragons in 2004. He still thought about streetball, and the fire was re-ignited after he grabbed some Slam Streetball magazines and a few DVD's and found no mention of his name. He vowed to change this.
In 2005, Corey tried out with the Toronto Raptors and was eventually the last one cut, Alvin Williams was signed, even though Williams scored 10 points in 9 minutes in an OT victory in a tryout game. He then went on to win the "Last Man Standing" Championship, a one-on-one tournament held at Madison Square Garden in New York. Around this time he also became the first streetball player to sign a multi-year shoe and endorsement and clothing deal with K1X, a German company who at the time also signed NBA star Ron Artest. Williams also worked out with NBA teams in Boston, Indiana and Denver, played with Dakota Wizards and Sioux Falls Skyforce in the NBA D-League and then was signed by the Townsville Crocodiles for the 2007-08 season as an injury replacement player for another import.
He most recently played for the Pythons, a team assembled and coached by Mark Bradtke in the inaugural Foot Locker High Stakes Hoops Basketball Tournament, held in Adelaide in April 2010.
Stay tuned for Part 2, i think this could get too long
Out of interest, here was the Top 5, in order:
1. Kareem "Big Game" Reid
2. Corey "Homicide" Williams
3. Darren "DP" Phillip
4. John "Franchise" Strickland
5. Mike "King of New York" Campbell
2. Corey "Homicide" Williams
3. Darren "DP" Phillip
4. John "Franchise" Strickland
5. Mike "King of New York" Campbell
Where to start, it really is a huge and interesting topic to me. I have played on street courts when I was younger, school indoor and outdoor courts, stadium courts, wet conditions, windy days, netball courts, home driveway courts where we challenged anyone that walked past, backyard rings, etc, but I can only imagine the level of intensity, competition and street cred given to these pickup games held on the basketball courts in the US, and in particular, some of the toughest neighbourhoods around.
When one of the all-time NBA greats Kareem Abdul Jabbar was asked who his most intimidating opponent was, he wasted no time in stating, The Goat, referring to Earl Manigault.
Brought to my attention by the 1996 HBO movie Rebound: The Legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault, and played fantastically by actor Don Cheadle, Earl was a 6'1" playground legend raised in Harlem, New York. He was mentored by Holcombe Rucker, of Rucker Park fame. (The park opened February 23, 1956, as P.S. 156 Playground and was renamed in 1974).
As an aside, Holcombe Rucker, who was played by Forest Whitaker in Rebound, began holding tournaments in 1946 at a different court and moved it to P.S. 156 Playground in 1965. He was a playground director for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation in Harlem from 1948 to 1964. In the 60's, the tournaments became legendary, to the point where NBA stars like Wilt Chamberlain even came to play. The Rucker Pro Am is currently run by Holcombe Rucker's grandson, Chris, and he continues to campaign to get his grandfather entered into the Basketball Hall of Fame for contributions to the game of basketball.
Manigault wore ankle weights as a youngster to increase his leaping ability to compensate for his lack of height. It certainly worked, as people still talk about his legendary feats on the court, from the double dunk, to retrieving dollar bills sitting on the top of the backboard, to doing 36 reverse-dunks to win a $60 bet.
Earl wrestled with heroin addiction from a young age, resulting in prison time, and eventual death from heart failure at age 53. He did however set up the "Walk Away From Drugs" Basketball Tournament which he set up after being released from a second prison term, quit heroin, and ran until his death in 1998.
Another fixture at Rucker Park, Cornelius "Connie" Hawkins, eventually played in the NBA, and has a fascinating but complicated life story.
Hawkins went to College at Iowa and became tangled up in a point shaving scandal in his freshman year. Despite never being charged or arrested he was expelled from Iowa, no NCAA team would offer him a scholarship and the NBA banned him from being offered a contract.
He took his act to American Basketball League for a season, being named the MVP before the league folded. He then went to ABA, American Basketball Association, playing for the Pittsburgh Pipers in the league's inaugural season. Connie led the team to the 1968 ABA Championship, while being named the ABA regular season and playoff MVP.
After the 1968-69 season, the NBA settled a lawsuit out of court with Hawkins and the expansion team Phoenix Suns acquired him.
In his rookie season he had some big games, including a 44 point, 20 rebound, 8 assist, 5 block, and 5 steal outing in the last game of the season. His team was beaten in the finals by the Lakers, who featured Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. Hawkins only played 7 seasons in his NBA career, finishing after the 1975-76 season but was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1992 after consideration was given to the fact that he was unable to play while in the prime of his career due to the NBA restrictions.
Another name that keeps coming up over and over again but is not on the above list is Joe "The Destroyer" Hammond. Funny thing is, you can't find much info on him. The odd short interview with him way past his prime, the paragraph about him in a story about Rucker Park legends, no wikipedia page, very little info. And I guess that sums him up really. Mysterious, mythical, not worried about NBA stardom, he preferred street ball and hangin with his crew, turning down a reported $50,000 1-year contract offered by the Lakers in 1971, AFTER THE LAKERS CAME TO NEW YORK TO WORK OUT WITH HIM!
A 6'3" guard, who reportedly shot 80-90% from the field in games, and once scored 50 points in a half against Julius Erving in the Rucker Pro Am, Hammond lived life at full throttle. In video interviews that you can find, he barely talks about the drug dealing where he apparently made most of his money at the time. In an interview for nytimes.com though, he is quoted as saying that the Lakers contract offer was good, but he was dealing drugs and shooting dice on the street from the age of 10, and "by the time I was 15, I had my father hiding $50,000 for me in his bank account".
"By the time the Lakers made their offer, I had over $200,000 stashed in my apartment. I was making thousands of dollars a year selling marijuana and heroin. What was I going to do with $50,000?".
Is he the stuff of legend though?
In his 40's, around 1990, he was seen roaming the streets day by day trying to get money just to eat. He was with his former-Homecoming Queen still, though never married, but the money, nightclubs and flashy cars and trophy's had long since been sold. These days, just into his 60's, he is suing Nike for $5mil, who apparently used his name, although misspelled as "Joe The Destroyer Hammon", next to a picture of a rusty old basketball hoop, on t-shirts sold in Foot Locker. Maybe he'll get some of that money back, but no-one can be sure how great he could have been had he chosen the NBA over the blacktop.
The next player of interest to me was Corey Williams. A 6'4" guard currently playing in the NBL with the Townsville Crocodiles, I think we may take him being in our league a bit lightly. I'm not a fan, I can respect his play, but he's not on our team, so he is the enemy. However, he has a massive street reputation, and has played against, and thoroughly beaten some big names, including Smush Parker & Jamaal Tinsley, who would eventually make it to the NBA.
Corey Williams was born in New York and eventually given the nickname "Homicide" by a commentator, "Hannibal", at a Rucker Pro Am game in which he dropped 34 on a cocky defending champion team, Williams ended up playing in China for the Henan RenHe Dragons in 2004. He still thought about streetball, and the fire was re-ignited after he grabbed some Slam Streetball magazines and a few DVD's and found no mention of his name. He vowed to change this.
In 2005, Corey tried out with the Toronto Raptors and was eventually the last one cut, Alvin Williams was signed, even though Williams scored 10 points in 9 minutes in an OT victory in a tryout game. He then went on to win the "Last Man Standing" Championship, a one-on-one tournament held at Madison Square Garden in New York. Around this time he also became the first streetball player to sign a multi-year shoe and endorsement and clothing deal with K1X, a German company who at the time also signed NBA star Ron Artest. Williams also worked out with NBA teams in Boston, Indiana and Denver, played with Dakota Wizards and Sioux Falls Skyforce in the NBA D-League and then was signed by the Townsville Crocodiles for the 2007-08 season as an injury replacement player for another import.
He most recently played for the Pythons, a team assembled and coached by Mark Bradtke in the inaugural Foot Locker High Stakes Hoops Basketball Tournament, held in Adelaide in April 2010.
Stay tuned for Part 2, i think this could get too long
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