To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Roberts, was influential in enlisting creative director Set Free Richardson to curate the art for the renovation.
We got a chance to tell what Rucker means to both of us and the meaning of the art! He plays for the Boston Celtics. We was on the phone for hours because I just really was diving for inspiration … He was telling me the history on basketball and he told me about the Mayans.
Trevor grew up in a similar neighborhood just across the street from Rucker Park. As a child, Trevor would look out the window onto the park from the 10th floor of his building. In , when a year old Durant strolled in, Trevor stuck around.
The line outside stretched down two city blocks. The windows of the building across the street lit up and faces emerged on the rooftop. The crowd overflowed onto the court. That game is now legendary -- Durant scored 66 points, a near all-time record at the tournament. It feels like home once you get in here. Rucker Park has its own legacy, he believes, one that he and his community work hard to maintain.
Then, me and Greg and Teddy became music partners, and I became Greg's partner in the basketball tournament. So we could walk, cross the street to the park, put the music equipment out there, then come back at night and open up [The Rooftop, which also was a club]. We were dealing with a lot of rappers.
When we came outside to the basketball tournament, all the celebrities followed us across the street. That's where the "Entertainer's" came from [in the] Entertainer's Basketball Classic.
And that's what Rucker was all about. If you had a flashy car, you pull up at the Rucker, you double- or triple-park. You hop out, survey all the pretty girls, they got on the new sneakers, they got on the spandex, they got their hair did.
You just had to be fly, had to get a whiff of that energy. It was that much of a party outside of the game that you kind of forgot about actually making it inside. That's Harlem for you. But they would actually go get a Division I college player or an NBA starter that wanted to play with them for a game or two. And then it became habitual. Cash: It got to a point when Greg actually put wood floors down in the park.
We had NBA players who wanted to be out there, but being that it was a blacktop, they didn't want to play. When he sometimes put the wood down [which was still a rarity], there was no refusal from them. And inside that court you have some people from different boroughs -- one whole section is from Brooklyn, another section is from Harlem, you have the Queens section in the corner -- who argued all the way on the train that [year NBA veteran and Brooklyn native] Jamaal Tinsley would score more points than me.
And it was just a great place to find the whole culture in one place, around basketball events. Everybody would be there. You got the hip-hop, you got the sports. And you know, it's the summer, right? Cheryl Marius: At halftime, we'd have young artists come out there to showcase whatever talent they had. The neighborhood drunk used to come out at halftime and do his thing. There was always some entertainment. That was the time when hip-hop in New York [was thriving].
Streetball and hip-hop together was just powerful. It went corporate. Cash: [The record companies] would bring their artists out to perform just to see how Harlem, which is that Apollo crowd, would accept them. And some of them became superstar MCs. Fat Joe: [Harlem streetball] was really big in the '60s, '70s, and then it had died down. And then when I went in there, not by myself, but I was very instrumental in bringing it back up [in the early s].
Bringing in all the NBA players, so you gotta understand I'm one of the hottest rappers at the time, all my records were going No. So they came and they supported me. Then the rumors were going around all over like, "Yo, everybody's out there balling. A lot of playground basketball leagues, because it had that element inside neighborhoods, every now and then, something that shouldn't happen would happen. He was able to bring some stability up there.
Fat Joe: It took money to pay for security, it took money to fix the park, it took money to put the lights up and nothing's free. Greg, may he rest in peace, was trying to professionalize the street basketball game. With that stability came growth, which allowed Rucker Park -- and the EBC -- to serve as a platform for scores of talented players.
If you was from the streets, if you was able to play in that park, you might've been able to get seen. They don't know me. I don't have that room for error. In the playground, I can shoot the ball as much as I want. It's my team. I was fortunate to play in front of Bill Clinton. It has that exact feel of [The Apollo]. You could be an amateur but, then again, you could be a star.
And this is where the amateurs get a chance to come and showcase that they're possible stars. So I don't have to play very hard. Now you can't let your mouth do the talking. You have to actually play. Come do it in the park, then [you] get the real respect, that street stamp of approval.
At the end of the day people are going to talk s We don't give a f who you are; prove it here. We don't care. We're not fans of nobody, unless we see it with our eyes. Lieberman: Kobe knew I played at Rucker and he'd always ask me, "Were you ever afraid? I met Kobe as a kid in Italy when his dad was playing out there. Years later, I talked to Kobe. And Kobe goes, "I remember you.
His dad opened him up to different cultures and living around the world, but he also schooled Kobe on the park's importance. Before tipoff, Bryant grabbed a mic, as if he were formally introducing himself despite being one of the most famous athletes on the planet. They developed a relationship from just Kobe going to the park. Mishkin: From what I learned, Hannibal, who's never at a loss for words -- never, ever -- but, at that moment, he was kind of overcome.
I remember him sitting down. Then he found himself and his words again. He kept saying, "Let's do the damn thing. Let's do the damn thing" -- not in an angry way, but in a celebratory way. So I called him over, he's my guy, we're from the same neighborhood. I said, "No, no. It's 'Lord of the Rings. Cash: The announcers, we put the battery in the players' backs. He died prematurely, at age 38, due to complications from cancer, leaving his wife Mary Thomas and many devoted followers.
By the early s, professional athletes were less active in the competition, for fear of injury during non-season play, and the league returned to its amateur roots. This annual summer youth league has been instrumental in developing young players and cultivating academic growth and community building. The Entertainers Basketball Classic, a celebrated annual tournament that marries basketball and music, moved to this court in Founded by Gregory Marius, this tournament brings together top players from all ranks — high school, college, and professional.
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