Christine (@chrisalyss) recaps her World Basketball Festival experience this past weekend with a unique basketball fan’s perspective. Follow along below as she takes you from Rucker Park to the House of Hoops.
Not only did Nike bring the local and global basketball communities together in New York City for the World Basketball Festival, they also brought in the star power for the four day event focused on their brand, International Basketball and the local community.
The kickoff was initially advertised as a USA Basketball team scrimmage on an open-air court in Times Square, but somehow became an exclusive, ticketed event in Radio City Music Hall with a performance by Jay-Z. While most fans were shut out of the event, the show did air online for public viewing.
Among the events that were open to the public that I was able to see first hand:
Rucker Park
155th Street & Frederick Douglass Blvd.
The famous park hosted a wide assortment of events including scrimmages by the National Teams of Brazil and Puerto Rico, an open practice by the French National Team and Basketball Battle of the Boroughs – a tournament of some of highly talented HS players in the NYC area and the EBC All-Star Game. In addition to basketball, there was a DJ, free video games, tattoos and haircuts for kids by Big Russ Barber Shop. I think the Rucker MC let the International players off the hook a bit, but it was still great to see a player like Boris Diaw practicing on the outdoor court. Rucker also hosted daytime basketball clinics for kids with special guests such as Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony.
Atmos NYC
203 West 125th Street
I’m not sure what Atmos is normally, but during the WBF it served as a Carolina-Blue-Jordan-Haven. (Most reading this blog probably wouldn’t have made it past the light blue velvet ropes outside without doing a 180.) Among the baby blue paraphernalia were a $23,0000 motorcycle, a wall of sneakers and designer high heels. (I did wonder if CP3 actually gave Jordan permission to make an collector figurine of him in Carolina Blue.)
The Ball Room
2490 Frederick Douglass Blvd.
Consider The Ball Room a basketball history lesson care of Nike, Jordan and Converse. The small pop-up shop houses quite a few bball artifacts from the Naismith Museum, including the original rules of basketball (handwritten), a visual timeline showing the progression of shoe styles and a multimedia screen presentation featuring the biggest superstars. Along with the current USA basketball uniforms, they also have on display one of the wooden uniform boxes* like those given to each of the Olympic players. (*Anyone who read The Gold Standard will remember Coach K talking about these.) Seeing the original one-piece uniform and Bob Lanier’s size 22 Chuck Taylors is almost worth the trip alone.
House Of Hoops
268 West 125th Street
Besides being a basketball staple in NYC, The House of Hoops also hosted in-store appearances by some of USA basketball’s superstars over the Festival. I had the pleasure of seeing Kevin Durant at HOH on Saturday afternoon. After waiting in line outside for an hour, we were ushered in and given free Hyperfuse t-shirts to wear while we awaited Durant’s arrival. KD delivered a great message to the dozens of kids in attendance about hard work and finishing school. In fact, when asked by a young girl what he would do if he had to hang up the basketball shoes tomorrow, he said he would go back to school. After Durant left, we checked out the USA team gear and limited edition NYC Borough sneakers.
