Rucker Park, West 4th and Rockefeller Park - New York City

[32 Photo's of EBC at The Rucker]
[4 Photo's of summer League games at West 4th (The Cage)]
[29 Photo's of pickup ball at Nelson Rockefeller Park]

New York is a place you can find the worlds greatest streetballers going about their business like it's strictly pleasure.

For the fan, nothing beats a summer night at the Rucker in Harlem watching EBC (Entertainers Basketball Classic - the Ruckers summer league for New Yorks finest). On the Monday night I attended, the crowd went ballistic when the Pharmacist prescribed handles to black widow (the court announcers new name for Alimoe).

Alimoe & the Playstation were dominant, White Chocolate was ordinary, but the highlight of the night for me (other than getting to throw down for the camera in the pre-show warmup) was this dude 'Koonta Kentay' - he was unstoppable.

Unlike the And 1 tours that have come to Australia, these guys were there to ball - no stuffing around at The Rucker. The next evening had Fat Joe's Terror Squad scheduled against D Band - the court announcers were guaranteeing NBA ballers to play. Apparently Puff Daddy & Jay Z also have crews running in the tourney.

If you’ve ever watched any New York streetball movie (think Above The Rim), that’s the vibe you get when the crowd gets excited at the Rucker. From police, bag-checks & frisks at the entrance (lucky I didn’t bring my gat) to handles & hops – the Rucker has it all!

While I was in New York, I also checked The Cage at West 4th st which was constantly running summer leagues and I played heaps & heaps of ball (there are pick-up games almost on every block in New York).

Rucker Park Streetball Information:
Court Location: "Rucker Park" - Corner of 155th street and Frederick Douglas Boulevard (8th avenue), Harlem (North Manhattan), New York
Directions: Take the B train to the 155th street station (the stop is 155th street and 8th avenue) and you'll be one block from the park. The B stops there at all hours. The D train stops at here late in the evening.
Courts: 1
Runs: You better know Fat Joe
When To Go: Summer-time, check the EBC schedule

Other Places I played ball:

• Central Park East - near MoMa (86th st)
• Riverbank State Park - W145th st
• The Goat Courts "Happy Warrior Playground" - Amsterdam & w98th
• Booker T washington school - w108th st between amsterdam & Columbus (this is where I initially got the nickname "smoke")

Parc Des Veterans - Montreal, Canada

[Photo Gallery: 41 photo's of 3 on 3 at Parc Des Veterans - Montreal]

Montreal - the beautiful french speaking city of the province of Quebec (Eastern Canada). Here, the ballers have to compete with ice hockey as the national sport and scores are kept in francais which makes it hard to keep track (Une, deux, trois...).

The local Quebecore's as they're known exude a certain sense of disdain for the English language & as such, gave me a bit of a hard time on the court.

One of the black guys was trying to take advantage of the tourist by hitting, hacking, elbowing & holding me from behind every time I got the ball - he reminded me of Ray Gordon. After much experience watching prison drama on tv, it's my understanding that you have to let a mutha know who's boss, so on the next play when I got the ball in the post, I laid him out with a solid elbow to the head.

When he got up, he remonstrated with an open hand slap to my face and wanted to fight.

I did my crazy eyes raymond expression and yelled out that I didn't want to kill anybody while I was in canada while jumping around like Ultimate Warrior.

They must have been watching crocodile dundee or something because he backed down and play continued.

Unfortunately, I feel like I have now experienced the worst of overseas streetball - stopping a game in order to start a fight.

Parc Des Veterans Streetball Information:
Court Location: "Parc Des Veterans" - Corner of Papinuau & Rue La Fontaine (just north of Papineau train station), Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Courts: 1
Runs: 3 on 3 half-court
Best Time for Runs: 5-8pm