A notable "Riding With" first was established with Grayson Boucher, who most people know as The Professor from the And1 Mixtape Tour, the modern-day Harlem Globetrotters.
Boucher, whose gifted ball-handling has made him a cult celebrity, is the first sports figure to use a rental car in the occasional Page 2 series where we interview athletes in their cars.
Boucher's real car is a 2005 Mercedes-Benz E-500. Unfortunately the Benz had yet to be shipped from Portland, Ore. -- Boucher's hometown -- to Los Angeles, his new residence. So we cruised around Santa Monica in a late-model Mustang.
As rapper Biggie Smalls would say, The Professor has gone from ashy to classy. When the 23-year-old tried out for the And1 team four years ago in Portland, he was a struggling, scrawny college student working at a grocery store...
Playground legend James “Speedy†Williams, age 41, the same cat seen on AND1 Mixtape Volume 2, plowed through players bigger, stronger, and faster than him to take the second-ever Last Man Standing 1 on 1 Championship today at Madison Square Garden. Along with a trophy and ring he won a $5000 check and a work-out with an NBA scout. How did a guy who didn’t even play high school achieve all this?
Speedy is an enigma. Many of us in the community have noticed that he keeps on getting better every year, and have joked that by age 45 he will be an NBA lottery pick! In the last three years he has played in every single major championship that NYC summers have to offer, and has taken MVP honors in Nike Pro City and West 4th. He is no stranger to any of this. Since starring at Division 3 Medgar Evars College (Brooklyn), he has taken every tournament, in any borough, by storm. In the ’90s, when the National Pro-Am had their title games @ Rucker Park televised, it was Speedy who led New York past a Chicago squad filled with former D-1 players. He was immortalized in the film “Above The Rim†as he played that dude in the park with the handle who couldn’t be beat...
My hat's off to these AND1 ballers. Texas news tout that their weather forecasts can save your life, and if you were in Dallas downtown this weekend, you would have understood why. It must have been well into triple digits when the sun was at it's saturday peak, only shade available being under the stands. But if you were under the stands you would have missed an unique streetball performance. It entered popular culture with an ESPN program a few years ago and is currently on a ten city tour through the States. The AND1 Mix Tape Tour 2007, the original street basketball entertainment tour is returning to its roots and showcasing streetball the only way it makes sense -- on blacktops across America.
From what was on display this weekend on the Dallas blacktop, it is clear that on top of regular NBA, WNBA, NCAA and NBDL basketball, their very off-season provides breeding ground for streetball to gain more exposure. Loudest and youngest audience members bring with them excitement that makes this event more than just about exposure -- it shows streetball as an official and sanctioned sport. It is interesting and exciting enough that it can almost fill a 100F degree parking lot with basketball fans. Old Spice must have thought of that when they became the tour's main sponsor...
What's up folks! I am in the windy city this week -- that's right, Chi-town. I love this place. I get to town on Wednesday and immediately go to an in-store signing. I'm promoting this mixtape I did with Akon and his crew. Shout-out to Qwes over at Konvict. He has been great.
I leave the in-store and go to the Chi-town Pro-am game. Ex NBA player Paul McPherson is out there killing.
Thursday morning we go do radio followed by a retail apperance. We head to a gym to get a workout. We stay for a couple hours and then head to a Chicago Cubs game. That was cool -- I've never been to Wrigley Field. Great place....
The first sentence of the And 1 Mixtape tour game rules reads: "this is not your typical basketball game."
And it isn't. The And 1 Mixtape Tour is streetball at its finest, basketball dripping with the hip-hop influence.
While the NBA has invoked a dress code, in what many believe is a direct attack on the hip hop culture, the And 1 tour has done the opposite.
One of its slogans, "The United Streets of America," speaks to the very core of urban America. This year, the steady flow of hip-hop and basket-rattling dunks goes down where the game started -- outside...
The Notic: Uncut & Unreleased
Vancouver HIU - Chad vs. Rory
A notable "Riding With" first was established with Grayson Boucher, who most people know as The Professor from the And1 Mixtape Tour, the modern-day Harlem Globetrotters.
Playground legend James “Speedy†Williams, age 41, the same cat seen on AND1 Mixtape Volume 2, plowed through players bigger, stronger, and faster than him to take the second-ever Last Man Standing 1 on 1 Championship today at Madison Square Garden. Along with a trophy and ring he won a $5000 check and a work-out with an NBA scout. How did a guy who didn’t even play high school achieve all this?
Spring 2008
My hat's off to these AND1 ballers. Texas news tout that their weather forecasts can save your life, and if you were in Dallas downtown this weekend, you would have understood why. It must have been well into triple digits when the sun was at it's saturday peak, only shade available being under the stands. But if you were under the stands you would have missed an unique streetball performance. It entered popular culture with an ESPN program a few years ago and is currently on a ten city tour through the States. The AND1 Mix Tape Tour 2007, the original street basketball entertainment tour is returning to its roots and showcasing streetball the only way it makes sense -- on blacktops across America.
