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We Reminisce: Kobe Bryant at Rucker Park EBC |
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Written by Administrator
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Thursday, 08 June 2006 |
 His pops had played there, sharing the storied blacktop with men like Joe “The Destroyer†Hammond, Pee-Wee Kirkland and The Goat back in the 1970s. And if Kobe Bryant was truly going to make an inroad to define himself as the greatest basketball player of this generation, he had to play there, too. There, of course, is Harlem’s legendary Rucker Park. And on July 18, 2002, Kobe came to play. Because these days, respect earned on the playground can be just as vital as respect earned in front of 20,000 paying customers. Or, as Greg Marius, CEO of the Entertainers Basketball Classic at Rucker Park, puts it: “[Kobe] needed street cred, and this is the best place to get street cred.â€
“I wanted the challenge of taking on the best that don’t play in the NBA,†Kobe says about his visit. So it was arranged that Kobe would play one game with Murder Inc., the team owned by record label boss Irv Gotti. On July 15, the day of Kobe’s original scheduled appearance, word spread around New York quickly, and a massive line started to form at 1:30 p.m. for a 6 p.m. tip-off...
Only one problem: Kobe didn’t show up. Which was fine with Marius. “I wanted fans who came on a regular basis to get to see him first,†he says. “On the day when he didn’t show up, the regular fans couldn’t even get in because people who never came to the park were there first.†Three days later, with virtually no pre-game buzz, Kobe made a surprise appearance with the EBC regulars already in their seats. Naturally, a few minutes after he’d arrived everyone in the crowd whipped out their cellies and two-ways, and the park was packed.
According to Marius, Kobe privately laid down a gauntlet beforehand: He was gunning for 74 points, the park record held by The Destroyer, not to mention the EBC record of 63 set by James “Pookie†Wilson. Remember, this was years before any 81-point games or 62-point three-quarter outbursts. This was back when Kobe was putting up 25 a night in the League, sitting second chair in L.A. to Shaq. This was when he was – as he often puts it now – a facilitator rather than an attacker. But with no Shaq, no Phil and no triangle offense in sight, no one was quite sure what Kobe was capable of. Murder Inc. was playing The Source that night, a squad that boasted Moochie Norris, Jerome Williams and ex-Maryland star Byron Mouton, fresh off a national championship run with the Terrapins. Steve Francis also showed up but didn’t play due to injury. Big-name streetballers like Larry “Bone Collector†Williams, Lonnie “Prime Objective†Harrell, Malloy “Future†Nesmith and Greg “The Wizard†Jones were there as well, ready to show they could match game with arguably the NBA’s most talented player. And keeping the familial continuity, The Destroyer was in the crowd and had a pre-game conversation with Kobe, just as he’d done with Joe “Jellybean†Bryant three decades before.
Christened “Lord of the Rings†by EBC announcer MC Hannibal, Kobe took the rain-soaked court and poured in 18 points in 16 minutes despite being double and triple-teamed the whole time. “It was basically abuse after a while,†Hannibal remembers. “No one could guard him once he started doing what he wanted to do. Once he imposed his will, it was like child’s play.â€
Due to the bad weather, the game was called before the second half began. But in that short time, Kobe had pulled off enough reverse layups, no-look feeds, sick handles, hang-time drives and deep treys to prove his worth on the same court where almost every legit superstar past and present has stamped their legacy. “This little kid yelled out, ‘Kobe, do a 360!’ and [Kobe] did it,†says Marius. “He did a 360 under the basket.â€
Of course, not everything went so smoothly on that night four years ago. There was the time when Kobe, alone on a breakaway, went for a between-the-legs dunk and missed; an attempt that Hannibal says was “out of a video game.†And of course there were the hecklers. “I don’t care who you are, that park does not care,†Marius says. “You have to prove yourself. So they were like, ‘What you gonna do, Kobe? What you gonna do?’
“He finally got their respect after a while. They could say, ‘Okay, this is your court today.’†Hannibal also remembers how, even with the rain coming down in sheets, Kobe still wanted to keep playing: “He was like, ‘Come on, let’s go.’ I thought that was incredible.â€
“It was fun,†Kobe says. “It started raining but I didn’t want to stop playing. I used to play in the rain in Philly before the big contracts, so I knew how to be safe and adjust my game while still playing at a high level.†Since Kobe’s experience at Rucker, Hannibal has bestowed two new nicknames upon him: “The Great Kobe-ashi†and “New Testament.†And you just might just hear them this summer, since Hannibal says that Kobe personally told him there was a “great possibility†he would return to the EBC in ’06.“They all showed me love. I look forward to going back,†Kobe tells us.
–AUSTIN BURTON
DimeMag.com
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