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And1 Tour enjoys anniversary party |
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Written by Julian Benbow
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Wednesday, 27 June 2007 |
 He tries not to wax too nostalgic about it, but you can hear it in his voice. Troy Jackson talks about the beginnings of the And1 Tour the same way hip-hop heads talk about "Reasonable Doubt," "Illmatic," and "Ready to Die," the debut albums of Jay-Z, Nas, and the Notorious B.I.G. All raw. All hip-hop landmarks.
"You know what's crazy?" he said. "I remember we would first get to cities. We would rent two or three Cherokees or Excursions or something and just be in a city for a couple days. Nobody knew us. We would just show up somewhere trying to get footage. Not really caring if anybody was at the games, just wanting to get footage of the games."
That footage turned into the mix tapes that made And1 synonymous with streetball...
There were cameras galore yesterday at the Bayside Expo Center when And1 made the second of 10 stops on its 10th anniversary tour.
That footage will turn into the ESPN show set to begin July 10.
That former Boston College star Chris Herren coached the team of local ballplayers or that Northeastern standout Bennet Davis crossed up, treyed up, and dunked on the And1 roster was as much a sidenote as the score (104-91, And1).
Rather than playing in a semi-filled arena as in recent years -- attendance steadily dipping, according to general manger and chief marketing officer Mark Woolsey -- the team used a spray-painted court in the parking lot of the Expo Center with the hope of taking the tour back to its rose-in-the-concrete beginnings.
"We wanted to take it back where it started," Jackson said. "We wanted to reenergize the entire genre, because we dictate the genre."
That genre went from being a grainy cassette sent to a fledgling Pennsylvania shoe company in 1998 to being on spin cycle on ESPN by 2005 and also on the front of Sports Illustrated.
On the court, they played with celebrities like rappers Snoop Dogg and the Game and NBA names like Shaquille O'Neal.
As a company, And1 would reach close to $175 million in sales, with endorsements, video games, and ESPN all part of the package.
Over the same period, hip-hop had commercialized, becoming more and more ingrained in the mainstream. The obvious question was whether its spouse did the same.
"That's ridiculous," Jackson said. "This is a business. When you're raw and you're underground and you're street, you're appreciated. But when you present the genre to the world, it's almost like you're selling out. But that's ignorant.
"Like Jay-Z said, if you wanna rhyme for free, then rhyme on your block."
The tour looked beyond the block as its appeal grew worldwide. Woolsey said it's actually more popular in foreign markets than domestically.
The players on this tour are billed as "the next generation," but they are for the most part faceless.
The challenge is marketing these players.
"It's tough," said Grayson Boucher, better known as "Professor," who made a name for himself as a white kid from Oregon who became the tour's Pistol Pete. "I think it starts on the court, and you have to be unique in some way and the guys that aren't as popular on the team, aren't as popular because they aren't as flashy or whatever."
The other dilemma also comes in trying to explain the roots of the tour to players who can only see the final product.
"You can't say anything to them," Jackson said. "It's like Bill Russell trying to say something to LeBron James. These guys don't get it. They showed up and we were already [established]. I'm a guy that was here when we were scraping the bottom. When we were handing out flyers at the mall."
Andre Pool, or "Silk," is a part of that next generation. Though flashy at times, his game is fundamental first, and he has no qualms with that. The tour, he said, is evolving.
"At the end of the day," Pool said, "we're trying to take it back to the streets, back to the essence of basketball in itself as well as streetball."
Boston.com
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