Youth Basketball in the Mecca - New York City

Basketball in New York City is more than just a sport. It's a way of life for many youngsters, especially minority youth. New York City is called the Mecca of the basketball world, and rightfully so considering how many people her grow up loving the sport and desiring to play professionally in their adult lives.

It is amazing to me that a city that probably has more bad weather days than they have good ones is such a basketball city. I've lived here for 4 years and no matter what the conditions are, the youth of this town find a way to play basketball. Because of the high prices to join recreation centers and basketball programs, playing indoors is not a popular option. So even in the dead of winter, on a breezy day, you can find people hoopin' it up outside in Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

Being from Texas, I know the fervor that a community can show for its love of a sport. Fans show up in droves to see their family and friends play on the high school gridiron. And in New York City, people are the same with basketball. Families, friends, lovers, associates, scouts, councilmen and mayors all show up to local basketball games to see the yearly high school phenom. The fervor at these games is just as intense as any Texas high school football game.

But fans aside, it's the passion of the players on the courts of gymnasiums and on the tar of street courts. Yeah, some of them may be playing for college scholarships and future NBA contracts, but the heart that they poor onto the court, whether it's for monetary or social purposes, is still just as passionate and strong as any athlete can possibly display. New York basket-ballers just love to play the game, no matter what the situation is. Walking down the streets of Crown Heights or looking on at a game at the Rucker is all you have to do to witness their passion. Whether it's the way they hold the basketball in their hands, or how their anger is seeps through their pores when they lose. And you can tell how they love reinventing the game everyday with loads of creativity that you don't see in any other sport, or any other location for that matter.

My most memorable moment in observing basketball in the Mecca was just this past weekend. It was a relatively cold, damp, October night in Brooklyn. I was leaving my house to go to the store and walked by Bower Park which is right across the street from me. As I walked by the park, I saw anywhere from 15-20 teenage youths on the basketball court. Granted it was about 9:30 at night, and there were no signs of them leaving the court anytime soon. And as I looked on, I saw kids yelling and screaming at each other, talking trash and directing traffic in the paint. They truly were running up and down the court on every possession and they worked as hard at defense as they did on offense, because nobody wanted to leave that court that night without the ability to talk trash to the opposing team on the way home.

And as I returned from the grocery store, and walked pass the court yet again, there they were, still playing and hoopin' it up with same vigor. The people on the sidelines were talking trash as if they were in the game, and the people in the game were talking trash to the people on the sidelines. But the last play I saw as walked into my apartment on this cold night was an isolation play on the wing, where two pretty tall and athletic players were jawing back and forth at each other. The guy with the ball told the defender, "I'm going to dunk this right on top of your head." And defender responded with a reserved and simple, "I love this game." And as the offender took the ball, did his thing with it between his legs, and approached rim, the defender moved his feet, cut off the baseline and jumped when the offender jumped with the ball. While the guys were in mid-air, I stopped to look on and watched in awe as the play unfolded. And as the offender began to rotate his arm and bring the ball closer and closer to the rim, the defender's hand slowly but surely extended out to the rim and blocked the ill-fated dunk attempt of the other young man and threw him to the ground. The players on the court called "Time Out" and erupted with laughter and excitement, and the guys on the sideline were running reckless with exhilaration and youthful animation as they reenacted the play. And then the original defender, with ball in hand, went over to the guy on floor and extended the same hand that had knocked the guy down. As he helped him up, all he said was, "Gotta love this game, huh?"