Basketball is big stuff in New York. If you're good in it, everybody respects you. Nobody would want to ruin your shooting eye or your shooting arm.
I've played at Rucker Park a couple of times. It's cold blooded. It's hype in there, real hype.
All I've been doing is shooting in my driveway and playing one-on-one with my Rottweiler.
I have a street mind. My whole mindset when I first got to the NBA was, 'I'm bringing that street to the game,' and, 'I'm going to be the hardest guy on the court; I'm going to be the hardest guy on the planet.'
Summertime where guys played pickup, we got a thing in Philly called Summertime Rec. In that summertime you can't duck no smoke. You can't duck nobody in that basketball vibes.
I feel like when I play, I play tough. That's the New York in me. That's the street tournaments.
I played a lot at the school across the street from my house. That's how I started, really. Playing street basketball and challenging the guys out on the court who were older than me.
No lie, just had one of the best times of my life at Rucker park..wow! I love NYHarlem waddup.
We tied the milk crates on each end of the fence, and we had our own milk crate basketball pickup game, and it was a good time 'cause we could jump off the fence and dunk the basketball. You had to be creative in order to play, and I wanted to play.
Being from New York, everybody's a point guard. Even when you play in the park, you've got to know how to handle the ball. If you can't handle the ball, you can't really play.
I don't worry about playing basketball; that comes natural. I just want to have fun. David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan: this is like spring break in the ghetto.
The interesting thing about basketball is that it is played recreationally all over the world in playgrounds where people shoot hoops. Perhaps it is because of this that the look of the game seems to have been able to cross over into streetwear more easily than that of some sports that are confined to more specialist arenas.
Growing up as a kid in inner city of Baltimore, Maryland, the way I played the game, I used to always steal the basketball.
I grew up playing basketball on the streets of New York City, and it was very, very rough, and I started playing in the NBA in the same way.
Every day, I was on the street dribbling, doing skills. I wasn't in an academy till I was 19.
Everybody plays basketball in D.C. Not on a team. Just around the way. Anywhere. I actually loved basketball.
Street basketball is all about shakes and fakes, crossing your defender up. The NBA is more strategic.
In New York, the dunk is not the thing. To break somebody down and shoot a J-that's as big as a dunk in New York.
I played baseball, was on the basketball team in high school, did crew at Hofstra, and randomly played ultimate frisbee, too. But none of the organized teams I was on were anywhere near as competitive as the games on the street.
I remember growing up as a kid in Houston, playing 3-on-3 in my grandmother's driveway. I was lucky to be the youngest of four kids, so we had each other to keep ourselves busy and out of trouble. Not all kids are that fortunate.
It's so much fun to dream in your driveway. I had an old wooden backboard in my driveway. That's where my friends and I hung out.
I think, from just playing street ball and stuff like that, I was always able to play up with the older guys, and I think that got me physically and mentally prepared to play on a high level of basketball.
There's definitely a crowd when I come off a pick.
The Varzea is kind of like street basketball in America or like the semi-professional football leagues in Europe. The pitches are all dirt, and you're playing against the marmanjo - the 'hard men.' It's known for being extremely physical.
