All hail to Kevin Durant for his NYC playground basketball tour this week.
If you haven’t heard already or seen the ESPN highlights, his Majesty The Durantula came to the mecca of basketball with one thing in mind … to put on a show.
And boy did he. About 7-10 summers ago, I considered myself a summertime streeball snob. I was at every popular NYC summer basketball tournament: EBC at the Ruckers, Kingdome, Orchard Park in The Bronx, City College for the Pro Am’s, Dyckman, West 4th Street Cage, The And 1’s, and even Bro Day in Coney Island.
I was there when President Clinton came to Harlem with NBA Commissioner David Stern in ’01. I saw Kobe Bryant take on The Bone Collector. I remember when Vince Carter and the streetball legend Whole Lotta Game when 3pt shot for 3 pt shot at The Gauchos gym in The Bronx.
In recent summers though, the NBA talent in the summer leagues has been low, in part because of the NBA teams contractual stipulations regarding non NBA related injuries. Basically players can’t afford to risk injury playing ball outside of The NBA. Still though after a grueling 82 game season plus the playoffs, one could hardly blame NBA players for taking the entire summer off. That’s why Kevin Durant showing up this week and balling out was a complete treat for true fan’s of the city’s game.
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For me, it all started like it used to many summers ago. I got a Monday afternoon tip from a trusted summertime fellow hard court homie. “I heard The Durantula’s gonna be at The EBC tonight….” After 20 seconds of “Whoa’s, Oh Shits and OMG’s!” we both realized a much needed trip uptown to the Mecca of the city’s hard courts was in store. Getting off the B train at 155th street you definitely noticed how commercialized The Rucker has become, but the crowd was as thick as rush hour commuters in Times Square.
Hey we all came to see to Kevin Durant. When he showed, he put on a show.
The Durantula scored 66 points in every conceivable way Ally Oops, Crossover Jams, 3 pt shots, post up moves, I mean he brought the entire repertoire. At one point in the 4th quarter, he scored 9 straight points off 3 point shots that he took from as far away as Queens. The final 3 point shot was so dramatic it took 7 minutes just to clear the court of fans.
Tuesday night Durant showed up at Manhattan’s Baruch College for part 2 of his NY hard court tour and tore it down again. He took on the Bulls John Lucas III this time and although Lucas had the high points, it was Durant’s yamalicious Ally Oop that made ESPN’s top 10 plays of the night. KD and Lucas went back and forth dazzling the crowd with their wide assortment of NBA skills.
The best part was Durant being the ultimate good sport and cool pro athlete. Every time he made a great play he dapped up or chest bumped fans in the crowd. Every time a player made a great play on him he smiled with that patented grin like ‘you got me fam. That was nice…’ Then he would take the ball down the court and either yam it down the bucket again or hit another long range bomb from the Jersey shore.
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Finally, I got to catch his encore performance at Dyckmans own Monsignor Kett playground. This time he showed with his homie Michael Beasley who plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Monsignor Kett is so classic. Its deeeeeep in uptown Manhattan, almost in The Bronx. The courts sit right off the steel grinding elevated 1 Train that passes in both directions every 5 minutes. The park was packed to the max, I mean standing room only. Durant and Beasley put on finale that could have rivaled “The Celebrity Apprentice” in viewership. KD took Beasley to the hoop on several ankle breaking crossover dunks that sent the crowd into a complete frenzy. Even when the crowd got wild and a fan caused Beasley to lose his temper and get hot, it was Durant being the ultimate ‘cool pro athlete’ who walked over and shook hands to with the rowdy fan first. The game soon continued on into the NY night.
Kevin Durant is one cool dude who, as he says on his Twitter page ‘just chills.’ A lot of ball players from the NBA and even college stars have graced NYC courts in the summer with their skill. Few though have just all out assaulted the asphalt playgrounds with a weeks worth of skill, talent and fun like Durant.
What was very apparent and obvious was that as much as we enjoyed seeing Durant put on a show, he enjoyed doing it for the people. He never shyed away from the fans, he signed plenty of autographs, and embraced the experience with the type of fun and positive attitude that is so rare among pro athletes. He knew when to involve his teammates in spectacular plays but he also knew when to take over and put on a show. He embraced the heckling that comes along with playing on NYC hard courts and smiled.
Most importantly when a situation almost got out of hand, he kept his cool showed us all why he just ‘chills.’ My only complaint was that he never had time to make it out to Coney Island’s infamous ball court, ‘The Garden.’
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