After Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Michael Jordan showed up at Rucker Park for the morning session of yesterday’s World Basketball Festival, there was only one way Nike could potentially one-up themselves: Bringing Kobe Bryant up to 155th & Frederick Douglass for this morning’s session.

While a group of local kids were running through their paces at the Chainlink Fundamentals clinic, Kobe suddenly appeared in front of them — causing about half of them to freeze in their defensive slide drills while jaws hit the floor. Read More »

The 1999-’00 Cincinnati Bearcats team was one of my favorite college squads of all time. This team was tough. Bob Huggins’ roster consisted of Kenyon Martin, Kenny Satterfield, DerMarr Johnson, Pete Mickeal, Jermaine Tate and Steve Logan. A 5-11 combo guard with a mug like DMX, Logan was like a discount Tim Hardaway the way he could break down and bully bigger guards. After Martin, K-Sat and DerMarr bounced to the League the following year, Logan took his game to new heights. As a senior at UC, Logan averaged 22 ppg and was named first team All-American by the Associated Press. Read More »

Saturday was a whole different story. While the Tournament of Champions was supposed to take place at Goat Park, it got rained out. Take two, and we’re back at the Gauchos Gym in the Bronx. The gym has a great feel to it, and it was interesting to see some of the playground’s biggest stars tearing it up on the hardwood instead of the asphalt. Read More »