Streetball is passion. Though it is not always beautiful, one could easily call it streetart. It is a rough sport for tough men which does not allow much of weakness. Streetball means competition including embarassement and sometimes even humiliation of opponents. However, it is a basis for friendships because there is one basic ingredient that connects all players: the love for the game.
Without any referee the flow of the game completely relies on the respect and the communication between the players. As a matter of fact this established different rules on every court where spectacular tricks count more than accurately obeying the rules of basketball. Traveling is accepted if an opponent-embarassing move is the result. Streetball is a sport that involves every part of your body, even the mouth: If you master trashtalk you master the court. Distracting the counterpart and entertaining the crowd is as much important as the actual game. These various aspects made streetball such an attractive show as it is today.
From its beginnings in the 70´s in the big cities of the US untill today the rules haven´t changed much but it´s got more and more influence within the street cultures around the world. Having its roots in the famous Rucker Park in New York City, streetball stepped up to other courts and cities where it was not enough for the boys to play on the team in their highschool.
Having not many opportunities for spending their free time streetball was the only chance to emulate their big idols from the ABA and later the NBA. Rapidly the games attracted a steady audience celebrating the vicious tricks and ankle-breakers of their “court-stars”.
These players became local legends and got nicknames within the community like “the Destroyer”, “Helicopter” or “Pee Wee”. Even the famous Julius “Dr. J” Erving showed his talents at the Rucker Park tournament in 1971. Butch Purcell, who kept track of the stats at Rucker Park, said about him: “Man oh man! He was dunking on people like crazy. Back then the games were only held on the weekends, so that next week, the word was spreading like wildfire over the city. When we showed up that next week to play our game, the park was so packed that people couldn’t get in.” After having played for three years in the team of the University of Massachusetts and pulling off tremendous stats there, he was not quite known within the audience at Rucker Park.
Nevertheless, Ernie Morris, a witness of the legendary encounter between Julius Erving and Joe Hammond claimed avidly: “I’ve seen so much great basketball in that park, but I’ve never seen anything like it since.” Thus, the legends around “Doc” laid the grounds for the incomparable success of streetball.
In the following decades it also got recognized by the dominating basketball brands like Nike and even induced brands like Kickz and AND1 to build their corporate identity on that specific form of basketball. This increasing interest by the economy was further promoted when Allen Iverson made it possible for a sheer streetballer from Philly to succeed in the NBA.
He was beloved by the whole generation of young streetballers and established the streetstyle within the NBA. Iverson´s popularity made it possible for Reebok who signed him to advertise the streetball culture and gain profit from it. Even today in the commercialized and digitalized environment of the NBA the biggest stars such as Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving don´t hesitate to come out and demonstrate their skills on the court. One could argue that the pure streetball does not deserve this development because it lacks tradition and identity.
However, streetball is still played in its traditional form around the world and the main components sustained: When you dare to play streetball it strenghtens your credibility… even if you lose, you win the respect of everybody on the court.
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Streetball is both a sport, lifestyle, an artform and is the unique style of basketball, where most general rules are ignored and player style is encouraged.
Played outdoors unformal in a meeting place, the origin of the word. The game is played under the open sky, in the yard and in the fresh air.
Usually played on a street court, or sport park or a street-urban area.
Streetball is basketball, but with certain rules relaxed. Often played with music in background, music in style of rap hip hop ex.
Friendly games on one halfcourt on one ring (Basket matches with 3 vs. 3 for ex.). Teams are usually 3 a side, and played on one basket in pickup-games.
Tournaments and competitions are also held with more teams, if many players join.
The game can be associated with the nice tricks and difficult dunks, but this is only in conjunction with making the basket of course. The large role of the team is played more by the technical skill of each player.
Streetbasket is much about individual skill level also, with dribbling in your own style moves, you are more free to express yourself as a baller bouncing and dribbling the ball.
With show passes, good team work corporation & passing in general.
Streetball unites, is about aspiration to victory, team corporation, a healthy lifestyle beauty and about staginess.
The game is played by real champions who are not doing it for the money and don't cry on every foul.
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Steetbasket is the great leveller. No matter what you look like or who you are, if you can show you can play you're going to get respect. Streetball dates back to America in the 50s and became popular because you could play it anywhere, anytime and it was free. It spread worldwide and across America popularised by attracting media coverage. One simple thing that you could do to earn other’s respect on the basketball court is that if you play clean, others will enjoy playing with you. Just learn the rules and play clean. To earn respect on the court, you have to prove to the other players that you deserve that respect.
If you’re playing with competitive people and throwing up bricks, they’re not going to want you on their team next game. It also works vice versa; if you show them that you’re good enough to keep playing, then they’ll respect you more. Let your play speak for itself. Go hard on every single play. Leave it all out there. Help up the other team when they fall, but don’t be afraid to knock them down. Play clean, fair, and hard. You don’t have to be the best, but your effort, your hustle, that will speak volumes to your coach, your teammates, and your opponents.
In streetball, most often, technical and high-speed qualities come out on top. The large role is played by technical skill of each certain player. Local tournaments and events are also held some times in summer offseason on city courts or street parks. It is really great because they give players an opportunity to showcase their skills outside the traditional channels of the basket game. In streetball you put everyone on an equal playing field. Streetball is about developing as a sport athlete. This game is the next level of the game evolving, and if you look at the NBA now, while it's definitely not streetball, there are many elements of streetball getting mixed up with the fundamentals of the game.
Basketball is a game of the streets with street culture in the background including rap music, breakdancing and hip-hop.. It’s one of the rare sports that anyone can play—all you need is a hoop and the ball. Streetball is about flair, about winning at any cost and mind games. Unlike traditional basketball, streetball is self-governed, meaning the players call the fouls. If someone makes a call you have to respect it as a player, but, you know, you get some soft players who start calling weak fouls, and we'll accept it and give them the ball back, but we'll let them know that it's soft.
The opponents you play against will not going to give you anything easy. We come from the defence-first mentality. If you're going to beat us then you're going to have to earn it. Streetball is mostly played with two teams of three on a half court with one basket. That's the real streetball and the most fun to play. Anyone can show up and play. You can roll up from 10am on the day - either as a team or an individual - and enter the park or the street court.
There's more room for individual creativity (than in regular basketball) and the showmanship comes through because a lot of it is about looking good and putting on a show.
The 2 types of streetbasket players are: There are those who want to look good, do tricks and have fun, and then there's the hardest ballers who really don't care how they look, they just want to win in serious competition in a competitive way.