summer rosters and…

alright people I was out in Spokane this weekend for the VERY HUGE Spokane Hoopfest. There was about 6000+ teams coming from all over and that led to about 24,000+ PLAYERS only. Our team came out like 8th out of 16 teams. Not bad for probably the shortest team overall…
We got some FIRE Union tees done by JayCurtiss..I have pictures of them and just gotta put them on the comp! I got two giveaways for y’all: 1) 3X Tall Tee Union shirt from BlackTopHustler and KingHandles.ca and 2) a Street Handles DVD from Brad @ Streetballin.net. Gotta come up with the contest details and it’s on [like donkey kong!].

In other news I just checked out some summer league rosters and thought I’d make a list of streetballers on there. So far I’ve seen “The Record Holder” aka Steve “The Saga Continues” Burtt, Jr. who will be on the Charlotte Bobcats’ summer league roster.

I’ma do some more reading then post more names up, you know these guys are tryna destroy NBA cats, just check out the recap of Homicide vs. Allan Ray at H.I.T.S on sb.net!

B4R UPDATE!

Ahhh your boy came through…

 Joey emailed me the other day saying that him and Elevator were facing elimination one game…but they were both safe..Then yesterday was another elimination game and ELEVATOR got sent home. Joey was sad to see the man go but you know it’s competition. That must mean the King is doing something right!!

Right now it’s: King Handles, Hawk, and a big dude from LA.

Stay tuned for more –> they’re in Dallas tomorrow.

it’s been a while but..

…I got some good news..and some good news [as opposed to bad news].

Good News #1: If you haven’t heard, the streetball 1-on-1 game of the decade is going down in Toronto on July 29th. Yes, yes, Chris “Tru Baller” Young vs. Joey “King Handles” Haywood. This is a dead serious game being sponsored by Wrigley [Juicy Fruit] among other people they’ve brought on board. Omar the MC [from NBA 3on3] has been working hard to make this happen over the past few months and it’s paid off. They’re doing promo shirts, a promo tour the week before, getting media exposure and have flyers going around. As soon as I have the mock-up of shirts I’ll post it on here [I know that's done!]. It’s gonna be huge! A few of our people from Vancity are going out for the event — I’d go by myself but I’m in LA on vacation that weekend! But the event will be mind blowing as it’s something we’ve all being waiting for for years! But finally it’s coming true. Just to clarify why it didn’t happen before — last year after Joey put on shows in Calgary and Vancouver, Omar wanted him to go out to Toronto and thus he funded that trip. Tru Baller, knowing that he “owned” Toronto just like KH “owned” Vancouver, thought he should be flown as well – but it didn’t happen, otherwise we could have seen this game last year. The past is the past, let’s focus on the future! July 28-29th — Toronto, Ontario, Canada, NBA 3on3 featuring the “Juicy Fruit Battle.” History in the making!!!

Good News #2: I have a contest coming soon [maybe even 2 contests]…I have two sick-as-heck custom made “The Union” BlackTop Hustler shirts that I’ll give away as part of the contest. If anyone has ideas what the contest should be let me know but if you know me, you should know that it’ll involve at least typing a paragraph that’s properly punctuated. When I get the shirts sometime next week I’ll take a picture so you guys can see how dope it is. Oh yeah, I’ll have my B4R shots up shortly!

Pick up line of the week: “Baby..I just wanted to put you on notice, that I noticed you were noticing me and I hope you noticed that I was noticing you too.” [thanks to the iceman hahahahaha!]

a few things…

1) Y’all should check out the Bobbito-led Bounce Magazine blog over at –> bouncemag.com..ps if you’ve never read bounce before I feel sorry for you…
2) I’ll be in Edmonton this weekend for the 3on3 so don’t expect anything

3) B4R Contract Players stand at: Hawk, King Handles & Elevator — could change up this weekend with the end of the Left Coast leg of the tour — Oakland and LA on Friday, Saturday respectively

4) I’m gonna FINALLY try to get some of them B4R pics up so you guys can see the tour bus and the players, more specifically Mr. 720 chillin’ in some plaid shorts and house slippers — yeah he stays fly, no lie..bawlin’!

5) Vancity 3on3 was decent, if you haven’t read both Ghost aka the good host and No Joke’s recaps they’re on the forums at streetballin.net

6) Last but NOT least..the streetball “game” of the century will be happening this summer..I can’t release details yet, but for those of us that read daily on streetball topics..well..you’re gonna love it =)

Enjoy the weekend.

B4R Update!

Joey told me he had about 15-20 points in the Vegas game, Hawk pulled off some real nice windmills and ‘Vator had some nice jams.
They’re in Sacramento right now for the  Left Coast trip.
Right now contract players are: King Handles, Hawk and Elevator.

What would happen if…

Someone who rose up from the underground like King Handles or Ghost won the Ball4Real contract? I mean for real have we ever thought about this? Guys that we’ve seen grow in front of our eyes like kids. I’ve known Joey since he was 10, I’ve known Mike since he was like 16, 17 [we're pushing 23 and 21 respectively]..Streetball fans have been watching both players come up with since they started with their respective crews, The Notic and iLL sONS [no Dime doesn't get credit, b/c Mike started i.s. on his own as a young'n]. Two kids who probably didn’t realize there was money in streetball until we saw And1 commercialize streetball and now they’re both on their way. It may take another year, or two, or three, but starting younger than most other And1/B4R/professional streetballers definitely gives you the advantage of doing it for years to come.

I just came across this thought while I was texting Joey the other day and figured I’d put it out there. I mean if we look at other contenders in line, Elevator, Hawk, Werm, Pat da Roc and others..well they all came to us in some form of exposure through the media. For example, yeah it’s valid to say Werm was known thru TFB, but at the same time..we all REALLY got to know him after seeing him on City Slam. When I was watching last year’s city slam, then I watched his TFB clip I was like ohh that’s the dude from City Slam. Pat and Elevator same thing…Pat might have started underground but he got his fans through being on the And 1 show repeatedly.

Again I’m not trying to justify or compare anything, just saying that if they were to win the contract it would give an ENORMOUS amount of hope to kids out there who are up and coming and want to make streetball their career. A lot of people think it’s easy, but like the NBA, it’s NOT. There’s a ton of streetball players out there and not all of them are gonna make it [it hurts, but it's also true]. Let us not fail to mention that coming from Canada, where Hockey rules all other sports — well..streetball isn’t exactly something your grandparents up here know about — it would be an amazing success to see that happen. Now it’s a matter of these guys putting Canada on their back and showing the world we can produce top streetballers.

Call me biased b/c I’m from B.C. and so are these guys, but at the same time, name two other players who have come up in the streetball game WITHOUT the assistance of being seen on T.V. [via And1 or other means]. Also, who else out of those that have paved their own way are legit contenders for the contract?

[If you want to argue YPA players -- well where are most of them now? We're talking current not in the past, but then again their franchise -- Exile -- was best known as The Yong One on Season 2]

TWO days ’till NBA 3on3 out here. YEAH!!

NEW BOOK ABOUT MAKING MONEY WITH STREETBALL

I got this via e-mail early today:

Streetball players and fans will have one of their biggest dreams come true. Streetball Promoter, Kelly Cole has released a new audio book about making money with streetball.

/Bristol,Va June 2007- Streetball Promoter, Kelly Cole is releasing a new audio book to the streetball community that is sure to be the complete guide to making money with streetball.

 

Can you really make money with streetball? That’s a question Kelly Cole has found the answer to. “Yes you can say Kelly; you can do it in numerous ways too.” Kelly’s new audio book Making Money With Streetball , brakes down the many different ways that you can do it.

“And1 is not the only way to make money with streetball, you have the internet, you can promote your own streetball games with famous streetball players, and you can also make your own streetball video game, plus a whole lot more. My new audio book comes on 2 cds packed with all of the most profitable ways to make money with streetball. “

 

Kelly’s new book is available now. Imagine… getting paid doing something you love. It’s your time to make that dream a reality. Kelly and other famous streetball players living proof that you can make money with streetball and not just by being on the court.

 

For more info:

Contact: Kelly Cole (276) 591-7427

Email: bts_100@yahoo.com

www.streetballmoneymaker.com

I’ma try to get a copy of it, see if I can get it “reviewed”.

B4R Contract Players

Fortunately as Joey is a contract player right now with B4R I can get updates through him about what’s going on =). But just to clarify, right now ONLY Elevator and King Handles are contract players. Hawk is expected to be picked up in Vegas and then we’ll see from there.
There’s also a HUGE [as in history in the making] event going down  this summer. I’ll post details when I can reveal them. Just huge though.

Ball4Real Tour: Seattle [cont.]

Alright..So the game yesterday…During the warm-ups there were some real nice jams and the player introductions were more or less the same as the And1 ones [from what I could tell] but 1/2 Man’s routine NEVER gets old. I think the starting lineup for B4R was AO, Main, 720, FX and 1/2 Man. Right off the bat we’re getting hi-lites of 720 and FX who is just a retarded dunker! Seeing these guys in person is totally different from watching the show. King Handles started off a bit slow but it was Deli and Da Promise for the Seattle squad that got them in. At first it was back and forth buckets with B4R scoring mainly on dunks and layups. Oh yeah, Shane was coaching the opposing team and you could tell he has a huge role in the tour b/c he was organizing a bit of everything and one of the main organizers said to him: “Shane, I need you to focus, don’t listen to nobody” [yeah the benefits of lip reading]. Shane was subbing his guys every 5 minutes more or less but the B4R guys got ahead by quite a bit since Seattle couldn’t match their points. 720 and FX both..wow…when they catch the ball..man HEAD IS AT THE DAMN RIM then they bring it down to their feet and throw it done. B4R was subbing guys in and out – everyone except I’ll BRB didn’t play, why? I’m not sure but Jay may know more. Something interesting I noticed and you can kind of tell why these guys are together is that they all help each other out – especially Killa Kirb who’s the young’n of the group. He had a hard time doing anything so they subbed him out pretty fast sometimes but then 1/2 and Main would talk to him about what to do. And, the players actually listen to coach cuz High Rizer was saying to him “Coach, coach, what am I supposed to do” and OG Burtt would tell him. But they had gotten out to a solid lead so it was safe, however the 2nd half was started off strong by Seattle.

Oh yeah…in the first Spyda was guarding Joey [and they have some history]…Joey was being a real team-player you could say in the beginning b/c rather than get the ball and break his dude down he was passing off. At one point Joey had the ball and Spyda said “this is gonna be a long ass day” in reference to Joey dribbling – on one play he went right by him and got smoked on the head by Spyda and that got him mad but refs didn’t call nothing. AO goes over to Shane and says “Hey tell your guys there are no fouls.” Joey got pissed and it lit a fire in him. So towards the end of the first Joey started doing his thing and people were getting into it while Pharmacist was talking on the sidelines. Joey also matched up with AO a few times which was real entertaining to watch. AO was the only player from the other side that did his handles thing but it wasn’t alot of it. I can’t remember alot of the dunks but there were a ton of alley-oops and High Rizer can GET UP GODDAMN!!! He looks so small too I think he’s TOPS 6′3″ but DAMN HE CAN JUMP! For everyone wondering – there was no 720, I don’t THINK there was a BTL 360, but there were alot of windmills and touch-the-feet type dunks.

Second half the Seattle lineup was something like — Da Promise, KH, Ghost, the kid that looked like Professor and Elevator and Elevator seemed REAL frustrated out there b/c he wasn’t getting many looks and had a hard time putting stuff down. They came out strong with Ghost being the leader of the team and making it happen so their little run lasted a bit but then B4R just took over. Basically every time you score they look to make a long outlet pass to get the jam and it worked most of the time. Damn I just cannot get over the fact of how high 720, FX and High Rizer get! At halftime I told Joey “Be assertive, stop passing the ball off for no reason – this is your time do your damn thing you have to be aggressive cuz these guys are gunning for you”, he was upset at the fact he got hit on the head but oh man he became real aggressive on D and wasn’t taking no bull-shit from none of the players. He was going at Spyda and Pharm and AO and was calling them out so it was sweet to see and got his buckets as well. At one point Shane pulls him aside and says “Look I don’t wanna see you do all that dribbling, I want you to goto the hoop EVERY TIME! EVERY TIME! Because he can’t guard you and I know that”..So you know these guys are gonna vouch for him…Oh yeah he also got Killa and locked him down on this one play but it was all love after the game even though Spyda was still a bit hasty.

I don’t remember what the final score was but it was a good game – obviously they wanted to come out with a bang and you can tell these guys don’t plan on losing ANY of the games on tour – it is called Ball4Real, right.

My thoughts

On the way home a friend and I compared thoughts on it. Like I said previously I think this tour is basically just the And 1 tour with a different name although I COULD BE WRONG. If you ask me, it seems to be that And1 was just changing the direction they’re going in and didn’t need all those players but at the same time I can see the OGs being like “Okay we have an opportunity to do our own thing, let’s do it”. It’s like WestJet in Canada, they’re all owners of the tour. Lisa Fusco was there I was like “Lisa! Give me a job!!” Jokes. One thing that I DEFINITELY think they should have been doing is selling sponsors’ items especially Starbury. In Washington I think there’s only 3 Steve and Barry’s that you can get Starbury at and none of them are actually in Seattle itself, I think it’s Spokane and two other cities. They should have been selling some Starbury gear even if it wasn’t “tour-related”. I was hoping that Jay’s shirts were being sold but they only had the tour ones but I don’t blame him because it’s business but I know he’s working on it so I hope it comes through. Definitely pushing their sponsors out there would have been better. I think the uniforms were really hurt but I don’t know if that’s a “cost-saver”. They were just Starbury unis that had the B4R logo on them and names/numbers on the back.

I don’t know whether they make or lose money, but if they pay the full price to rent the arenas out they could lose money. I mean 1000 people [say minimum] at the LEAST 10 bucks a pop, that’s 10K ONLY. But of course they have sponsorship backing and all that so you know. This tour could live on for years to come but I’m sure they want to see more people. I think the success in attendance is based on where it’s at. I mean, next stop is Vegas and EASILY you can pack it up in Vegas, but at the same time there’s so many other attractions it’s hard. But the big cities like Chi, DC, LA, East Coast they should not only get some top ballers in the game but also get a nice attendance #. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.

I’m not 100% sure but I think the current contract players are King Handles and Elevator. Jay said that Da Promise got offered to get on the bus but b/c he plays for a college, he can’t. Rumours have it Hawk will be in Vegas and Ghost could end up seeing another shot in a different city. Got to cook lunch – pics to come b/c my boy has a few as well.

Post comments!

Ball4Real Tour: Seattle

Alright, as we all know the all-new, player-owned/managed Ball4Real tour kicked off in the Great [VERY GREAT!] NorthWest in Seattle, Washington. The tour features: Mr. 720 [formerly the dunker known as Air Up There], AO, 50, Main Event, High Octane, Spyda, 1/2 Man 1/2 Amazing, Pharmacist and new acquisitions: I’ll Be Right Back, Special FX, Circus, and Killa Kirb. The B4R squad is coached by the legendary Steve Burtt [straight outta IONA baby!] while music was provided by DJ Flow and the very very very OG Boobie Smooth on the mic. Boobie is simply put THE MAN. For those that don’t know who Boobie is – go watch both EBC DVDs and he also did some of the hosting work for EBC on NBA TV. Just a legend. Moving on…

So the format of this tour is basically the same as the previous And 1 tours: they have an open run, now referred to as the “BLOCK PARTY” where they [somewhat] showcase the sponsors, they have some real nice cars on display, music, and of course the open run game itself. We got there about 45 minutes “late” so I’m not sure how sign-up worked out, but I think you could just tell them you wanted to play and it’d be a wrap. When I got there I saw VanCity’s own Ghost, Da Promise, Cloud 9, GameTime, The Problem all from Seattle/Tacoma [and BlackTop Hustler sponsored] squad: Bad Karma. Also in attendance were King Handles and Elevator and some guy that played for the Seahawks but I didn’t catch his name.

Some of the sponsors for the tour were: Wrigley [the gum manufacture], Greyhound, Mountain Dew, Starbury…damn I told myself to remember other ones but I forgot. Jay from Blacktop Hustler made some REAL REAL REAL SUPER FLY Ball 4 Real tees [like 100x better than the ones they sell for $25 that has the schedule on it] that most of the players had on. Special FX and Circus had their custom shirts on.

Open Run
AO and Shane were mainly on the mic, but different dudes were talking at different times. There was maybe about 20 people total that ended up playing in the open I would say. I don’t know how they made teams but it was just shirts/skins and they’d play. One of my boys, Delvaughn aka Deli Tha Kid just shut it down on offense, kid couldn’t be stopped and he’s only about 5′10″. Cloud 9 from Bad Karma threw it down so hard twice, he brought the HOOP DOWN BOTH TIMES and ended up permanently busting it. He would just go up, WAP and bring that thing down. Elevator tried to fix it – but he couldn’t, so they went to a half-court format, but immediately they gave him a band. So basically they went 3 on 3, different guys playing and I guess they were just trying to see who could play and who couldn’t and work with that. There were some scrubs – as always – but also some legit hoopers as well. All in all, everyone did their thing in the open run. There were some nice plays in the open run from Cloud 9, GameTime, Promise, Ghost and Deli and King Handles played this one guy on one for fun which was nice to watch. Some of the players were just chillin’ around, taking pictures and talking to people it was real good so the sense wasn’t that ‘oh look at all the players over there’. At the same time some of them dudes have REAL nice shoe games, but then again being from NY and whatnot, can’t be mad.

Now the high lite of the open run, at least in my eyes, was the little dancing that a few of the players got into. High Rizer, I’ll BRB, High Octane and Special FX and a little bit from Circus. FX is just a MACK when it comes to dancing.He had his little chicken noodle soup going on – they played that track over and over..The rest of the guys are real goofs, you can just tell by the way they are with each other.

In all there was 12 people including Elevator and KH that made it into the building and that made the Seattle team. Those players included: KH, Elevator, Ghost, GameTime, Cloud 9, Deli, Da Promise and some other people that I didn’t know including this one kid…OMG his resemblance to Professor was just UNCANNY! The eyes, haircut, everything – he seemed like a good kid though, real happy to be playing in the game even though he didn’t do much but he was quick as hell and got to play KH one on one.

Oh yeah there was also a freestyle rap battle and this white dude who was like a cross between a rock, rap, basketball fan won it. Obviously I didn’t catch too many of the words but my people said he was real nice. Deli was in it too and the kid can spit! They also gave out a few awards for cars and whatnot..I didn’t look into it much because I’m not much of a tuner fan but you know it was nice nonetheless.

The Game
The gym was…not really packed I would say. I’m bad with guess-timating so I don’t know how many people were there – maybe 1000? Maybe less, I really don’t know but the first 5-10 rows on both sides were more or less full as was the courtside seating. The layout and everything resembled an And 1 game and Boobie Smooth was getting into the crowd, interacting with everyone. They had a pre-game dunk off and the finalists were Cloud 9 [who pulled a CLEAN cradle jam] and Elevator. At half time during the game they went for the winner and I think it was Cloud 9 who won…Not 100% sure as I wasn’t paying attention.

Okay I’m tired as hell, gonna watch 48 Hours, sleep and finish the rest with pictures tomorrow…