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.

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