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!!