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mondaymorning · 2 years

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#and 1 #skip 2 my lou #nike #basketball #rafer Alston #nba #hip hop #fashion

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rare-rap · 2 years

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Watch "Point gods wasn't a bad documentary" on YouTube

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New video alert 🔥🔥🔥

Thought the group would like this

#PointGods was a great documentary on street point guards from NYC that turned pro starring #raferalston #rodstrickland #stephonmarbury #Shamgod #kennysmith #ruckerpark days salute #bulletzgotti this he even mentions #Tupac role in above the rim was brought to you by #virovizion

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t-hiswifey · 2 years

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#nyc point gods #showtime #Basketball #nyc #put it on your watch list #Rafer Alston #Kenny Anderson #Mark Jackson #Stephon Marbury #Niesha Butler #Kenny Smith #Rod Strickland #black excellence #God Shammgod

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strongislandsuperfan · 2 years

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Streetball In Motion

An ode to the AND1 Mixtape & Its Legendary Impact

ESPN recently debuted is 30 for 30 Documentary, “The Greatest Mixtape Ever,” on May 31. Directed by Chris Robinson and Set Free Richardson, the documentary examines how 1990s & early 2000s streetball and the And1 Mixtape transformed basketball culture and took the sports world by storm. I remember in middle school and high school when AND1 first hit the streets. Every kid in my neighborhood was trying to imitate the ball-handling styles of guys like Hot Sauce, Escalade, Spyda, "Skip To My Lou" Alston and The Professor. Even I tried to grab a basketball and emulate the crossovers and dribbling styles I was in awe of. Of course, I'd embarrass myself, by giving minimal effort in practice & being drawn to a brief but pathetic stint as a local hoodlum, but mainly because I never had the skillset to be a basketball player. I always admire these guys and wished I could dunk, have the speed and drive to the basket like these guys. I would get excited and root for any one I'd see from AND1 or street ballers in general make it to the NBA, the G-League or any professional league to show their talents. I like rooting for underdogs, especially street ballers.

Call me biased.

In case you are unaware of what the AND1 Mixtape is, let's go down memory lane for a moment.

In the late 90's, a New York DJ named Set Free had an idea to film footage of neighborhood basketball games and streetball tournaments and add background music to it, and sell it on VHS. This came to be known as the AND1 Mixtape.

To further explain, "And 1" is derived from a phrase used by sports broadcasters and announcers to denote a free throw awarded to a player against whom a foul has been committed while scoring a goal.

As Set Free stated in an interview with ESPN, "Basketball and hip hop have a symbiotic relationship like no other combination of music genre and sport. The history of this mixtape – how streetball VHS tapes, a DJ and streetball players changed the culture of basketball – is essential to understanding that relationship. It had to be told!”

Of course, the rest is history.

Once the VHS tapes began circulating, AND1 went beyond showcased tricks and ballhandling. The company, AND1, began as a graduate school project partnership of Jay Coen Gilbert, Seth Berger, and Tom Austin. The brand started by selling T-shirts out of the back of a car, with catchphrases and trash-talk quotes, attracting street ballers all over the nation. If you go into a store like FootLocker or even a resell clothing outlet like TJ Maxx and see slogans on t-shirts from companies like Nike and Reebok, you can thank AND1 for influencing that style.

Stephon Marbury and Rafer Alston became synonymous with the AND1 brand and brought the brand to a wider audience. Marbury became the companies first spokesman when AND1 came out with its first pair of sneakers. Alston, of course put the basketball world on notice with the legendary, "Skip Tape", referencing his street ball nickname, "Skip to My Lou", showcasing jaw-dropping ballhandling and skillset displays. Both men went on to play in the NBA and oversees, achieving success in their own right.

Other NBA players, such as Jamal Crawford and Latrell Sprewell, were also associated with the brand.

AND1 summer tours even began in 1999, later evolving into the Mixtape Tour with the release of Mixtape 3. Imagine the Harlem Globetrotters, with a street edge. That is the best way I can describe these tours. Notable streetballers such as “Hot Sauce” and “The Professor” would go from court to court challenging other players in one-on-one games. The streetballers who prevailed through the very end of the summer tours would receive endorsement deals from AND1. From 2002 through 2008, the tours were televised live on ESPN. The summer tours began in the United States but soon branched internationally, into more than 30 countries.

They even had their own video game.

Of course, there were those who took exception to this brand and its players. Mostly, the AND1 players, ranging from skepticism to contempt for their arrogance and being "all-flash but no fundamentals" to their superstar mindset and not being team players.

Current and former NBA players dismissed streetball players, saying that the NBA has the best players in the world, and if streetball players were on that level, they would have made it to the league.

Here are some quotes from those NBA players:

Baron Davis: “Are you f*cking kidding me? No way!.”

Lou Williams: “We just trained professionals. We play basketball on days we don’t wanna play basketball.”

Kyrie Irving: “ ‘Yeah we could have played in the league’. No you couldn’t have. You are not taking care of your body. You are not taking the game serious. Everybody jumps high, everybody is fast, everybody thinks that they are the worlds greatest player. There’s only been 5000 something people in the NBA. Total. Ever.”

Iman Shumpert: “I remember Hot Sauce going to the pro-am and getting his a** bust. Hot sauce came down and they was calling that man ketchup by the time he left.”

The question remains, Is there a place for a street baller in a professional league?

Maybe.....if you got the heart, the work ethic, and the mindset to do it. What has been called into question is the mentality, discipline and maturity of its players, going from the street level to the professional level.

This isn't a notion of just, "Shut up and dribble!" rather a reality check. Being amazing at ones craft and cultivating the skillset is one thing, but, to have the heart of a champion and recognizing that this is a team effort, to achieve victory, in a collective manner is something else.

AND1 and its players maybe just mere one-trick ponies to those that have put in the time and effort at tryouts, basketball camps and pushed themselves in front of college scouts during those stressful high school games, but, you cannot deny the amazement, raw talent and showmanship that was on display. Even a scrub like me tried to master Escalade's passing game and that insane crossover by Hot Sauce.

You can dismiss the streetballer all you want, but you can't dismiss its impact on future generations currently playing in the NCAA, NBA and oversees. Presently, over one hundred AND1 High School and AAU teams play across America in various tournaments and leagues.

Its influence is undeniable, even to this day.

That is all.

#basketball #ballislife #nba #and1

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chefediaboiv · 14 days

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Doc

No I don't know jujitsu but with this blade I'll Judas you. Make you Rafer Alston that street shit so quick it'll be beautiful. I guess I'm Arnold purging everything in sight, Its like Everytime time I turn a hater I see. It's like their very image of me came with them taking IV. When I'm present it's in vein when they speak, their intelligence is of peasant shit and evident where on two different planes and to reach my height it ain't cheap. I make the nervous system miscorelate the language of beast, bird's chirping when the lake is serine. Ripping through the vorheese, wondering the outcome if Martin didn't make it a dream. You wanna X my outcome, instead of professing you never weathered a storm. You cant kid with the pride playing on this phase of forlorn hope. I have pink band on my left trigger finger, let the stink linger I think bigger. That's a big gun in the system back fourth on that piston, in cursive with periods and I bet that has your ass pissed son. Whats worse is with experience I'm prariaing a burial in multiple fashions. I'm looking at him and him and put them in a scope for not cautiously asking. Dawg you gonna need acronyms with all knee action, I'm throwing out nouns and verbs and sometimes I sound absurd. How can I put this it just ways to not come out awkwardly, your nerves. I'd rather be with two thick chicks the color of mahogany and while shit get frisky I sip my whiskey neat. You can move on love but there's a legion of mermaids saying pretty please, glee how could I ever miss these needs. Don't mind if I'm airing you out, I'm Namor with the Trident, the slum lord pushing high rent. Farfetched as these Pokemon asking who's Aryan now, this is long ball and it's long a haul. I'm shooting hail Mary's to every damsel in town, so if those shoes come off she gonna lose her draw at the standoff so I guess I'm the only cancer around. Thirst for my demise is a subject certain sheepeaple seem to be dancing around.

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ryanthekiller12 · 4 years

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#Skip to My Lou #Rafer Alston #And 1 #Basketball

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doubleclutch · 4 years

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#rafer alston #basketball

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hoopsmedia · 5 years

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nbamayne · 6 years

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#Rafer Alston #Skip 2 my hou #queens #ny #and1 #nba #housotn rockets #orlando magic #toronto raptors

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bballinspiration · 6 years

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Introducing The SLAM Legend of the Week, a tribute to players who have impacted the game way beyond the court First up, Rafer Alston aka “Skip To My Lou”: http://slam.ly/rafer-legend

#Throw Back Thursday #Rafer Alston #Skip To My Lou #SLAM Magazine #The SLAM Legend of the Week #ball is life #street ball

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sports-n-stuff77 · 4 years

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