Not too long ago, as part of our Experience Oakland series, we highlighted the legacy and significance of pick-up basketball in Oakland, CA. What we examined with brevity and regional specificity, New Yorker Bobbito Garcia has explored in 35 countries around the globe. The rich sub-culture of un-organized basketball has blossomed in some pretty obscure places from Africa to Latin America, but nowhere possesses the cultural significance and swagger of its birthplace– New York City.
Garcia, along with fellow first-time filmmaker and baller Kevin Couliau, set out to make a documentary that paid tribute to the history, courts, trash talk, outfits, original games, names, and pure love for the game that make New York street ball so mythical. The end result is Doin’ It In The Park: Pick Up Basketball NYC.
Following a screening at The New Parkway in Oakland last night, Garcia stated that his desire was to offer a more nuanced view of a scene that is dominated by highlight tapes and hip-hop. Many of us have seen And-1 mixtapes or epic posterizing dunks on youtube, but this holistic deconstruction of street ball on its native soil is an amazing addition to the culture. The film incorporates interviews with street ball legends, former NBA players, Rikers inmates, and other dedicated hoopers; excellent archival footage, photos, and stories; and footage from many of the 180 courts Garcia and Couliau visited and played at across all five boroughs.
West 4th, The Rucker, the GOAT courts, and the many notable playgrounds and parks in between, form a sort of holy constellation that ensures New York maintains its roots and traditions no matter how gentrified its neighborhoods may become. New York hoopers are not just basketball players; they are oral historians, culture keepers, and physical reminders of hood ingenuity, active living, and of course, the gift of gab. The tangibles and intangibles of this rich scene shine through in Doin’ It In The Park, and allow the rest of us to reflect on how New York’s reimagination of basketball has impacted our own local communities.
Here in Oakland, we’ve produced 23 NBA players, including hall-of-famers Jim Pollard and Bill Russell, future hall-of-famers Gary Payton and Jason Kidd, and current Rookie of the Year Damian Lillard. If you talk to them, they’ll site the importance of pick-up games at Mosswood, DeFremery, and other parks as being fundamental in the development of their reputation and game. J-Kidd embodies the improvisational nature of street ball with his dynamic no-look passing, and GP brought the playground’s signature brand of trash talk to the hallowed arenas of the NBA.
Many players with the same amount of talent however, couldn’t escape the streets that surrounded these legendary courts. Enter Oakland’s Jim Tolliver, Hook Mitchell, JR Rider, and countless others. Wherever you find basketball and poverty, you will find the forgotten many who couldn’t traverse the professional pipeline–and worse yet, those who ended up in the prison pipeline. One of Doin’ It In The Park’s strengths lies in it’s documentation of both those who succeeded and those who did not–personified by New York legend Earl Manigault, better known as The Goat.
Whether they made it to the NBA or not however, street ball legends like Fly, Pee Wee, The Goat, and Hook made a lasting impact on the game at every level–from the park to the parquet. Let’s respect the architects.
Watch the trailer above and check out more videos about the inspiration and making of the film HERE.
Doin’ It In The Park will be showing at The New Parkway on Saturday May 18th at 3:30pm, and then Monday through Wednesday at 9:15pm (BUY TICKETS HERE). If you can’t make it out to this limited release, you can also download the film at DoinItInThePark.com.
