truestar 
When watching basketball games, one is usually hyped by the high-flying dunks or the ankle breaking moves. As much as the NBA may display many of these catching highlights, the professional basketball league tends to stick to the fundamentals. That’s where street ball comes into play. If you ask me, street ball can be known as the “slang†to professional ball. Street ball consists more of fancy ball handling, unknown leaping ability, and long distance shooting.
On July 14, 2012, Ball Up Street Ball team touched down in Chicago to host their annual basketball game. On this beautiful evening, Malcolm X College on the near west side attracted many street ball fans. The two teams competing in the game included Ball Up’s official tour team and Chicago’s Ball Up team, which included guys from the Chicagoland area who came out to compete against other guys to earn a spot on the Chicago team. Chicago’s very own Shannon Brown, professional player for the Phoenix Suns, was the coach of the home team. This meant that only top talent would be participating.
The atmosphere at Malcolm X was extremely live. There was a DJ mixing through speakers on a corner, people dancing in the stands, players warming up, and plenty of fan contests. While the players warmed up, they gave fans mini-previews that they could look forward to seeing in the game. They had a shooting contest in a corner for kids to win prizes. Everyone was enjoying themselves during the pregame.
Game time began and the first play sent everybody to their feet. An alley-oop play resulted in a slam dunk from one of the world’s top dunkers, a man nicknamed “Springs.†By watching the game, it was very apparent of where he got his name from. Another notable dunker was “Air Up There,†who had several highlight dunks. “Air Up There†is very famous for being one of the very few people to do a 720 degree dunk.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Cg7w_8kkU&w=420&h=315]
A fan favorite player by the name of “The Professor,†who is known for his extensive collection of handles, missed this game because of a torn ACL. Although the crowd was disappointed about this, the game was still full of enjoyment. The home team just could not keep up with the high-flyers and veteran players of the Ball Up Tour Team. With that being said, the tour team took the victory. The fans were thrilled from the game. The players stuck around after the game to sign autographs and take pictures. Everyone had a great time.
– by Cornell Jackson @cjgoinham23
Comments
Loading…