Nice little piece on Bobbito by David Gonzalez in the Times the other day:
His love of the game has taken him around the world. With Kevin Couliau, he made the documentary “Doin’ It in the Park,” which is a valentine not just to the game, but to the neighborhoods where it is played. He promoted it guerrilla style, through his Open Runs, which is like a pickup basketball flash mob gathered on several hours’ notice through an e-mail blast. This summer he organized in Riverside Park what he said was the first-ever full-court 21 tournament, the ultimate city game.
“You go to any park in New York, and the kids are playing 21,” he said. “Essentially, it’s a game where you have no teammates. You have multiple people guarding whoever has the ball. Every change of possession goes the opposite way. It’s a rough game. There’s no out of bounds and no shooting fouls.”
…“The beauty of outdoor pickup is there is no other environment where you are going to find such a diverse group of people participating in free recreation,” Bobbito said. “You don’t find that at a sports club or a university gym. Those require memberships. The park is free.”
[Photo Via: Life and Times]
nice. i enjoyed 'doin' it in the park.'
and bobbito's mix tapes were some of the first mix tapes i ordered from the back of the source while still in alabama.
damn, i miss playing 21.
I was fortunate enough to play on Chelsea Piers team with Bobbito several years ago. We went to the finals and were losing and our ball-hog small forward was in full hero-ball mode.
Bobbito called time out and said something like, "I can't hit any 3s without the ball. And if I'm not hitting 3s, I'm not helping us much." We got him the ball, got back in the game, though we couldn't pull out the win.
Heckuva team though, and damn, he could shoot. As a pass-first, drive-and-kick point guard, we put up a lot of points together.