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dramatic orchestral music
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[distant sirens wailing]
This is not a sham.
On God, this is where it all started.
I'm talking homegrown handle,
where legends like McGuire dribbled
as if the ball was on a wire.
From Far Rock to blacktops across the city.
Weaving in and out of lanes.
Kenny jetting down court.
Rafer skipping to the top of the key.
Crossovers leaving defenders on bended knee,
praying like Christ the King.
Mama, there goes that man.
Certified ankle breaker, no-look pass-maker.
Game sweeter than cherries.
Marbury, all scary.
And you know Mark about that action.
Don't nobody want to guard the point.
They fear they'll be blinded by court vision.
Get disciplined by the Rod, "And One" Anderson.
Or get J'd in the face strictly just because.
So praise be to orchestrators.
The maestros of the tempo.
The ones who made the pavement more precious,
from Gauchos to Riverside,
from Brooklyn to Lefrak,
from Rice to Malloy,
from Uptown to the BX.
Yo, I swear something in the water,
'cause our game so nice that they named us twice.
New York, New York!
Like an echo, like a mantra for dreamers.
You make it here, anywhere else is just practice,
paradise compared to a pair of dice.
avant-garde jazz music
[helicopter whirring]
tranquil music
[Joekenneth] Welcome to New York City,
the big city of dreams,
but it'll leave you dreaming
if you think anything will be handed to you.
Some call it the Big Apple, others the Concrete Jungle,
but it's also known as the mecca of basketball.
There's no other place
where millions of people have made a pilgrimage
specifically to witness in basketball tournaments
and culture.
Here, basketball's a religious experience.
And in our Book of Blacktop,
there's one special position ordained by us
and brought to the world.
[Ron] The point guard, in basketball,
is the floor general.
He is the key to the team.
He directs the offense. He runs the offense.
You do not have offense
if you do not have a very good point guard.
But to be a New York City point guard,
you must have toughness,
handle,
and showmanship.
From the way we talk to the way we lay the ball up,
you can tell a point guard from New York out the gate,
but to be considered a legit point guard from here, though,
you need everything Coach just mentioned:
handles, showmanship, and toughness.
But in the '80s and '90s,
during one of our city's most gritty eras,
there was a special group of players
who set the blueprint
for generations of point guards in our city and beyond.
One of these hoopers was a skinny kid from Lefrak
who went on to become
one of the most decorated point guards
in the history of our city:
Kenny "The Jet" Smith.
Johnny Kemp's "Just Got Paid" playing
Just got paid
It's Friday night
Party hunting...
[commentator] Kenny Smith, freshman point guard
from Queens, New York.
Body shaking
All around...
[commentator] And here comes Kenny Smith.
He loves to run.
[Stephen] Kenny Smith, with the basketball,
was one of the fastest dudes we've ever seen
in the history of basketball.
Kenny was athletic, could shoot it,
could get to wherever, had a handle.
[commentator] Kenny Smith with a good, long-range jump shot.
[commentator] Kenny Smith.
He finds those open spots.
He was a knockdown shooter, you know what I mean?
He knew how to run the team.
People forget how athletic Kenny Smith was.
Kenny Smith was in the Dunk Contest.
Don't you know I'm just grooving
To the beat?
Flying through the air, double-pumping,
dunking with two hands and slapping the back.
Why you gotta slap the backboard?
Just to show off?
It's New York City at its finest.
They called me Ken-NY. That's Kenny.
It's like, my name has "NY" in it.
Kenny "The Jet" Smith
from Queens, New York, Lefrak City.
Going to North Carolina,
I was only the fifth freshman to start in the school history.
[announcer] From North Carolina, at guard,
a 6'2" freshman from Queens, New York.
Number 30, Kenny Smith.
That's when juniors and seniors stayed in college.
[Vincent] Sam Perkins,
Brad Daugherty,
you know, Michael Jordan.
[commentator] Oh, what a move by Jordan!
I was a pro basketball fan,
not a college basketball fan.
[commentator] Jordan slams it again!
[Kenny Smith] I didn't know Michael was that good.
[commentator] He is slam-dunking everything
in Chapel Hill right now.
I was like, "I'ma start,"
'cause this guy's not as good as Pearl,
Mark Jackson, Kenny Hutchinson.
They're not as good as these guys
that I play against every day.
They're not.
And he was like, "I'll guard anybody.
I'll guard anybody."
He couldn't understand
why nobody wanted to guard this guy, 23.
[Kenny Smith] I had a delusion,
and that was from New York City.
Like, I'm like, "I'll guard him.
I got Mike."
Every pickup, "I got Mike."
So he kept guarding him, guarding him.
He kept getting dunked on and shot on.
And he said, "I'm talking trash to this guy?
I need to keep my mouth shut."
[Kenny Smith] New York City gave me a swagger,
a confidence that was delusional at times,
but it also gave me the confidence to go,
I'm gonna be there, and I belong here.
I never felt I didn't belong,
and that was because of New York.
sentimental music
Growing up in Queens, my dad and my mom always had,
like, a worker mentality that they instilled in me.
I just wanted to be the best at something.
[Vincent] One day, we were in the gym,
and my dad made me and Kenny take out our pockets,
and he said, "How much money you guys have in your pockets?"
We said none. He said, "We need to get to work, then."
[Kenny Smith] My brother, Vince, was like,
"You gotta get in shape if you want to be a great player."
Flushing Meadow Park,
where you see the big world circuit,
we would run it Monday, Wednesdays, and Friday.
Even in the snow, we'd put the snow boots on.
And from that,
that's when I got faster,
and that's when I started taking off.
[jet plane roaring]
Kenny "The Jet" is definitely
an appropriate nickname for him.
He was fast.
My nickname's earned, brother,
'cause I jetted up the court.
I've had two nicknames, but that one stuck.
The other one was Highrise-- Kenny Highrise--
'cause I could jump,
And they were like, "Kenny Highrise."
And I was like, "Oh, I like that."
But it didn't stick. It never stuck.
dramatic music
[Mark] I can remember growing up
and hearing about this kid across town,
and they call him "The Jet."
And then I got a opportunity to face him at a young age,
and I'm like, "This dude is the real deal.
I gotta step my game up."
Kenny was one of those New York point guards
you talk about could shoot the ball.
He could definitely shoot the ball.
[commentator] Three-pointer.
[cheers and applause]
[Andre] Playing on that big stage,
playing with Michael Jordan,
and him showing out and representing New York,
Kenny Smith was someone that definitely paved the way.
avant-garde jazz music
[Joekenneth] Bringing that New York swag
That attitude
Couldn't shake it if we tried
From the time we touched the court as youngins
We were raised to handle the rock
It's our art form, our self-expression
Our on-court weapon, all rolled in one
Handles is who we are
It's what we do
And if you hear a point guard yell
"Hey, yo, clear it out"
Well, you're in for a long night
hip-hop music
[rapper] Yo. [rapper] What's going on?
[Stephon] A New York City point guard
will give up his girl and his chain
before he give up his dribble.
[Kenny Smith] You know the old saying.
If you had to choose between your girl
and the rock, who you gonna take?
It's like, I won't have a date tonight,
'cause the rock is more important.
It's the most valuable thing ever.
We understood that in third grade.
motivational music
[Nancy] When you're handling the ball,
there's definitely a feel.
There's a freedom.
If I can lull you here
and then beat you to your top foot,
I'm gonna get by you.
[Rod] A lot of kids come into the gym,
and they shoot 1,000 jumpers, 2,000 jumpers.
Well, we were doing that ballhandling.
And so because of that,
I think it became a part of my hand.
[Kenny Anderson] Working on my ball skills,
I used to do so many crazy things.
You know, going to the grocery store,
getting the eggs from the store,
and I dribble with the ball, left hand.
Then I switch the eggs over, right hand.
And I'll see how many I break before I get upstairs.
I broke a few.
I got cussed out
a bunch of times too.
[Shannon] No girl was able to stay in front of me.
No girl can guard me.
I have pretty much one of the best handles
you will ever see in the girls' game.
I'd dribble the air out the ball if you wanted me to.
[Smush] I used to carry around a tennis ball with me,
and I used to dribble through the crowds,
walking down New York City streets.
No, when I didn't have a tennis ball,
I used to cross people over with no basketball,
walking down the street in New York City.
And people used to look at me cray.
I'd mix, mix.
I still do it now!
Bounce with it...
[Taliek] Growing up, that's all I really used to do,
is work on my handle a lot, you know what I mean?
That's how I really started playing,
just watching wizards with the basketball
like God Shammgod.
Between the legs, full court,
nonstop.
[Niesha] I just remember watching him,
and it's just like, "How is he doing it?"
How do you cross somebody ten times
in two seconds, you know what I mean?
I can actually hear the ball dribbling
when you think about Shammgod.
[Joekenneth] You can't talk about handles
without talking about the man behind the move:
God Shammgod.
The Diplomats' "Dispet Anthem"
Yeah, Dipset
Uh, come on
Uh, with your boy...
[commentator] Shammgod.
Oh, my goodness.
Let me see you do this
Killa, Jim, Freekey...
[Stephon] Shamm is one of the masters
at dribbling the basketball on the planet.
Today's a new day
Got the boo-lay up in the suitcase
Go uptown to Harlem, tell 'em that I sent ya...
Most creative point guard that New York had seen.
[commentator] The greatest handle since Samsonite.
[commentator] Shammgod somehow snuck inside again.
You better know how to play
if you got a name-- Shammgod Wells!
[commentator] You know he's coming,
but you still can't stop him.
[commentator] Shammgod for the tie!
A move is named after him. A move.
Uh, with ya boy...
You flick the ball out, and you snatch it back.
[A-Butta] When I say legendary,
I don't know too many people that got they own move.
Scared to death. Scared to look.
Yeah, he shook.
jaunty jazz music
My name's God Shammgod.
I'm from Harlem, New York.
I hear a little kid like,
"Yeah, I Shammgods him. I Shammgods him."
"Oh, you know that's a person, right?"
And he's like, "Nah, that's not a person.
That's a move. That's a move. The Shammgod."
And he's like, "Yeah, this is Shammgod right here."
He's like, "You're not Shammgod.
You're not Shammgod." [laughs]
[Cam'ron] I seen Shamm do that in the street.
Before that shit got on TV, anywhere else,
that shit was on 145th Street and Lenox Park,
in my face, pause.
[cheering]
[God] In 1997 against Arizona,
that was the day Shammgod was born to the world.
[Bobbito] Highly-televised game.
He pulls out the move that he did at 139 and Lenox.
[vocalizes]
suspenseful music
I jumped out my couch like, "What?"
That was epic. Ooh, ooh!
He did the playground and now it's on the TV.
[God] I tell everybody, "Clear it out, clear it out. "
And I tried to do another move,
and then reacted to me messing up on another move.
And then the whole Shammgod thing was born.
[Cam'ron] He really had everybody else
practicing it because he did it so fast.
You know, it was like,
"Yo, what the fuck was that? What'd you just do?"
That move right there is still used to this day.
I done seen some people get messed up
with that move right there.
[cheering]
[commentator] Westbrook comes off the screen.
He hits him with the Shammgod.
[commentator] Oh!
20-plus years later,
the world is still calling it the Shammgod.
I gotta thank my father for that,
because if my name was Al,
it probably wouldn't sound as cool.
solemn music
In the seventh grade, I went to PS 275.
And this teacher, he always saying something,
'cause he was our PE teacher.
"Hey, you just need to focus, 'cause if you really knew
what you was doing, you could be good."
And I'm like, "Who the eff
is this old guy telling me how to play?
This dude don't know nothing about no basketball."
So my boy was like,
"Hey, I got this tape you can watch.
It's called Below the Rim."
And it had Tim Hardaway,
it had Isaiah Thomas,
all these other great point guards,
like, from back in the days.
So it got to Tiny Archibald, and I'm like,
"Yo, he looks just like the guy that's my gym teacher.
He probably related to him,"
'cause I'm like, at this point,
you know, if somebody's in the NBA,
you think they rich, period.
So I go back to school, and I'm like,
"Hey, is Tiny Archibald related to you?"
He was like, "What are you talking about?
That's me."
ambient music
He's the crème de la crème of New York City point guards.
That's the GOAT, GOAT, GOAT.
[Kenny Smith] The only guy to lead the league
in assisting and scoring in the same year.
He could shoot. He could rebound.
He could defend. He was a great passer.
Tiny Archibald is in a class by himself.
He was the architect of what we're talking about.
[God] "Why the hell you didn't tell me you played in the NBA?
That's crazy."
After that, he told me, "If you master how to dribble,
you will always be worth something to a team."
hip-hop music
He would practice all day,
and then in the middle of the night,
sneak out the house and walk down Lenox Avenue,
just dribbling the ball down the lines
of the Lenox Avenue streets.
[Stephon] I was the biggest fan of how he would cross over.
We would go to Five-Star camp.
Everybody got shook.
All of us.
[commentator] Shammgod is almost
an impossible player to defense.
He played the game at a slower pace.
He didn't speed by you all the time.
So he slowed down.
[commentator] Shammgod. Stop and go, and delivers.
And that's Harlem, 'cause they like to be seen.
Harlem dudes like to be seen.
They want you to show your outfit.
They want to see what sneakers.
He had the whole Harlem vibe.
You would just know somebody that's from Harlem.
Like, you could just tell by the way we dressed,
the way we wear our hats.
We got our own swag.
[Cam'ron] We're from Harlem, so we're big on fashion.
Shamm had bought these shoes.
It looked like a regular shoe-- sneaker--
but in the front,
it was like a round plate, but it was off the ground,
and you walked basically on your toes all day.
And I'm just walking around with them on all day
like it's just a regular day, like, going to the store.
He would wear them,
working out with them, dribbling with them.
[Cam'ron] Going to school, getting on the train,
getting on the bus, going to the park,
going to see his girlfriend-- whatever it is, on these shoes.
So niggas was like, "Yo, Shamm is wilding.
Like, he might have smoked that bad blunt right there.
We don't know what the fuck Shamm is doing,
you know what I'm saying?
Like, yo, Shamm, what the fuck are you wearing?"
And Cam and them called them orthopedic shoes.
Like, "Yo, why you got these hospital shoes on?"
And then, like, three months later,
Shamm started dunking on people.
We like, "Oh, the fucking shoes!"
you know what I'm saying?
Like, these shoes were to help you jump,
just walk on your toes all day,
but they look stupid.
So when he did that
and started wearing them shoes to school and to the store
and didn't care what nobody said,
I said, "Oh, he's gonna be a different type of animal."
-[producer] Maybe that? -Yo, that's the shits!
Yo, these are the fucking shoes!
Did I describe them?
Did I do a good job describing these shits?
These are the exact shoes right here
that we used to tease him about, absolutely.
Yo, this is crazy you have these in the cut right now.
melancholic music
[Joekenneth] Shamm made his mark.
All of our point gods did,
but making your mark in 1980s New York City wasn't easy.
It was a tumultuous time to navigate
as a youngin on a mission,
and for all of us,
it was something we had to figure out.
[Jamal] In the '80s,
we were seeing the manifestation
of the abandonment of the communities.
Any way that people could be made fearful,
beat down, and incarcerated, it happened.
What you see is the rise of unemployment.
And so what fills the hole for that unemployment?
We see crack come at the same time.
This has reached epidemic proportion.
[Chuck D] The Black community, in the '80s,
it was infiltrated with guns, drugs,
quick, fast money, and everything that came with it.
You know, New York was always, like,
"We'll knock you down. Get back up."
hip-hop music
[Jamal] What was happening was cultural resilience.
The birthplace of hip-hop.
Boogie, boogie down.
[beatboxes]
[Chuck D] Let's get involved with some music, hip-hop.
Do it in the parks. Basketball.
[indistinct chatter]
[Fat Joe] All these guys were surrounded
by gangs and drugs,
but those guys, we knew at a early age they were special.
Those are the guys who we protected
because we knew they could make it.
They could go further.
[indistinct chatter]
[Kenny Smith] You come out to play.
You see the crack bottles on the floor,
and you gotta sweep it up.
You hear the gunplay-- pop, pop, pop--
the sirens going off.
[Fat Joe] I mean, these kids got
so many obstacles against them.
I know everybody has a hard time everywhere,
but New York City is gladiator school.
[Joe] When you come to New York City,
you gotta be a little careful where you're going.
I remember coming to see Pearl.
He said, "Now, Coach, you come to my neighborhood,
just call me.
I'll come and get you."
[Kenny Smith] Pearl Washington was a man among Boys
that we all chased.
And we felt, if we can compete with him,
that we can compete with anybody.
I told you earlier,
I thought I could guard Michael Jordan
'cause I guard Pearl Washington.
[Joekenneth] Nobody was more New York
than the late, great Pearl Washington,
who took the Big East by storm
with his boogie, learned on the blacktop.
Rest in peace.
Can you feel it?
Check this out
Girl, I'll house you
You in my hut now, my hut
Girl, I'll house you...
Pearl was like Black Jesus out there.
You were just like, "Did you see this guy?
You gotta go see this guy!"
Yeah, yeah
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, it's time...
He did things that nobody could do with a basketball.
Greatest showman that ever came from New York City.
He was everybody's idol.
Jump, jump a little higher
Jump, jump until you get tired...
[Kenny Anderson] Too bad he's not here today,
'cause he's the god.
Yeah, he's God.
[commentator] The last shot, Washington.
Two seconds.
Oh!
He embodied what New York City point guards were about.
[commentator] Number 31, Dwayne Washington.
[Rod] There was a buzz in the city
about Pearl Washington.
Everybody's packed in the park.
The game is getting ready to start
and Pearl's not there,
so you see everybody walking.
They leaving the park.
Then you just see him coming in with the motorcycle.
You know, he revving up the engine.
And you see everybody running back to their seats.
So Pearl would come to the games on a motorbike
with a big, gold Pac-Man chain,
'cause he always ate up his opponents.
[Bobbito] Pac-Man was that video game,
like, the "waka waka waka waka waka,"
and that's what Pearl would do.
lively music
I remember him walking in the gym,
having his Pac-Man chain,
and his girl having Ms. Pac-Man chain.
I never seen a guy come to a high school game
in a fur coat till I saw Pearl.
I was like, "This guy's unbelievable."
[reporter] The Pearl, Dwayne Washington.
He's already a legend, and here's
what the basketball people are saying:
"The best player ever to come out of New York City."
jaunty jazz music
[Stephen] I tried to go to three games
at Boys and Girls High School.
It was too packed. I couldn't get in.
[reporter] Big relief to have finally made that decision
-of Syracuse? -[Pearl] Oh, yeah.
And I'm definitely looking forward
to going up there too and playing.
[reporter] Playing in that Carrier Dome.
I call it the Pearl Dome. [chuckles]
[Rafer] He made every New York City kid
dream of playing and going to Syracuse.
A lot of us didn't even know where Syracuse was,
but we knew we wanted to go there
'cause that's where Pearl was.
[cheering]
[Jim] You walk into the Carrier Dome,
and there's 30,000 people there,
the anticipation of Pearl playing,
it was unbelievable.
And the crowd was--
it was like they were watching a Bruce Springsteen concert.
"Born in the USA" playing
[crowd] Born in the USA...
Syracuse, with Pearl Washington, was--
he was showtime.
[Rick] He had great vision. Great penetration.
Really a magical basketball player in the open court.
Dwayne "Pearl" Washington
is the greatest show
in the history of college basketball.
[announcer] The 1984
Big East Conference Tournament Championships.
This game comes to you from Madison Square Garden
in New York City.
Now, being from New York and putting on from New York
is totally two different things.
He played at Madison Square Garden,
which is the mecca of New York.
I call it Microwave Square Garden.
It will melt you if you're not ready for it.
[announcer] For the Hoyas of Georgetown University...
Georgetown was known for their famous pressing defense,
Hoya Paranoia.
Georgetown had the best defensive team
in the history of college basketball.
And everybody talking about how the pressure of Georgetown
is gonna expose the great Pearl Washington.
[commentator] Oh, he's a Garden favorite.
Listen to this crowd.
[Bobbito] He looked like a penguin
with Pro-Keds on.
He'd be like, "Please throw a full court press at me--
please--so I can bring out the whip-wop."
[Dermon] Georgetown goes for their famous
man-to-man full court pressure.
Pearl says to Jim Boeheim,
"Get out the way.
I got it."
[commentator] Look at Pearl dribbling.
[God] Man, he destroyed Georgetown.
[commentator] Pearl stops and banks it in.
They was trying to press him. He in and out, crossing over.
He's playing like I see people play in the park.
[commentator] The Garden's alive.
The Pearl goes to town.
[Rod] He would laugh.
Like, he would do something real good
and just run down court, laughing.
[commentator] Oh, big smile too.
He loves New York.
[commentator] And New York loves him.
[Jim] You just couldn't guard him.
I mean, nobody could. Nobody ever did.
[commentator] The Pearl goes to work.
He's got it!
[laughter]
[commentator] Absolutely sensational!
[Mark] Against the pressure,
he beat Goliath with his ballhandling.
[Jim] And then he's got to deal with Patrick Ewing.
[commentator] The Pearl goes up against Ewing,
and he's got it.
[Jim] You don't lay it up on Patrick Ewing.
You don't even try to.
Most normal guys don't try to.
hip-hop music
[Mark] For the first time ever, you saw
the great perimeter defenders of Georgetown
giving airspace.
It's almost like saying,
"You got me. You got me."
And every New York City person was sitting there,
high-fiving, saying, "I told you."
[commentator] Listen to this ovation for the Pearl.
[Stephen] He embarrassed you.
He made you go home and really contemplate
whether you were meant to play basketball.
I'm just lucky I got the best seat in the house
to watch him play.
I still get--
I still get teary.
It's hard not to.
[sniffles]
ambient music
[Joekenneth] Breaking the toughest press
in college basketball history?
Pssh, man, the city throws full-court pressure at us
every day just to survive.
That's why Pearl laughed in the face of Hoya Paranoia,
why Kenny dared to check MJ,
and why Shamm was bold enough to get busy on the big stage
like it was 139th and Lenox.
Pressure makes diamonds,
and our point guards shine brightest
when the pressure is on.
In New York, we can't just show up.
We gotta show out.
And we do it with style.
dramatic orchestral music
That New York style of play is just all about,
you know, swag, flash,
having that confidence.
[commentator] And he has big moves.
[Vincent] We're a little "ooh and ahh" city.
"Ooh! Ahh! Did you see that?
Oh, behind the back!
Oh, my God! He's so good!"
[Cam'ron] When you from New York
and you shake somebody and the crowd go "ooh,"
there's no stat for that shit,
but if you "bah, bah, bah, bah,"
"ooh,"
that's almost like five, six points
in our brain.
[Shannon] We talk trash.
And we say, "How much you want to play for?"
You know, it's about bragging rights.
It's about letting you know you're not better than me.
[Nancy] You had to kind of come
with some swag, bravado.
You put fear into the person guarding you
because they don't want to be embarrassed.
They're just like,
"Man, they're gonna be talking about this,"
and you're like, "Yep, they're gonna be talking about this."
[Bobbito] It wasn't just moves.
It was your sneakers. It was your shorts.
It was, like, your haircut.
The whole mentality was like,
"Okay, like, somebody did it like this.
I'm gonna try to do it, like, this much iller."
At the game, I'm watching people have,
like, women undress them and dress them.
At halftime, they changing sneakers.
[Book] We invented the word "swag."
We invented the no-look pass.
We invented the "and one now," the handshakes.
And you kind of look like,
"Ah, that's just being from New York City."
It was just, "Yo, he's just from New York."
You're so New York.
melancholic music
[Kenny Smith] As much as New York City point guards
get talked about, we're not better.
We just have guys who stay longer than they should
or make it where they shouldn't.
And I always say, Mark Jackson.
If you describe him, you go,
"Can he shoot? Can he jump?
And was he fast?"
All of those are gonna be in the negatives,
but he's played 20 years in the NBA.
He's one of the best all-time assist leaders ever.
Ever!
[Joekenneth] Kenny's right.
Numbers don't lie.
And when the lights were bright
and the cameras were on,
nobody brought it like Mark "Action" Jackson.
Don't wake me
I'm dreamin'...
[commentator] Enabling that turnover to take,
Action Jackson.
[commentator] If anyone's capable of doing it,
Mark Jackson is.
He's the consummate point guard.
You couldn't speed Mark up.
He always played at his own pace.
[commentator] He decides when to go and when to slow.
And he saw things way before everybody else did.
An exceptional passer.
Eyes behind his head.
[commentator] Mark Jackson will set up the show
all night long.
[Vincent] I don't know if you know,
Mark Jackson was a cocky son of a gun.
He would always do this when he scored or made a great pass,
and he would fly like this after something great happened.
And everybody said, "When are you gonna get him
to stop doing that?"
And my response was,
"As long as he flies into the press,
I'm fine with it."
[Mark] They called me Mark "Action" Jackson.
I'm just Mark Jackson now.
I made my first basketball team at eight years old,
and to be quite honest,
I scored one point the entire season.
But it allowed me to dream.
I continued to get better and better.
I can remember playing at 11 years old,
my mom and dad sitting in the stands.
My mom never shut up.
Love her to death, but she was proud of her babies,
and she was gonna let you know she was proud of her babies.
His mom is the loudest cheerleader out there.
"You better stop Kenny Smith, Mark!
And he's not as good as my son!"
[Mark] So I'm scoring, and the announcer's like,
"Basket by Mark Jackson."
My mom stands up and yells,
"His name isn't Mark Jackson.
It's Mark 'Action' Jackson."
And I'm sitting there, 11-year-old kid,
like, "Are you kidding me?"
I didn't know that was my name, but Mama was proud,
and she was tired of just giving me the regular name.
She wanted to add a flair to it.
[announcer] Number 13, Mark Jackson.
[Mark] My style of play was affected
because of New York City.
The grit, the grind,
the hustle, the toughness, the competitive spirit.
[commentator] Mark Jackson oftentimes appears
to just have a string on that ball.
[Mark] It prepared me
that when I got to St. John's University,
I was ready.
[commentator] Just what the doctor ordered,
and Mark Jackson, Mr. Clutch.
[commentator] Mark "Action" Jackson!
Doing it all!
[Book] In watching him at St. John's,
he put me to sleep at night.
He was like a warm blanket. He was like...
chocolate chip cookies with warm milk.
I watched him and was like,
everything in the world was gonna be better.
[Mark] I would not be a pro for 17 years
had I not met Lou Carnesecca
and played at St. John's University.
It made me better.
Coach.
17.
A long time.
[laughs]
I love this guy.
[announcer] Just minutes away from the first selection
in the 1987 NBA Draft here
at the Felt Forum, Madison Square Garden.
Mark Jackson from St. John's is here,
and there's Kenny Smith of North Carolina.
And now, it wasn't just draft day for me.
It was D-Day.
[announcer] At the top of your screen,
you see the time remaining for Sacramento.
[Mark] Some teams told me--
I don't mean to, you know, expose them, but they told me,
"If you're on the board, we're gonna pick you."
They picked Kenny Smith, man.
Kenny Smith from North Carolina.
[Kenny Smith] After I got picked sixth,
you know, you go to the back.
They had a screen that he was still sitting there,
and I was like, "Nah, nobody should be like that
on this day."
Kept going on and on, and Mark didn't get picked,
and he didn't get picked.
This is 15, 16, 17.
And so I go out there and I sit with him.
And after his interviews and everything,
he's sitting beside me.
I'm like, "Dude, you can't get drafted twice."
[Vincent] When it got to the time
when they were gonna pick--
the New York Knicks--
Kenny said, "They're gonna pick you."
Which is all of our dream, to play for the Knicks.
And I sit down, and I pray that the Knicks take this dude.
I don't know if he was praying, but I was praying.
For the 18th pick
in the 1987 NBA Draft...
And Kenny's sitting there, and he's doing this.
There's no this for me, 'cause I'm like,
who's to say that they don't screw it up?
We know the Knicks. They might screw it up again.
The New York Knickerbockers select Mark Jackson.
triumphant music
[Mark] And I am absolutely stunned
and overwhelmed with emotion.
You mean to tell me I don't have
to leave New York City to play?
It was a dream come true.
It was the hardest five minutes of my life.
Matter of fact, I almost broke down
thanks to Kenny Smith walking over
and taking care of me for about 2 1/2 minutes,
but I'm just-- I'm elated to be here.
Well, we needed a point guard to go with Patrick.
We were void of a point guard.
We needed somebody to get Patrick the ball,
really understood the game,
was just as intelligent a basketball player
as he's physically talented,
and that was Mark.
[Stephen] He was always, always a floor general.
You would see him talking to coaches.
You know, "Do this. Do this. Do that."
And he was one of the most trusted point guards,
I think, in the history of basketball.
[commentator] Although the Mark Jackson story
is still in the early stages,
he has already established himself as a star.
[commentator] Mark Jackson!
[reporter] Knicks' guard, Mark Jackson,
had won the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy
as NBA Rookie of the Year.
The only guy in the history of professional sports
to win Rookie of the Year
staying in the same house that he was raised in.
After the game,
you see my BMW sitting right outside of my house,
in Queens, New York,
114-23 197th Street.
Mom was the biggest cheerleader.
When I was the eight-year-old kid
that scored the one point the entire year,
she was up clapping
like she knew what I was about to do.
She believed in me before I believed in me,
and that confidence deposited something in my spirit
that still lives no matter what I try to accomplish.
I can hear her cheering me on, and I'm forever grateful.
tender music
[Joekenneth] The point god heyday was a challenging time.
The parks department's budget was radically cut
and threatening the thriving basketball scene.
[indistinct chatter]
Point gods laid new foundations
with AAU programs,
such as Riverside Church and Gauchos.
ambient music
[reporter] Right here in the heart of the South Bronx
is a shiny new $2 million gymnasium,
which is owned by the Gauchos.
[Book] You were gonna take some inner-city youth,
and you were going to help their life through basketball.
You know, the '80s and '90s,
the who's who of college basketball,
the who's who of the NBA
were playing in the Gauchos gym.
[reporter] Dwayne "Pearl" Washington
went from the Gauchos to Syracuse University,
and then he too made it to the NBA.
If it weren't for the Gauchos,
where would most of these kids be tonight, you explain?
Forget these kids. You know, where would I be?
If it wasn't for this type of atmosphere,
no telling where these kids would be.
[Stephon] Gauchos and Riverside are the two juggernauts
of AAU in New York City.
[Dermon] Let's go! Run! Run! Finish! Finish!
So I decided to join Riverside Church in 1989.
Come on! Come on! Come on!
Quick guard! Quick guard! Quick guard!
And one of the things I do is,
I teach guys how to read the floor
and see the action before the action happens.
Don't let him embarrass you! Ooh!
Ooh-hoo-hoo!
[Kenny Smith] The Riverside jacket was gold.
Blue jacket with the yellow strap.
It skated you through the city of all adversity
if you wore that jacket.
Have a ten o'clock game.
You eat. It's 1:00 in the morning.
It's not a good environment for, you know, a 13-year-old
to be on the train at one o'clock in the morning.
You see the Thug Nation walking through the subway,
and they checking everybody out.
It's like, who's the next vic? Who's the next victim?
And, "Oh, you play for Riverside?"
"Yeah."
"Wow. Yo, keep doing it, brother."
They stopped. They would give you the pass.
That Riverside jacket saved us.
[Dermon] Hard to guard, man. You guys getting better.
You guys have gotten better.
[Book] Riverside Church, the New York City Gauchos--
what it's done for so many kids,
boys and girls, has been tremendous.
[Joekenneth] Mad players from the 'Chos
left their mark on the city,
but Niesha Butlers' legacy
was left in the city's record books.
I remember watching this girl out there,
and she was shaking dudes up,
and I'm like, "Yo, who is this girl?"
And they like, "Oh, that's Niesha Butler."
[Stephon] Niesha Butler is nice.
She had the flair. She had that NY flair.
And she could get to the basket.
inspirational music
You know, my dad made it a point
to have me play Gauchos, to have me play on the streets,
because he didn't want me to be, like, a paper champion.
He wanted me to go in and earn my stripes.
I pulled up at Gauchos one time,
and she was there, and I was her working out,
and I was like, "Okay, she about her business."
[Andre] She would always constantly be in there,
working on her game, playing against the boys.
Scoring six, eight, nine points against the guys,
that honestly translated
to, like, 20, 30, 40 against the girls.
You look at her wins and losses,
you match them up against anyone.
She just was a bad motherfucker.
[reporter] She averaged 30 points a game
and scored over 3,000 points,
more than any other player in New York City history,
girl or boy.
I have to give Gauchos credit
because that was one of the reasons
why I feel like I got the record,
because they made me work.
They got me ready.
[Rod] I started playing with the Gauchos at ten years old.
Been in this gym. Played with a lot of talent.
It's a special place
'cause it jumpstarted my career.
[Joekenneth] Our next point god was a maestro
at taking the ball to the bucket.
Your point god's favorite point god,
the BX's own Rod Strickland.
Black Moon's "Who Got da Props?"
Put up, what up, bo, bo, bo
Suckers want to flow, but they got no show
So I'ma grab the mic
Flip the script, and leave ya stunned...
[commentator] Here comes Rod.
Hello! Two more!
My favorite point guard is Rod Strickland,
because when I played against him,
I couldn't guard him.
[commentator] Oh, here it is!
And there you go!
[Smush] He had a style
that no other player on the court at the time had.
[commentator] Dealing with Rod Strickland
for 44 minutes, that could be difficult.
Flashy, but strictly business.
Tricky Strick, man.
Like, he's a bigger version of Kyrie Irving.
Strength, gritty, style, swag, charisma.
[Andre] The best finisher
the game has ever seen.
[Rod] Rod Strickland, Bronx, New York.
In New York City, we grew up
where you had to take contact.
You couldn't call fouls.
And I got that confident
to where I felt like you can foul me any kind of way,
and I can make the play.
[Mark] And you can tell, being around Rod--
the way he talks, the way he walks,
the way he leans when he's making a comment,
the way he plays--
it says Bronx.
[Andre] Rod was like the pretty boy,
but then when he stepped on the court,
he had his fingers taped up like he was in a boxing match.
[commentator] Strickland pulls up from 14.
[Vincent] His midrange game
and his twisting shots off the glass
with the left hand and his right hand--
he was the only guy I ever seen
that I said didn't need a jump shot.
After a time, you know, the creative mind,
I started trying to figure out the backboard.
I used to just spend two hours,
you know, shotting layups.
[Kenny Smith] Rod Strickland finished like he was 7 feet.
Like, around the basket, under, up.
Any angle of the basketball,
to finish it, he could do it.
I had never seen that, ever.
[Rod] In my mind, I was always like,
"Okay, I'm not dunking,
but if I run into a big guy and I lay him in one,
that's my dunk."
[Rafer] Rod Strick was one guy
that I taped his games when he was at DePaul.
I still could watch Rod Strickland games.
[announcer] A 6'3" freshman
from Bronx, New York.
Number 10, Rod Strickland.
Going to DePaul, it just fit me.
[commentator] Rod Strickland with a jump shot.
[commentator] And right now, Rod Strickland
has not backed off at all.
[commentator] Here goes Strickland, right there.
[commentator] Oh, beautiful change
in midair by Strickland.
[Rod] I had a great three years there.
I was projected to go anywhere between 7 and 15.
[announcer] The 1988 NBA Draft.
[Rod] I got a call in my hotel room, draft day,
that I might be slipping.
You go back and look at that draft,
he should have been picked ahead of a lot of cats.
but he was temperamental with coaches,
and that gave people cause to pause.
But I'm just here to lend my support
to a couple of friends I have in the draft
and really wishing them well.
I remember the night, in 1988,
a year later from when I was drafted,
and now the Knicks have another first round draft choice.
[announcer] You see Mark Jackson,
who was selected by the Knicks last year,
and with him is Shelton Jones, another St. John's player.
[Rod] Mark and Shelton Jones
are sitting next to each other, holding hands.
Like, you know, it's like, "Yo,
my guy's coming with me," you know?
And so they're hoping for that pick.
[announcer] The New York Knicks have their selection next.
[Rod] As they go to the 19th pick,
you know, now it's the Knicks' pick,
and I knew they had Mark Jackson,
so I'm like, "I'm done."
I could slip in the second round,
so I was a little nervous.
"Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
Let's get us a bigtime wing."
David Stern says, "And the Knicks select"...
...Rod Strickland of DePaul.
[Rod] And they call my name, and they just start booing.
Like, the whole place was booing.
[announcer] Rod Strickland,
surprising the crowd at the Felt Forum.
A chorus of boos coming up from some.
[Rod] It kind of was a little bittersweet.
I'm from New York.
I did a little bit of work out here,
and I'm getting booed in my own--
you know, so it was an interesting day.
He got booed because of the Knicks fans thinking,
"Why would you pick a point guard
when you just got a New York City point guard
that won Rookie of the Year?"
The scouts were gonna take the best player available,
and Rod Strickland was.
We were gonna have two New York City point guards.
It didn't bother me at all.
[announcer] He's returning home.
He's from the Bronx.
[Rod] When they called my name, obviously I was happy,
because I was a Knick, but in my mind, I'm like, why?
And Mark was just Rookie of the Year,
so I'm like, "I don't know how that fits."
Mark's a great player, and he's Rookie of the Year,
so it's really a hard situation to come into,
but I'm just gonna go out there and give it my best.
[Mark] But I was a little bit upset
they picked Hot Rod Strickland,
because now I gotta fight this dude every single day.
tense music
[Rod] It was a tough situation.
We had our little battles,
'cause I almost tried to fight him at practice one day.
You come into the locker room,
I'ma joke, I'ma say something funny,
I'ma slick what you wearing, how you played, whatever.
It was one day where Rod Strickland had enough.
[Rod] I think I probably was frustrated.
I wanted to play more.
And I think Mark was talking that day
and doing his little helicopter,
and I kept just pushing him.
Like, I would just knock him off the ball screen,
like, purposely,
just trying to, you know, agitate him.
We went at each other's heads.
We absolutely went at each other.
It was personal.
It was me trying to instigate a fight
more than anything.
It wasn't me. It was the situation.
Rod had had enough, and the New York City
in both of us almost got the best of it.
[Rod] But one thing about Mark,
he kept his composure, played,
and, you know, that was it.
We talk about it all the time. We laugh and joke about it.
[Mark] But it's nothing but love, respect,
and appreciation
for Rod Strickland and his greatness.
But Rod didn't want none of this.
[chuckles]
tranquil music
[Joekenneth] From prodigies to pros,
from the Church to the 'Chos,
our point guards are about that action.
We definitely got the ability to chop up defenders
and make them dance on the way to the rim,
but we much rather go through a defender's chest
for the layup 'cause we built like that.
We work for our buckets.
New York City point guards don't know no other way.
Toughness is in our DNA.
And that's something you can't teach.
tense music
[Andre] What makes a New York City point guard
is, we can't be rattled.
I mean, playing in different projects,
playing in different neighborhoods,
if you get rattled, you getting chased out of there.
That was New York. Like, you had to be gritty.
You had to be tough.
You couldn't back down because
if you show any signs of weakness,
yeah, they was gonna trample right over you.
Later on, I was with the Chicago Bulls,
and me and Ben Wallace was on the same team.
And Ben was, like, Big Bad Ben.
So I'll never forget.
I came off a screen in practice one time,
and he, like, bumped me.
And I, like, flared up and, like, still kept going.
He was like, "Yo, little muh, watch them elbows."
And I was like, "What you mean watch them elbows?"
He looked at me and he was like,
"A'ight, do it again."
I was like, "Get in my way again."
After that, when we went in the locker room,
he was like, "You from New York.
You from the Bronx. I could tell,"
'cause he had played with Rod Strickland.
"You Rod little man."
"Yeah. Rod, like, my big brother."
Like, yo, he was like, "Yeah, I could tell."
He was like, "Y'all got the same, little attitude.
Little feisty. Y'all New York dudes is crazy."
[laughs]
jaunty jazz music
I'm like a bully on the court,
believe it or not, at 5'2".
I'm already trying to steal your heart
by just looking at you.
Once I see that you timid, it's over.
hip-hop music
If somebody sees that you're afraid,
it's like a dog sensing you're afraid.
They'll bite you.
Even if you weren't good,
you had to fake it like you were good.
[Taliek] If you don't have the talent,
you could get over with the grittiness.
You could get over with your toughness.
[Omar] We don't care who you are.
We don't care where you from.
You know, we ain't trying
to, you know, sugarcoat it
or nothing like that.
We coming straight for you.
[Kenny Smith] Playground ball in New York was rough.
Yo, I'm, like, 165, soaking wet,
and 6'2", skinny kid.
They push you. They foul you.
You can't call no foul.
Yo, they gonna hit you harder,
and you gonna start fighting.
You gotta fight.
If you busting somebody's ass,
they were ready to beat your ass.
I mean, that's just the way it was.
You know, after you beat somebody,
they chase you to the train station.
I played with this group called the Young Boys Make Noise,
from the eastside.
They used to come with guns to every basketball game
and be willing to fight whoever
or shoot or do anything anytime.
[Bobbito] When you know dudes are on the side
that got thousands of dollars on a game,
and you know dudes is packing,
and you got a dude on the mic
screaming on anything that goes wrong,
and you got 1,000 people in the crowd,
their IQ is ridiculous
and they're gonna laugh at you if you do something wrong,
if you can play
under those circumstances, wow.
The environment for the New York City point guard
is ruthless.
You make it out of here,
you're fucking tough as nails, man.
sentimental music
[Joekenneth] That New York City environment creates pressure.
And as we said, pressure makes diamonds, right?
This Coney Island legend shined the brightest.
Straight out of Lincoln High School, Starbury!
MOP's "How About Some Hardcore"
How about some hardcore?
Yeah, we like it raw
How about some hardcore?
Yeah, we like it raw
How about some hardcore?
Yeah, we like it raw...
[commentator] Marbury's starting
to turn it on a little bit right now.
Stephon Marbury a dog. Determined.
Just a wolf out there on the floor.
Posted up 20 deep...
[commentator] One of the more gifted point guards
we've had in the USA in a long, long time.
-Ultra competitive. -Child prodigy.
One of the unique New York City point guards,
that also had the jumper.
[commentator] Marbury's gonna try to put up
a long-range bomb.
He's got good range.
Strongest point guard I ever seen.
Think about him cuffing the ball
when he get in the lane.
You want a confrontation, I packs my gat
He got a J. He got a handle.
He can get to the rack. He can finish at the rack.
He can defend. He can pass.
He's got floor generalship. What is he missing?
[Stephon] What's up, what's up, what's up?
My name is Stephon Marbury.
I'm from Brooklyn, New York, Coney Island.
soft percussion music
You go to play in Coney Island,
everybody said we play dirty.
You just had this rugged, rigid style.
You had these adults that would put the young guys on the court
and play, and no fouls,
and you'll be looking at the older guys like,
"How is that not a foul?"
Game point is like murder.
We used to smack him off the courts, man.
We used to play, man.
We used to always run on the basketball court,
take the balls, and run.
We have to call up to his house,
call his mom to come get him.
You know, when you go play other places,
it was so easy to play
because you were so used to getting thrown into the gate,
scrapes on--you got strawberries on your hips.
Like, that was normal.
Most New York City point guards,
we might be a little skinny, sinewy.
He had that muscle. He had that rock.
I seen tough guys who were defenders
do this when they played him.
They play everybody else like this.
They play him, they're like--
they don't want that contact from Steph.
[Stephon] You know, and then you grow up
watching your brothers play, it was normal,
you know, when you saw that style of play.
[narrator] Basketball is king in Coney Island.
And in Coney Island,
this is the royal family of basketball.
Legendary Marbury clan. All of them got game.
[Vincent] If you said Marbury in Brooklyn, people know.
It was like saying Coca-Cola. They was a franchise.
[commentator] The Marbury boys have been lighting up
the scoreboard at Brooklyn's Lincoln High School
and dreaming of basketball's promised land,
a career in the NBA.
And for more than 20 years,
that dream has eluded the Marburys.
But Stephon Marbury, with all due respect,
was the best of the bunch.
And watching him bust onto the scene,
it was almost like we was waiting for it.
[Stephon] Come on, let's play!
You know, I'd tease him, be like,
"Yo, you was already, like, picked
to be the golden child since you was eight years old."
[Stephon] Hoop Scoop rated me the best sixth grader
in the nation.
I mean, I was playing against all of the top players,
and every time I played against them, I dominated them.
Steph taught me how to be professional at that age.
I was--it's crazy, I was 13 and he was 12,
but he was already ahead of time.
He was, like, the number one sixth grader,
the number one seventh grader, the number one eighth grader.
In the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York,
lives the Marbury family.
[Stephon] I was on 20/20.
They literally followed me for a year and a half,
and they did this super, super big piece on me.
They were calling me a young Mozart.
soft music
[reporter] They talk about him on the basketball court
the way they must have talked about the young Mozart
in the court of Vienna.
It is a lot to put to put on the shoulders
of a 17-year-old, the fulfillment of a dream
that has eluded all of your brothers.
I, Stephon Xavier Marbury,
will attend Georgia Tech University next year.
I was a businessman at the beginning of it all
because all of this was part of me getting to the NBA
to get my family out of the hood.
That's all I thought about.
My mother and father are putting me into your hands,
and they want you to protect me
and cherish the beautiful moments
that we spend together at Georgia Tech.
I want to reach that height, the NBA,
to be able to support my mother
and give her the things that she couldn't have
because of not being fortunate.
[crowd roaring]
He went to Georgia Tech and did amazing things.
[commentator] Marbury alone, drains.
Marbury drives. Marbury scores!
[God] I got respect for him 'cause, yo,
they don't understand the pressure he went through.
Like, for him to did what he did,
with all the stuff he had to go through--
like, at least me, I had to go through a lot,
but I got to enjoy basketball.
Like, it wasn't, like, life or death.
You know, like, with him, it was like,
if he don't make it, then the whole thing is done.
With the fourth pick in the 1996 NBA Draft,
the Milwaukee Bucks select Stephon Marbury.
[all cheering]
soft music
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you, Lord! Thank you!
Just sitting here, thinking
about when that day was gonna come.
And for it to be here now, it just feels so good.
I can put a permanent smile on my mother face.
People keep forgetting,
it's one thing to make it to the NBA.
It's another thing to bust ass in the NBA.
That's what my brothers used to tell me.
Like, "Yeah, you going to the NBA,
but what you gonna do when you get there?
You gonna do God's work, or you just going there to go there?"
upbeat music
[commentator] Stephon Marbury!
[commentator] The baseline pass!
Garnett is there!
[Kenny Smith] His passion. He just loved the game.
And so whenever I was around him,
he would just talk, we would talk.
He'd talk, "So when y'all won the championship"--
most guys would say, "What did you do?"
He'd be like, "Before the game, what did y'all eat?"
Like, he'd ask me crazy questions.
He just wanted to soak up every moment of basketball.
[Bobbito] Steph's NBA career...
[commentator] Marbury laying up!
...if you look at his averages, he's a underrated point guard.
Minus the Knicks, '06, '07.
Let's just forget about that season.
[laughs]
Other than that season, yo, Steph's career was wonderful.
[commentator] Mid-court, launching, it's there!
When you think about career averages,
20 points, eight assists a game,
and you think about those Oscar Robertson
kind of numbers, actually,
Stephon Marbury is the greatest point guard
in the history of New York City
this side of Nate "Tiny" Archibald.
[train rumbling]
soft music
[Joekenneth] Like Stephon, our point gods know
that pressure ain't going nowhere.
It either molds you or folds you.
And nowhere in New York is that more true
than on the city's most hallowed ground,
the legendary Rucker Park in Harlem.
This is where a spectacular game earns you a nickname
and where point gods become icons of the city.
The flash, the poise, the toughness,
the electrifying brand of basketball.
The Rucker is where hoopers
come to put their stamp on the game.
Let me hear you say, "Yeah, Harlem!"
[Joekenneth] In the late '90s,
the already intense competition skyrocketed
when rap moguls started running teams.
Dead set on winning
a prestigious Rucker championship,
the deep-pocketed celebrities
battle fiercely off the court as well,
attracting the top talent to rock with them.
The biggest prize was Kareem Reid,
a Bronx point guard who opted to play for Fat Joe.
[all] One, two, three, TS!
My favorite guy, Kareem Reid,
he is the greatest winner
out of all of the point guards.
Without Kareem, I probably would have retired.
[A-Butta] Kareem taught me a lot.
He could take on the show himself,
but if he knew how you scored,
he would always make sure that he set you up.
[Fat Joe] He knew how to take the right shot.
He knew how to give the right person the ball
at the right second.
He knew how to win championships.
[both] Fat Joe and the Terror Squad!
[Kareem] I played my heart out every time.
It didn't matter who I was playing against, what matchup.
And when I got into that parking lot,
it was just like, superpowers.
My cape came off.
It was like I was, you know, Batman.
[interviewer] This is Mr. Kareem Reid.
He is known as the best-kept secret.
But from what we see, he's no longer a secret.
How you feel about this victory tonight, man?
-You're the champs. -Feeling real well, man.
It's my first one, and I love it, baby, man.
There's more to come, baby, more to come.
[A-Butta] Next thing you know, Jay-Z started coming
over there and hanging over there.
He started looking and asking for Kareem to play.
Boy's in the building.
[Kareem] I'm seeing Jay-Z come.
I met Jay-Z. We hanging out.
I'm listening to his album before anybody,
you know, listening to it.
So we built a bond. But I thought Jay was just Jay.
He'll never get a team in there.
And then that happened, where he's getting a team,
and he's calling.
"Hey, Reem, you in the block? What you doing?"
I'm like, "I don't know what I'm doing."
Kareem was a hot commodity, man.
And so I hear a rumor that Jay went by Harlem
and dropped him off a bag.
So now, when I go in my neighborhood, it's a bag.
How you gonna turn down a bag?
It was a lump sum of money.
And I'm like, "What's this?"
"You playing with us. See you next week."
And it was a lot of money they gave him.
I don't have Jay-Z's money. I got good money.
I ain't got Jay-Z's money.
But I know he was like, "Yo, they gave me the bag."
tense music
So they was calling Reem and all that.
So I told Joe, I said,
"Yo, Joe, now they going after Reem."
-So he said... -"Call Kareem.
I gotta see him. Come up to Jimmy's Bronx Café."
I'm like, "Jimmy's? In the Bronx?"
Man, no lie, when I went back there,
look like I was getting ready to meet with the Godfather.
[laughs] He had candles back there.
He was sitting there like the Don.
I sit down with Kareem.
Joe was like, "Yo, have I ever told you no?"
"These people gonna come and go.
You know, we from the Bronx. I'm gonna be here for life."
So he just said, "Whatever's in there, give it back.
We gon' fix it.
But you ain't never gotta worry about nothing else."
And from that day on, it was just Fat Joe.
Fat Joe everything.
No, he showed me the money.
I think they gave him, like, [bleep] thousand.
Don't put this on there.
But he pulled out the [bleep] thousand cash.
He was like, "Yo, they gave me [bleep] cash."
It's like, "I'm not giving you that,
but I have a lifetime of friendship."
[laughs]
Kareem's a loyal one.
[Joekenneth] For some point gods like Kareem,
making a name for themselves in a legendary park
like the Rucker is one thing, but for others,
it takes a special high school experience to shape them.
Hailing from Lefrak City, Queens,
Kenny Anderson.
Ruby, baby
Tonight
Aw, yeah, baby.
Sure do like the way you move
Hey, sure do like the way you move
Kenny Anderson always out-skilled you.
Left-handed assassin.
Could dribble through a New York city subway
at rush hour.
[commentator] This guy is as good as everybody says.
Want to thrill me, Ruby, Ruby
[Stephen] He'd get to the hole at will.
Could embarrass you and dance on you.
Beautiful, nasty handle.
Played like a grown man, even though he was a kid.
Ruby, baby, baby
Kenny is the deal. He the real deal.
[Kenny Anderson] Kenny Anderson,
Lefrak City in the house.
Growing up, it was a lot of drugs going on.
I had to escape it. And I did--through basketball.
[Vincent] Our community was so tight,
everybody looked out for each other.
Let's keep him where he's supposed to be,
in the athletic world.
[reporter] The scouts say that Kenny Anderson is indeed
the best guard who's ever played in New York,
perhaps the best in the nation.
We're talking about someone who was hailed not just
as the best high school player in New York City history,
but perhaps the greatest high school player
ever, period.
[announcer] At 6'2", number 12, Kenny Anderson.
[Kenny Smith] Tom Konchalski, who was the biggest guru
of high school basketball.
I asked him one day
who were the best players he saw in high school
'cause he's seen everybody, and he said Kenny Anderson.
I said, "Whoa, not LeBron? Not Kareem?"
He's like no, because of his size and stature.
He said, "I never seen a kid, at 145 pounds,
dominate a game the way he did."
soft music
[God] People used to tell me about Kenny Anderson.
I'm like, "Ah, he probably okay."
And then somebody gave me a tape on him.
And when I saw him play, I was just blown away.
I was like, this is the greatest player
I've ever seen in my life.
And these was only high school clips.
[commentator] Anderson, great steal.
Showtime!
[Stephen] Ballhandling skills, playmaking ability,
could hit the midrange shot, was a lefty.
Made him harder to deal with
'cause you didn't see that too often.
And he was just smooth. You know what I mean?
Was like string music.
Everybody wanted to wear a mouthguard,
rock number 12.
I wanted to walk like Kenny Anderson,
cut my hair like Kenny Anderson.
I used to be in the mirror,
trying to talk like Kenny Anderson.
[Stephon] When I got my part in the middle of my head,
it was because of Kenny Anderson.
[Kenny Anderson] I had the part in the middle.
You know, I can't wear it now 'cause I'm losing hair.
I get Baldy now.
But the part in the middle was my--that was my trademark.
Hang on to the ball, and get the ball to Kenny.
[Bobbito] Understand that Jack Curran,
the coach at Archbishop Molloy,
didn't let Kenny Anderson loose his freshman year.
[Kenny Smith] He didn't even want
to bring him up to varsity.
So he's like, "If I'ma bring a freshman up,
he can't play the first quarter."
He made all-city,
best five basketball players in New York City
as a freshman and never played in the first quarter of a game.
So the city championship game,
he didn't play the whole first quarter
and still had 20-something points.
[Kenny Anderson] I think I scored 23 points
off the bench.
I got MVP as a freshman.
That's when the legend of Kenny Anderson begun.
[commentator] We just can't say enough
about the quality of this man's game.
[announcer] Puma is proud to present
the 1989 National High School Player of the Year Award
to Kenny Anderson.
Proud of his ability to think and to handle it well.
My goal is one day be
a professional basketball player.
And if I do happen to play in the NBA,
I would be able to make a lot of money for my family.
That's all that mattered to me, my mother.
You know, to get her out of the ghetto,
where we was come from, and that's what I did, man.
I was so blessed to do it.
Basketball was easy for me. You know, life was hard.
Jack Curran, my high school coach,
mean the world to me.
He was a father figure.
You know, I didn't have a father at home.
He made me a good person.
I became a man, you know what I'm saying?
I became a man.
My work ethic, not only on the basketball court,
but in the classroom.
I remember my math Regents,
I got a 86.
That's in my head. Score stay in my head.
I worked extremely hard. I got 86.
[sighs]
So many different moments here at the school.
My high school here mean the world to me.
But if I would have just finished here
and got a job, so be it, so be it.
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[commentator] If I was gonna coach him in college,
I really would be nervous.
He's a legend before, you know,
he's even played a game in college.
A lot of people consider him the best point guard
to ever come out of New York City.
But he is truly a package of excitement.
[Stephon] When he went to Georgia Tech,
you had to watch his game, like, whenever he played.
[commentator] Kenny Anderson for three.
Kenny Anderson penetrates.
Got it off the back.
[Stephen] When he was interviewed
prior to going to Georgia Tech,
Dick Vitale asked him, "Who can stop you?"
He was like, "Nobody."
And if you were from New York, you were like this.
"That's true. That's true.
Nobody can stop him."
[crowd roaring]
[Andre] Georgia Tech versus Duke.
Big stage.
Bobby Hurley was college basketball's
premier point guard.
Kenny Anderson was the young pup coming in.
[Stephen] I ran home from the park
'cause I was waiting for this confrontation.
We didn't like Bobby Hurley. I'ma just keep it 100.
[commentator] He looks like an altar boy,
but he will take care of you defensively.
He is tough.
I told Kenny--I said, "You gotta do him today, baby.
You gotta do him."
So he said, "Don't worry. Mission will be accomplished."
I knew I wanted to play well, but I wanted to win.
I hate Duke, so I was concentrating on beating them.
And I just went off that night.
[commentator] They really love competing.
Look at the two of them talking to each other.
Look at Kenny saying,
"I'm gonna invite you over to dinner, Bobby.
I really like you. Come on, let's go to dinner."
The world got introduced to Kenny Anderson
in the Bobby Hurley play, so please, right now,
get the Bobby Hurley play out as I talk.
[Stephen] Fast break.
And it was him against Bobby Hurley.
Behind the back, across the leg,
and back again, with a shift,
and buckled Hurley.
It was like he was his private dancer.
[grunting]
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[Bobbito] And with the shoulder shimmy, you understand?
Like, we're talking about the connection to hip-hop.
Come on, B, he can't contain the rhythm, you understand?
[grunting]
"Bobby, I'm sorry. I love you, aha!"
[commentator] Uh-oh, oh, finish!
[Dick] No, I can't believe it!
I can't believe it!
When Dickie V throw that gas in the background,
that shit is a whole nother shit.
"Mr. New York City, baby!"
"He's a diaper dandy, baby!"
[Dick] He's a three S man! He's super!
He's sensational! He's superb!
"He's unbelievable, super, scintillating, slam jam bam!"
And the crowd is going bananas.
I jumped up and screamed,
"Ahh! He putting on a show!"
The move is off instinct. That's totally off instinct.
Came down.
I put the ball between my legs three times, behind my back,
and hit him with the floater.
[Dick] I mean, that's just like on the streets
of New York City.
[Andre] We all were sitting at the crib like,
"Yo, wow, like, okay, now, I'm about to go outside
and practice that about four or five more times."
Listen, I love Bobby Hurley.
But Kenny Anderson threw doo-doo in his face, basically.
[Dick] Hurley says, "What do I gotta do?
I can't believe this guy! This is impossible!"
[Stephen] You understood the greatness
of Kenny Anderson in that moment.
Because you're Bobby Hurley. You don't get rattled.
But he was rattled that day.
soft music
[Joekenneth] Okay, you heard
what makes our point gods great.
But if we keeping it a buck, there's one reputation
New York guards just can't seem to shake.
New York has this stigma about,
"Oh, the point guard can't shoot."
[Stephen] They can handle the rock.
They can finish at the basket.
But when you ask them to pull up from 20,
oh, a lot of them were allergic to that.
A lot of guys probably can't,
but it's because we play outside.
Honestly, that's gonna be my excuse.
[Rick] When you lose in the playgrounds,
you're probably finished for the day
because of everybody waiting to get on the court.
I got point game, I'm not trying to shoot a jumper.
I'm trying to get the win because if I lose,
I'm not getting back on the court.
So you're gonna take
the highest percentage shot possible.
And New York City point guards,
they're gonna penetrate, they're gonna get to the rim.
Yeah, New York City is one of the only cities
that make their own rims.
And it's because we have so many courts,
it would be so expensive to buy them,
so we just make them ourselves.
So we make the rims here in Flushing Meadows, Queens.
This is where our shop is.
These rims, I mean, could last for over a hundred years.
They're made out of high-strength steel.
They do deal with all the elements:
rain, sleet, hail, snow.
When I was a kid playing on these rims,
if you hit that rim right on the edge,
that ball's flying right back at you.
[Nancy] They were tight.
The rims were unforgiving.
And then, if you played on a double rim,
I think the word is, you were screwed.
[Kemba] We definitely had a court in the vicinity
of my neighborhood that had double rims.
And everybody always hated playing there.
[Mark] You want to try to find a reason
that not many New York City point guards are shooters?
Blame it on the rims.
[Joekenneth] Jump shot or not,
New York City point guards get it done.
We've argued forever that our point guards
could easily go from the playground to the pros.
And one player became the walking, talking,
crossing actualization of that long-standing argument,
Jamaica, Queens' own Rafer Alston,
AKA Skip to My Lou.
Mobb Deep's "Give Up the Goods (Just Step)"
Yeah, trying to get this loot any way.
Ayo, Queens get the money, long time no cash
I'm caught up in the hustle when the guns go blast
The fool retaliated so I had to think fast
[commentator] Alston for three.
Wizard with the ball. Just so crafty.
Streetball legend right there.
He really brought the swag to basketball
in New York City.
Queens niggas don't play
Do your thing, I'll do mine
The swag. Everything, man.
He has great ball handling skills, boy.
I'm eating off a platinum plate
Po-po comes around and tries to relocate me
He embarrassed everybody. And he'd talk shit to you.
Skip, skip, skip to my Lou, skip.
I used to go to 155th just to watch Skip.
One second. Let me send this text.
I'll tell her turn that air back on for you.
[laughs]
[Rafer] Rafer Alston, also known as Skip to My Lou.
I'm from Southside Jamaica, Queens.
Growing up, some of the things that is considered terrible,
it becomes normalized in our city,
even though it's abnormal.
You know, we're young kids,
and we're trying to figure out
how to navigate through it all.
I'm surrounded by some of the big-time hustlers
that this city had.
It was a lot of flair.
It was gritty. It was in your face.
That's how my game was. Both worlds collided.
And that's how we played the game.
Me and Skip played on the same team.
And I've never seen him practice to this day.
I can't even say I've seen Skip practice.
He'd come to games when he want to come to games,
be missing for, like, weeks at a time,
and then show up and still bust your ass.
I was so South Jamaica, Queens
that I was outside all hours of the night.
Some days, I wouldn't attend school.
My junior and senior year, I was ineligible a lot.
I only played a handful of games,
so no one around the country knew how good I was.
My man is like,
"Yo, we got this high school kid on our squad.
He's gonna start the game. They call him Skip to My Lou."
I was like, "Yo, that nickname is incredible!"
Skip to My Lou, the name came from,
when I was playing in Rucker Park,
the crowd was, you know, kind of dead.
I was like, what can I do to get the crowd off their feet?
I was coming down, three on one,
and I just put a little spin on the ball,
and I just was skipping like that.
And the guy went for the ball,
and I wrapped it to my teammate like this,
and he caught it in stride and dunked it.
The crowd goes crazy. Some of them ran on the court.
They're like, "Ladies and gentlemen,
"we got a new nickname for him.
We got a new nickname. That's Skip to My Lou."
And everybody's like, "Wow!"
I'm like, I just thought about this like a minute ago.
dramatic music
The great thing about Rafer is, he's probably the first guy
to take it from the streets, take it to college,
and then take it to the league.
Skip made kids feel like they can do it.
'Cause he went from streetball to the NBA, and that was rare.
Like, everybody always say, "You know, you play streetball,
you can't make it to the NBA, duh-duh-duh-da."
Well, not Skip.
He kind of made kids around the city like,
"We can do that too."
[Rafer] When I would show up at Rucker Park,
the anticipation of my team playing
and everyone coming to see me was unreal.
You know, people hanging on the fence.
You got people actually watching the game like this,
holding on to the fence, just looking at the game
so they could see over people.
They're like this, watching the whole game.
[Andre] And Skip would always come late.
He would walk in the park during the game.
Like, it would be, like,
in the middle of the first quarter or something.
"Yo, that's him." Like, "Skip is here."
The crowd would just erupt. "Yeah, here comes Skip!"
Streetball is a way of life for us in New York City.
Playing outside in the parks
is what defines basketball in New York City.
He created what the whole streetball legends
in the new era was.
That's him.
[announcer] Y'all about to view the "And 1 Mix Tape" on video
Coming at you live.
upbeat music
[Bobbito] Rafer Alston, AKA Skip to My Lou,
on that one 15-minute video,
changed the course of basketball with his style.
He should be inducted to the Hall of Fame for style.
[Rafer] That tape took off like wildfire.
I was out west, and everybody out west had the tape.
People in places like Birmingham, Alabama,
had the tape.
hip-hop music
The background music in the "And 1 Mix Tape,"
that's what really gravitated a lot of people to the tape.
[Stephon] To see that whole culture
combined together, hip-hop, fashion.
And you look at Skip to My Lou as one of the pioneers of that.
soft music
[Joekenneth] Skip's showmanship sparked a revolution.
And thanks to him, the "And 1 Mix Tape"
spawned a world tour that would spread the gospel
of New York City streetball culture to the masses.
[Bobbito] And that's the first time we're seeing
New York City playground basketball documented
and positioned on a global scale.
[Stephon] You see that tour going to stadiums,
and people are selling out to watch these guys
play streetball style basketball.
It's, like, everything that was special about New York
in the '80s and '90s,
as far as point guards and hip-hop.
It really blew up.
[Stephon] From the baggy, long shorts to durags on,
people doing that all over the world.
I would look at the kids in China right now,
they still emulate what guys were doing in mixtapes.
[Book] New York City point guards,
we revolutionized this game, this sport,
with our swag, with our influence,
with, again, how we dress.
You know, Jay-Z always say, "I walk like a ballplayer."
Biggie says, "Either you sling crack rock
or got a wicked jump shot."
You talk about synonymous with basketball hooping,
that's our culture.
[Bobbito] And now, you can see a cat playing
in Joburg, South Africa, and if you don't hear him talk,
"Oh, homeboy's from New York."
I could look at plenty of YouTube clips and IG posts,
kids with crazy handles in Tallahassee, Florida.
In '91, that would have been, "Nah, he's from New York."
Our blueprint has been commodified,
and it's been sold because of the contribution
of the ethos of New York City community outdoor basketball.
You know, for me, it's all a great experience
in being one of the point guards from New York.
To be able to talk to you guys about this is pretty cool
'cause I think it's really powerful.
It has--New York City point guards
have had an impact on the game.
You know, it may not been in the way that people feel
is of high value and high standard,
but we feel that way.
[Book] Everyone talks about, "Well, the point guards
have gone from New York."
I'm like, no, they haven't. They're in Atlanta.
They're in LA. They emulate our style.
They are us.
When guys who don't understand the lineage
or the history of this thing that we talk about,
the point gods, when they don't understand that thing,
I kind of--you know, I be quiet and I just smirk at them
because, you know what-- and I put my hands together--
I say, "Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do."
[Joekenneth] Our '80s and '90s New York City point gods
laid the modern blueprint for the point guard position.
From their handles, showmanship,
and toughness to the music and style of dress,
they personified an era that shifted the culture
and rewrote the rules of the game.
Kenny Anderson's moves still reign supreme.
There's a statue of Marbury in China.
The memory of Pearl's swag lives on.
You can't watch basketball without hearing
the Jet or Action Jackson on the mic.
Skip's flair is still emulated by point guards
from the pavement to the hardwood.
Kyrie is a direct descendant of Rod Strickland.
And as you can see,
everyone still does the Shammgod.
These point guards became the cultural superheroes,
whose legacies have left a long-standing impact
on the game.
Basketball the world over is a better sport
because of their contributions.
But yo, it ain't over yet.
The thing about New York
is that it keeps reinventing itself.
Just when you think we're done,
we transform into something new.
And with that, God only knows what the city has in store
for the game of basketball.
From where I'm standing, the future looks bright.
When people think about New York City,
the first thing they think of is New York City point guards.
Nobody could guard me. I got handles.
I can shoot.
One day, I might dunk.
But I may be too short for that.
I think I have the best handles in New York City
because I can control the ball,
I can do a lot of things with the basketball.
We all basketball and all good.
We all handles, handles, shifty, shifty, crafty, crafty.
Can't guard that.
New York City guards, can't guard that.
dramatic jazz music