Basketball imitates life

By Nila Do

“Yo, Ra Ra, I’m open!”

“Stack down, Mike! Hey Stevie! Stevie, stack down!”

“Take the shot, take it, Ryan!”

With his team down 19-20 Ra Ra Stubbins knows the only thing he can do is push the offense forward and find the open man or take the open shot. As he pushes the ball upcourt, he waves his left arm side-to-side, spreading the offense. With a quick head fake right and a crossover move left, Stubbins shakes off his defender, dribbles past two more defenders and lays the ball into the hoop.

It’s 20-20. Next to score, wins.

This is the game of streetball. The stakes are high and the players fight for one thing and one thing only: desire. Desire is enough to carry the game of street basketball and have its players fighting for more. But streetball is more than a game. To some, streetball represents life, one with its story carved out on the courts.

It would be unfair to compare streetball to any other sport. No sport played in the United States has more widespread popularity in urban and suburban societies than basketball. It is what soccer is to Brazil, a sport phenomenon every child dreams of mastering.

The game has spawned off such events as Hoop-It-Up, the world’s largest three-player tournament, and the televised documentary “Streetball” on currently airing on ESPN, which follows the And1 team’s national basketball tour. The 1994 film “Hoop Dreams” has even been made following the lives of two young basketball players starting their careers on playground courts.

Streetball, basketball played without restriction of referees or officials mostly on open courts, has become a way of life for some players. Not only is it a sport they play, it manifests itself as a sport they live.

“That’s all I know—basketball,” Roderick “Ra Ra” Stubbins, a 23-year-old student at Santa Fe Community College, said. “If I don’t play at least once a day, I feel like my day isn’t complete.”

Stubbins grew up in North Miami, where the playing field is tough and the competition is tougher. North Miami has a reputation for producing some of the best professional basketball players in the world. Stubbins has played against great players such as Raja Bell of the Utah Jazz, Udonis Haslem of the Miami Heat and Steve Blake, a former guard of the University of Maryland of the Washington Wizards.

“There ain’t nothing like competition,” Stubbins said.

The competition on the courts made him a better player, but the competition off the courts made Stubbins a man. Growing up in the ghettos, Stubbins said marijuana and other drugs in his neighborhood were as common as a sunny day.

“It got to the point where my only two choices were to sell drugs or to play basketball,” he said. “Basketball kept me going. After school, instead of selling drugs on the streets, I played basketball.”

Stubbins took every route he could to play basketball while growing up in Miami. If the local O.B. Johnson Park recreation center were closed, he would cross over to Peter Bluestin Park and play on the cement courts. If there were no one on the courts to play with, Stubbins would practice his jump shot and dribble.

“All you need to play is a ball and a lot of desire,” he said.

Street basketball is a game unlike any other. The players play not for riches or fame, but for the love of the game. There is essentially no money to be made playing streetball, no royalties to be made. The only thing that can be gained is pride and respect.

“I think streetball has become so popular on the streets because a kid can watch it and see that he can be like those players,” Kristen Weil, public relations manager of And1, one of America’s forefront companies of basketball apparel and footwear, said.

“It’s easy to see yourself in their shoes and identify with it,” Weil said.

Streetball differs from regulated basketball in various ways. There are no referees, no shot clock and no three-second-in-the-paint rule. Players call their own fouls, many of which lead up to great debate and argument among players. Most times, players tend to respect each other’s call, admitting to a foul and consenting to free throws. The times when a call is controversial, however, tempers can flare and the game can turn sour.

Streetball stars display unbelievable tricks, daring moves and creative playing styles. Some moves mirror the Harlem Globetrotters, basketball’s closet cousin to a circus. Sometimes showmanship is more important than actually winning a game. If a player can perform a memorable trick or leave the crowd awestruck, then that person will earn the respect of everyone on the court, either playing or watching.

“I’m only 5’5’’, and I can dunk a ten-foot rim,” Stubbins said. “Trust me, that’s gets a lot of people’s attention and they definitely remember that.”

Now Stubbins and his team must switch to defense, aware that the game is over if they allow the other team to score.

“You can’t guard me, nigga,” one player says to Stubbins as he glares at Stubbins.

“You see my face right now but pretty soon all you’re gonna see is my back when I blaze pass you,” the player says, continuing to taunt Stubbins.

“You know what ‘denied’ means, nigga?” Stubbins taunts back. “’Cause if you don’t, you’re gonna find out because it’s about to happen to you.”

The player surveys the court in hopes to find an open lane to drive the ball up and win the game. Unable to find any opening, he waves his arm, letting his teammates know he wants to clear the court.

It’s no longer a team game. Now, it’s just one against one.

In another deviation from traditional basketball, regulated basketball games have a set roster and streetball does not. There are usually no predetermined teams, just individuals hoping to find a pick-up game. Players usually show up to the court with a ball and a towel. Players hope to start a pick-up game with other players already on the court. The type of play can vary from casual to highly competitive, depending on the players and depending on how hard the players want to play.

For Stubbins, the challenge of being good at basketball is compounded with one disadvantage he has over most players. His 5 feet 5 inches stature is considered too short to play basketball.

“When I first step onto the court, guys look at me and think that I can’t play,” he said. “But after a game or two where I can show off what I can do, then they all can see that I can play.”

Stubbins, whose best shot is a fade-away jumper, has built a name for himself while playing on the courts in Miami and now as a college student in Gainesville, Fla. When “Ra Ra” and his small frame step on the court, everyone is aware of his presence.

“I’ve learned that it’s not who you are that’s important, it’s how you play that is important,” Stubbins said.

Basketball would consume Stubbins’ mind for most of the day. In the middle of class and lecture in high school, it almost a guarantee that illusions of an mind-blowing move will formulate in his head.

“My junior year was the worst year for me,” he said, referring to his time in high school. “I would think about basketball all the time. Even when I had important things to do, like a test or study, I would think about basketball.”

The games can be just as competitive as the NBA. Nobody wants to lose.

“All right, I see now,” Stubbins says. “So you wanna play one-on-one, huh? Alright them, show me your best move, ‘cause I know you ain’t got nothin’.”

Before Stubbins can finish his sentence, the player gives Stubbins a little shove in the stomach with his forearm to allow more distance between the two players and spins to his right to head straight for the basket.

Stubbins, realizing his mistake in letting the other player go past him, shuffles his feet to the right to catch up to the other player and to get into a better defensive position. The two players are now nearly chest-to-chest, the only thing distancing them is the other player’s arm fending off Stubbins and protecting the ball.

He gives Stubbins another shove, more distance is put between the two, and this time, the player decides to use the distance to shoot a fade-away shot. Stepping out with his right foot, he puts two hands on the ball, leans backwards and takes the shot. Stubbins’ only reaction to the shot is to put up his left hand toward the ball in attempt to block the shot and block the other player’s view of the hoop.

The ball is in the air, falls on the back rim, rattles around the hoop for what appears like eternity and finally falls outside of the hoop.

The game is not over yet.

The showmanship during a game becomes a fun interlude to display tricks. Moves range from swing the ball around the player’s body while hidden in his shirt and even dribbling while lying nearly horizontal to the ground.

“If you can’t pull the moves off, you might as well not be playing,” Mike Parry, a 23-year-old college student said.

Parry, who has played basketball from the time his father took him to the YMCA when he was 4 years old, said his dream when he was younger was to make it to the NBA.

“Everyone who touches a ball dreams of making it to the NBA, but it’s a whole different story to actually get there,” Parry said.

The 5-foot, 11-inch Florida native holds no fear when playing basketball, he said. Also seen as having a height disadvantage, Parry uses his self-proclaimed basketball sense to command the court. When he was younger, Parry said he did not have the height that most of his peers possessed and instead tried to refine other parts of his game. When he was a teenager, he practiced dribbling and shooting on a daily basis and played a pick-up game or two at least three times a week.

The training did not stop there for Parry. He practiced his footwork by jump roping and by doing suicides, or sprinting exercises that test agility. Parry would also watch tapes of NBA and college games to study moves that the players made.

“Basketball was a big part of my life for a while,” he said. “I ate, slept and drank it.”

But making it to the ultimate level of the NBA is a goal that only a fraction of streetball players actually attain.

In all of Parry’s years of playing basketball and playing with different types of players, he has not known one person who has been drafted in the NBA.

“Everyone is good,” Parry said. “Everyone’s got their own thing, you know, their own special move that you got to watch out for. It’s only when you can separate yourself from the rest of the players and get to another level of greatness that you can advance to the next stage.”

The game of streetball is an ordinary game that almost anyone can play. It can be described as having an infectious feel to it because it continues to draw people back to play it. Street basketball has created a subculture-like following that has players dreaming of the next time they will be on the court to play another game. It is a game that players crave to play.

“It’s you, Stevie! All you!” Mike shouts as Stevie grabs the rebound.

As Stevie comes down with the rebound, he scours downcourt to find Ra Ra who catches the pass and controls the ball.

Ra Ra’s defender is quick to attack him, not allowing room between the two players. Ra Ra looks around the court to find an open teammate. After seeing Mike under the basket, who miraculously manages to evade his defender with a swift head fake, Ra Ra quickly pump fakes to throw off his defender, and sends Mike a bullet-like pass. After catching the ball, Mike lays the ball into the basket to win.

Game over.