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Streetballers at the Venice Beach basketball courts, California, USA.
Streetballers at the Venice Beach basketball courts, California, USA. Venice is a district in western Los Angeles California. It is known for its Canals Beaches and Circus -like Ocean Front Walk,

Streetball is an urban form of basketball, played on playgrounds and in gymnasiums across the world. Basketball is a team Sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a ball through a 10 feet (3 m A playground or play area is an area designed for Children to play, indoors or outdoors The word γυμνάσιον (gymnasion was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual Education of young men (see Gymnasium Usually only one side of the court is used, but otherwise the rules of the game are very similar to those of professional basketball. The number of participants in a game, or a run, may range from one defender and one attacker (known as one on one or mano-a-mano) to two full teams of five each. Mano-a-mano is a Spanish and Italian construction meaning "hand to hand"

Streetball is a very popular game worldwide, and some cities in the United States have organized streetball programs, such as midnight basketball, as a way for young people to keep out of trouble and avoid problems such as juvenile crime and drugs. Midnights basketball was a 1990s initiative to curb inner-city crime in the United States by keeping urban youth off the streets and engaging them with alternatives to drugs In the sociological field, crime is the breach of a rule or Law for which some governing authority or force may ultimately prescribe a Punishment The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global Black market consisting of the cultivation manufacture distribution and sale of illegal Drugs Many cities even host their own weekend-long streetball tournaments. Hoop-It-Up and the Houston Rockets Blacktop Battle are two of the most popular. The Houston Rockets are an American professional Basketball team based in Houston Texas. In recent years, streetball has seen an increase in notoriety and exposure in media due in part to television shows such as ESPN's "Streetball" and "City Slam", as well as traveling exhibitions such as the AND1 Mixtape Tour and Ball4Real. ESPN, originally an acronym for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, is an American Cable television network dedicated to City Slam (also known as ESPN City Slam) is an ESPN television series that premiered in 2005 The AND1 Mixtape Tour is a traveling Basketball competition and exhibition sponsored by the basketball apparel manufacturer AND1. Ball4Real was the name of a traveling Basketball exhibition and competition which made its debut in June 2007

Contents

Rules and features

Kids playing streetball in Paris, France, in winter
Kids playing streetball in Paris, France, in winter

While the rules of Streetball are essentially/theoretically the same as normal basketball, Streetball places a higher emphasis on one-on-one matchups between the offense and defender. Often the attacker will perform numerous flashy moves while attempting to drive to the basket, including crossovers, jab steps, and other fake-out tricks. A crossover dribble is a Basketball maneuver in which a player dribbling the ball switches the ball rapidly from one hand to the other Streetball often features spectacular dunks and alley oops, impressive ball handling, and trash talking. A slam dunk (or simply a dunk) is a type of Basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air and manually powers the ball downward through the basket Basketball moves are generally individual actions used by players to pass by defenders to gain access to the basket or to get a clean pass to a teammate Trash-talk is a form of boast or Insult commonly heard in competitive situations (such as Sports events Also featured in streetball are moves. A move is either used to trick the defender to look away, or just to confuse. There are many different moves in streetball.

Rules vary widely from court to court. Almost invariably a "call your own foul" rule is in effect, and a player who believes he has been fouled, simply needs to call out "Foul!" or "And 1!", and play will be stopped, with the ball awarded to the fouled player's team. If a foul has been called during or after a shot has been taken the call will be ignored and the shot will be counted if the player makes the basket. The etiquette of what rightly constitutes a foul, as well as the permissible amount of protestation against such a call, are the products of individual social groups, as well as of the level of seriousness of a particular game. An outsider at a playground should closely observe the status quo in these matters. Some areas where different interpretations of rules are likely to occur are: 1) travelling - whether a step is permissible prior to dribbling, and how many more than the nominally permitted one and a half steps should be allowed at the end of the dribble. 2) hand (and leg) - checking on defense - how much can one touch the person one defends and how much physical pressure may one apply in so doing.

A common feature to Streetball is the 'pick up game'. To participate in most Streetball games across the world one simply go to an outdoor court where people are playing, indicate a wish to participate, and once all the players who were at the court before you have played you will get to pick your team out of the players available and play a game. Many games play up to 7, 11, 15 or 21 points with all baskets counting as one point (sometimes shots beyond the 3 point arc count as 2 points). Ballers often play 'win by 2' which, as in tennis, means that the team has to win by a margin of at least 2 clear points. Tennis is a sport played between two players ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles) Sometimes a local "dead end" limit applies; for instance a game may be played to 7, win by 2, with a 9 point dead end, which would mean scores of 7-5, 8-6, 9-7, or 9-8, would all be final; while with scores of 7-6 or 8-7, play would continue. The most common streetball game is 3 on 3 played half court though often 5 on 5 full court can be found.

A unique streetball feature is having an "MC" call the game. The MC is on the court during the game and is often very close to the players (but makes an effort to not interfere with the game) and uses a microphone to provide game commentary for the fans.

Variations

A popular variation of street basketball is 21, also known as "Hustle," "American," or "Crunch. " 21 is played most often with 3-5 players on a half court, typically when not enough players have arrived at the playground to "run 3's" (play 3-on-3). However it is possible to play "21" with only two players, or more than 5. Further, in some forms, players can freely enter the game after it has begun, starting at zero points or being "spotted" the same number as the player with the lowest score. "21" is an "every player for themself" game, with highly variable rules. Similar to a poker game, the rules of "21" are usually agreed by the players at the beginning of the game to clarify which options are to be used.

The typical rules of "21" are:

Common additional rules include:

"21" is considered a very challenging game, especially because the offensive player must go up against several defenders at the same time. For this reason, it is exceedingly difficult to "drive to the hole" and make lay-ups in "21. " Therefore, and also because of the emphasis on free-throws, "21" is very much a shooter's game, and because a successful shot means you keep the ball, it is possible for their to be epic come-backs when a player comes back from a large deficit by not missing any shots (this can also result in epic failure when they miss their final free-throw at 20 points and revert back to 13).

"21" is popular because it allows an odd number of people to play, unlike regular basketball or other variants.

Major organized streetball crews

Streetball is often generalized as a "pick-up game", where players may or may not know one another, and is for the most part recreational. But recent years has seen the rise of organized streetball crews, such as AND1. With AND1 setting the precedent, many crews train as a team specifically for streetball and often play in exhibitions. Some crews present slickly produced videos and DVDs for sale or available on sites like YouTube displaying highlights, dunks, and tricks. Streetball teams like Ruff Ryders, Terror Squad, and others which compete in summer leagues, such as EBC, tend to play a more "serious" game with less tricks, as the stakes are higher the games not being exhibitions (friendly matches). An exhibition game (also known as an exhibition match or simply exhibition, or a demonstration or demo event is a sporting event

Famous streetballers

Streetball in popular media

External links

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