Jason Richardson
Jason Anthoney Richardson is an American former professional basketball player who played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association. Richardson was taken by the Golden State Warriors as the fifth overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft after playing college basketball for Michigan State University, he won the NBA Dunk Contest in both 2002 and 2003, becoming the second player, after Michael Jordan, to win the competition back-to-back. Richardson has played for the Charlotte Bobcats, Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic, the Philadelphia 76ers. Born in Saginaw, Richardson graduated from Arthur Hill High School in 1999. Having led the Arthur Hill basketball team to the Class A championship game, Richardson was Mr. Basketball of Michigan and a McDonald's High School All-American in his senior year. Richardson chose to play college basketball for Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo. In his freshman season at Michigan State, Richardson averaged 5.1 points per game in 37 games and made 50.3% of attempted field goals.
Led by Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson, the Spartans won the NCAA Championship with Richardson as a key reserve. In a bigger role in his sophomore season at Michigan State, he led the Spartans in scoring averaging 14.7 points per game. Richardson played along future NBA players Zach Randolph and Charlie Bell as the Spartans advanced to the Final Four before losing to Arizona, he was named Big Ten First Team that year. The Warriors drafted Jason Richardson out of Michigan State with the 5th overall pick. Richardson competed in the Rookie Challenge as a rookie in 2002 and a sophomore in 2003, his teams won both years, he was awarded the Rookie Challenge MVP as a rookie. As a sophomore, he had a memorable moment when, in the closing seconds of the game, he bounced the ball off Carlos Boozer's forehead and made a three-pointer before the clock ran out. During his time with Golden State, Richardson gained popularity for his outstanding scoring, ability to dunk, dedication to the team and fans, ethical maturity.
As the long time captain of the Warriors, Richardson organized a letter of apology to Warrior fans in 2005 after the team failed to make the playoffs for the 12th straight season. The letter ran in several Bay Area newspapers; the following year, Richardson helped lead the Warriors to their first playoff trip in 13 years. The Warriors upset the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round, but lost in the second round to the Utah Jazz. After leaving Golden State, Richardson remained one of the most popular players among Warrior fans because of his electric style of play and ability to shoot three-pointers, as well as the longevity and tenor of his tenure with the team. Richardson set the Warrior franchise record for three-pointers made in a game without missing in a home win against the Phoenix Suns. Richardson is known for his high-flying abilities and is regarded as one of the best dunkers in 2000s, he won the NBA Slam Dunk Contests in 2002 and 2003, competed in the 2004 contest, but lost to Fred Jones in the finals.
On June 28, 2007, Richardson was traded to the Charlotte Bobcats along with the draft rights to 36th pick Jermareo Davidson for the draft rights to eighth pick Brandan Wright. Richardson began to gain attention with the Bobcats when he led the team to a road win against the Boston Celtics after scoring 34 points; this was only the Celtics' fourth loss of second loss at home. It was the Bobcats' second road win of the season, ending an 11-game road losing streak. Richardson led the Bobcats to a franchise-record five consecutive game winning streak, including a home win against his former team, the Golden State Warriors. Richardson posted 42 points against the Warriors; the 2007–08 season was a season of rebuilding for Richardson and the Bobcats. He was able to get his points per game average back up to 21.8, lead the Bobcats in scoring, lead the league in three-point field goals made. On December 10, 2008, Richardson was traded along with Jared Dudley, a 2010 second-round pick to the Phoenix Suns for Boris Diaw, Raja Bell and Sean Singletary.
The Suns dealt for Richardson, as they were looking for another backcourt scorer to take pressure off of Steve Nash. In his first game as a Sun, Richardson scored a game-high 21 points, including an alley-oop from Leandro Barbosa that brought the crowd to their feet, his first year in Phoenix resulted in the team missing the playoffs for the first time since 2003. However, in his second year with the team, he helped bring them back to the playoffs with his play on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. In the first round of the 2010 NBA Playoffs, Richardson led the Suns to a first-round victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, including a career playoff-high 42 points in a Game 3 blowout. In the next round, Richardson helped the Suns to a series sweep against the San Antonio Spurs, before falling to the Los Angeles Lakers in game 6 of the Western Conference Finals. On December 18, 2010, Richardson was traded to the Orlando Magic along with Hedo Türkoğlu and Earl Clark for Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickaël Piétrus, a 2011 first-round draft pick and $3 million cash.
In December 2011, Richardson agreed to a four-year, $25 million contract to remain in Orlando. The Magic made the playoffs in Richardson's first year with the team, losing in the first round to the Atlanta Hawks. On August 10, 2012, Richardson was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in a four-team deal which sent Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers, he managed just 33 games in 2012–13 before being ruled out for the rest of the season in January 2013 after undergoing surgery on his left knee, subsequently sat out the entire 2013–14 season with the injury as well. On February 18, 2015, Richardson was
Jason Collins
Jason Paul Collins is an American retired professional basketball player who played 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association. A center, Collins played college basketball for Stanford University, where he was an All-American in 2000–01. Collins was selected by the Houston Rockets as the 18th overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft, he went on to play for the New Jersey Nets, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards and Brooklyn Nets. After the 2012–13 NBA season concluded, Collins publicly came out as gay, he became a free agent and did not play again until February 2014, when he signed with the Nets and became the first gay athlete to play in any of four major North American pro sports leagues. In April 2014, Collins was featured on the cover of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World". Collins was born in California, he was born eight minutes ahead of his twin brother Jarron, who became an NBA player. They graduated from Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles.
He and Jarron won two California Interscholastic Federation state titles during their four-year careers with a combined record of 123–10. Collins broke the California career rebounding record with 1,500. Collins was backed up by Jason Segel, who USA Today opined might have ended up being the most famous player from the team. Collins played with brother Jarron for the Stanford Cardinal in the Pacific-10 Conference. In 2001, Collins was named to All-Pac-10 first team, the National Association of Basketball Coaches voted him to their third-team All-American team, he finished his college career ranked first in Stanford history for field goal percentage and third in blocked shots. As a rookie along with Richard Jefferson, Collins played a significant role in the New Jersey Nets' first-ever NBA Finals berth in 2002 against the Los Angeles Lakers. During this Finals appearance, Collins acknowledged that he is not 7 feet tall as he has been listed since his junior year of college, he was measured 6 ft 10¼ in at the 2001 NBA combine.
In the 2002–03 NBA season Collins took over the starting center role for the Nets and helped the franchise back to the NBA Finals. During that season, Collins averaged 4.5 rebounds per game. Prior to the 2004–05 season, he signed a $25 million contract extension with New Jersey for five more years. On February 4, 2008, Collins was traded along with cash considerations to the Memphis Grizzlies for Stromile Swift. On June 26, 2008, Collins was dealt to the Minnesota Timberwolves in an eight-player deal involving Kevin Love and O. J. Mayo. Collins signed with the Atlanta Hawks on September 2, 2009. Collins re-signed with the Hawks in the 2010 offseason. In 2010–11, the fifth-seeded Hawks defeated the fourth-seeded Orlando Magic as Collins slowed the Magic's dominant center, Dwight Howard. After Game 4 in the series, then-Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy called Collins' play "the best defense on all year". On July 31, 2012, Collins signed a contract with the Boston Celtics. On February 21, 2013, Collins and Leandro Barbosa were traded to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Jordan Crawford.
On April 29, 2013, after the season had concluded, Collins publicly came out as gay, becoming the first active male athlete from one of the four major North American professional team sports to publicly do so. Collins became a free agent in July 2013, stated that he intended to pursue another contract, he was not invited by any team to training camp, but he worked out at his home waiting for an opportunity. On February 23, 2014, Collins signed a 10-day contract to rejoin the Nets, who had since moved to Brooklyn. Nets coach Jason Kidd, who became good friends with Collins while teammates in New Jersey from 2001 to 2008, was an advocate of signing Collins. Collins played 11 minutes that night against the Lakers at the Staples Center, becoming the first publicly gay athlete to play in any of the four major North American professional sports leagues. Collins planned to wear No. 98—the same number he wore with Boston and Washington—going forward. Collins chose to wear No. 98 in honor of Matthew Shepard, whose 1998 murder was reported as a hate crime and led to the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
Collins' jersey rose to the top spot for sales at NBAStore.com, the NBA announced that proceeds from the sales, as well as proceeds from auctions of Collins' autographed game-worn jerseys, would benefit the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. On March 5, 2014, Collins signed a second 10-day contract with the Nets. On March 15, 2014, Collins signed with the Nets for the rest of the season. On November 19, 2014, Collins announced his retirement from professional basketball after 13 seasons in the NBA. Collins had low career averages in the NBA of 3.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, 0.5 blocks, 41 percent shooting from the field, never averaged more than seven points or seven rebounds in a season. However, the basketball analytics community valued his defense through measurements not found in a boxscore. Collins was a physical player defending the post, boxed out well, excelled at setting screens, he was precise in executing coaches' defensive strategies, he read the opponents' movements well and communicated on defense.
He had a reputation for being a team leader, earned consistent praise for his professionalism and intelligence on the court. Collins was in an eight-year relationship with former WNBA center Carolyn Moos, the two were engaged to be married, but Collins called off the wedding in 2009
Greek Basket League
The Greek Basket League also referred to as the Greek Basketball League, Greek A1 Basketball League, or Greek Basketball Championship, known as the betshop.gr Basket League for sponsorship reasons, is the first tier professional basketball league in Greece. It is run under the legal authority of the Hellenic Basketball Federation; the league is known as the Betshop.gr Basket League for sponsorship reasons. It consists of 14 teams and runs from October to June, with teams playing 26 games each during the regular season, the top 8 teams competing in the playoffs; the first official Greek Basketball Championship was held in the 1927–28 season. The league first held a playoff round in the 1986–87 season; the league has always been ranked as one of the top 3-5 level national domestic leagues in European basketball, since league rankings began. For further information, see historical European national basketball league rankings, European national basketball league rankings. Greek basketball clubs in international competitions Basketball first came to Greece in the year 1919.
The first Greek basketball championship took place in the 1927–28 season, the first organized Greek basketball championship began. The league was organized by the Hellenic Amateur Athletic Association. There have been four different official championship eras; the first era was the Panhellenic Championship, which lasted from the 1927–28 to 1962–63 seasons, when the champions of every regional district played each other to decide the Greek Champion. The second era started in the 1963–64 season, when the A National Category, or Alpha National Category was founded. In 1969, the Hellenic Basketball Federation took over the duties of overseeing the competition, did so until the year 1992; the third era of the championship existed between the 1986–87 and 1991–92 seasons, when the first division A1 National Category, with a regular season and playoffs, the second division A2 National Category were formed. The 1988–89 season, marked the first time that Greek Basket League teams were allowed to have foreign players on their rosters.
The fourth era of the championship began in the 1992–93 season, when the Hellenic Basketball Clubs Association took over the competition and renamed the first division the HEBA A1. The league was renamed to Greek Basket League, starting with the 2010–11 season; the Greek League has been one of the most competitive basketball leagues in Europe through the years, it was regarded as the second best national domestic league in the world, after only the NBA, in the 1990s decade. It ranks among the best national domestic leagues in the world, such as Liga ACB in Spain, VTB United League, BSL in Turkey, it has always been considered one of the top 3-5 European national domestic leagues under the historical European national basketball league rankings and European national basketball league rankings. The league has several European historical basketball powers, which belong to some of the most traditional European basketball clubs Panathinaikos, Olympiacos and AEK, which are three of the most successful European basketball clubs of all-time.
Aris, led by Nikos Galis, Panagiotis Giannakis, Slobodan "Lefteris" Subotić, was the dominant Greek club, one of the most powerful European teams in the 1980s. Other clubs that have had significant success throughout the history of Greek basketball, as well as success in European basketball, are PAOK and Panellinios; the first five aforementioned clubs, are the most supported by fans in Greece. Despite the championship having been contested 78 times, only nine different clubs have won it so far; the dominating club has been Panathinaikos, having claimed the championship 37 times. Since the foundation of the Alpha National Category in the 1963–64 season, only two teams have participated in every season of the competition and Aris. 1927–28 to 1962–63: Panhellenic Championship 1963–64 to 1985–86: Alpha National Category 1986–87 to 1991–92: Alpha1 National Category 1992–93 to 2011–12: HEBA Alpha1 2012–13 to present: Greek Basket League betshop.gr OPAP Scratch Stoiximan.gr Champion Spalding Cosmote Germanos Visit Greece Gatorade The main elements of the logo were changed in 2013.
The championship, in its current form, has been organized since the 1992–93 season by the Hellenic Basketball Clubs Association. 30 pro Greek basketball teams are split into two different divisions. The first division championship, called the "A1", in which 14 teams compete for the Greek National Championship, the second division championship, called the "A2", in which 16 teams compete for the second division crown; the bottom two place finishing teams each year in the A1 division standings are relegated to the A2 division, due to poor performance. While conversely, the top two teams each year from the A2 division are promoted to the A1 division, due to good performance. Greek clubs must play their home games in arenas that seat at least 1,000 people in order to play Greek domestic league matches. Several Greek clubs have two arenas that they use. One for domestic Greek League matches, one for European-wide matches. Greek clubs that play in the EuroLeague or the EuroCup, must play their home games in those leagues in arenas that fit the arena standards of those leagues.
A 5,000 seat
Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association as a member club of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division; the team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association, but changed its name to Rockets before the first season. It changed its name again to the Nuggets in 1974. After the name change, the Nuggets played for the final ABA Championship title in 1976, losing to the New York Nets; the team has had some periods of success, qualifying for the ABA Playoffs for all seasons from 1967 to the 1976 ABA playoffs where it lost in the finals. The team joined the NBA in 1976 after the ABA–NBA merger and qualified for the NBA playoffs in nine consecutive seasons in the 1980s and ten consecutive seasons from 2004 to 2013. However, it has not made an appearance in a championship round since its last year in the ABA; the Nuggets play their home games at Pepsi Center, which they share with the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League.
The original Denver Nuggets was founded in the National Basketball League prior to the 1948–49 season. Following that season, the NBL was absorbed into the BAA, renamed to the NBA; the Denver Nuggets played the 1949–50 season as one of the charter NBA teams before folding. In 1967, one of the ABA's charter franchises was awarded to a group in Kansas City, headed by Southern Californian businessman James Trindle. However, Trindle was unable to find a suitable arena in the Kansas City area. League commissioner George Mikan suggested moving the team to Denver. After agreeing to name Denver resident and former NBA player Vince Boryla as general manager, Trindle moved his team to Denver as the Denver Larks, named after Colorado's state bird; the Trindle group was undercapitalized, leading Mikan to order the Larks to post a $100,000 performance bond or lose the franchise. Hours before the deadline, Trindle sold a ⅔ controlling interest to Denver trucking magnate Bill Ringsby for $350,000. Ringsby renamed the team the Rockets, after his company's long-haul trucks.
Playing at the Denver Auditorium Arena, the Rockets had early successes on the court, developing a solid fan base along the way. However, the team had a history of early playoff exits and failed to play in an ABA championship series. Early, they had a solid lineup led by Byron Beck and Larry Jones later by Beck and Ralph Simpson. Lonnie Wright of the American Football League's Denver Broncos signed with the Rockets during that first season and became the first player to play professional football and basketball in the same season. Wright played four seasons with Denver. Controversial rookie Spencer Haywood joined the team for the 1969–70 season. Haywood was one of the first players to turn pro before graduating from college, the NBA refused to let him play in the league. Haywood averaged nearly 30 points and 19.5 rebounds per game in his only ABA season, being named ABA MVP, ABA rookie of the year, as well as the All-Star Game MVP. The team finished 51–33, winning their division, before exiting the playoffs in the 2nd round.
Just before the start of the 1970–71 season, Haywood signed with the Seattle SuperSonics, jumping to the NBA. The team tumbled to a 30–54 record and attendance suffered. Ringsby sold the team to San Diego businessmen Frank Goldberg and Bud Fischer in 1972. In 1974, in anticipation of moving into the NBA, the new McNichols Arena, the franchise held a contest to choose a new team nickname, as "Rockets" was in use by the Houston Rockets; the winning choice was "Nuggets", in honor of the original Nuggets team in Denver from 1948–50, the last year as a charter member of the NBA. Their new logo was a miner "discovering" an ABA ball. Goldberg and Fischer in turn sold the team to a local investment group in 1976. With the drafting and signing of future hall of fame player David Thompson out of North Carolina State, Marvin Webster and the acquisitions of Dan Issel and Bobby Jones and with Larry Brown coaching, they had their best seasons in team history in their first two seasons as the Nuggets. Playing in the Denver Auditorium Arena for the last season the 1974–75 team went 65–16, including a 40–2 record at home.
However, a quick playoff exit followed. In 1975–76, playing at their new arena, the Nuggets edged the reigning champion Kentucky Colonels four games to three to make the 1976 ABA finals for the first time, they lost to the New York Nets and Julius Erving. They did not get a second chance to win an ABA league championship, as the ABA–NBA merger took place after the 1975–76 season; the Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs were merged into the NBA. The Spirits of St. Louis and Kentucky Colonels were disbanded; the Nuggets and Nets had applied to join the NBA in 1975, but were forced to stay in the ABA by a court order. The Nuggets continued their strong play early on in the NBA, as they won division titles in their first two seasons in the league, missed a third by a single game. However, neither of these teams were successful in the postseason. To the other new NBA teams, the Nuggets were given many financial issues including a $2 million entry fee. Red McCombs bought the team in 1978. In 1979, Brown left the team.
It ended in 1981. Moe brought with him a "motion offense" philosophy, a style of play focusing on attempting to move the ball until someone got open. Moe was known for not paying as much attention to defense as his colleagues; the offense helped the team become competitive. During the 1980s
Quimsa
Asociación Atlética Quimsa called Quimsa, is an Argentine sports club located in the city of Santiago del Estero in the homonymous province. The club is notable for its professional basketball team, which plays in the Liga Nacional de Básquet, the top division of Argentine basketball, their home arena is the Estadio Ciudad de Santiago del Estero. Apart from basketball, other activities hosted by the club are cestoball, roller skating and volleyball. Founded in 1989, its name derives from the Quichua word kimsa; the club was established as the merger of "Estudiantes Unidos", "Santiago Basketball Club" and "Inti Club", all three historical basketball clubs in Santiago. In the 2002–03 season Quimsa achieved promotion to Torneo Nacional de Ascenso, the second division of national basketball. In the 2004–05 season, Quimsa played the final to promote, but they lost to La Unión in a playoff match after a 2–2 tie. Quimsa reached the final in the following season, promoting to LNB although Quimsa lost to Juventud Sionista, which crowned champion of the second division.
In their first season in the top level of Argentine basketball, Quimsa ended 9°, with 25 wins and 23 loses. Notes Nicolás Aguirre Sergio Ale Quincy Alexander Quimsa plays its home venues at Estadio Ciudad de Santiago del Estero, which have a capacity of 5,200; the stadium was used by Club Estudiantes Unidos, one of the three institution that merged to form Quimsa. With the money earned from the sales of Inti Club and Santiago Básquetbol Club, Quimsa refurbished the arena. Liga Sudamericana: 2009 Copa Argentina: 2009 Quimsa on LNB website
Shane Battier
Shane Courtney Battier is an American retired professional basketball player who played for various teams of the National Basketball Association. He has been a member of the U. S. national basketball team. Battier was born and raised in Birmingham and attended Detroit Country Day School in nearby Beverly Hills, where he won many awards including the 1997 Mr. Basketball award, he went on to play four years of college basketball at Duke, where he captured the 2001 National Championship and swept the major National Player of the Year awards. Battier was selected with the sixth overall pick of the 2001 NBA draft by the Vancouver Grizzlies, he was traded five years to the Houston Rockets, was traded back to the Memphis Grizzlies during the 2010–2011 NBA season. He signed with the Miami Heat in 2011, his number has been retired by both Detroit Country Day Duke University. He has been recognized for his aggressive defense and has "routinely guarded the league's most dangerous offensive players", he is the only basketball player to have won both the Naismith Prep Player of the Year Award and the Naismith College Player of the Year.
Battier won two NBA championships with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013. Battier was an outlier from his childhood, he was the only child in the school with a black father and a white mother. As Michael Lewis put it in a 2009 article, the young Battier "was shuttling between a black world that treated him as white and a white world that treated him as black." More in the context of basketball, Lewis noted that "the inner-city kids with whom he played on the Amateur Athletic Union circuit treated Battier like a suburban kid with a white game, the suburban kids he played with during the regular season treated him like a visitor from the planet where they kept the black people." Battier graduated from Detroit Country Day School with a 3.96 grade point average and was named the school's outstanding student in his senior year. He went on to attend Duke. While at Duke, Battier was the best defender on the court, he took charges which prompted the Cameron Crazies to chant, "Who's your daddy? Battier!" He led the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball to two Final Fours, in 1999 and 2001, though his team in 1998 squandered a late 17-point lead to eventual national champion Kentucky in the regional finals.
The Blue Devils lost to the Connecticut Huskies in the 1999 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, but came back to win the national championship by defeating the Arizona Wildcats two years later. In 2001, Battier swept the major National Player of the Year awards, subsequently had his jersey number 31 retired by the Blue Devils. Additionally, Battier was a three-time awardee of the NABC Defensive Player of the Year. Battier and Jason Williams on the 2001 national championship team were one of only two Duke duos to each score over 700 points in a season, the other duo being Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler in the 2009–10 season. Battier graduated from Duke with a major in religion. After the conclusion of his college career, Battier was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team. Battier was a two-time Academic All-American and Academic All-American of the year in 2001, he was second behind Jon Scheyer in the Duke record book for minutes played in a single season as of March 28, 2010, had 36 double-figure scoring games in a single season.
Battier held the unofficial record among NCAA Division I men's players for most games won in a career with 131, a record that would fall in 2017 to Gonzaga's Przemek Karnowski. Battier was selected by the Grizzlies with the sixth pick of the first round of the 2001 NBA draft. At the time, the Grizzlies were in the process of moving from Vancouver to Memphis. Pau Gasol of Spain was selected in the same draft with the number three pick, by the Atlanta Hawks traded to the Grizzlies. Battier was a versatile player with the size to play the range to score from further out. However, he made his living as a hustle player on the defensive end, where he defended three positions with a high degree of skill, netted a good number of blocks and steals, dove for loose balls, drew offensive fouls from his opponent. On June 28, 2006, Battier was traded by the Grizzlies to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Stromile Swift and the Rockets' number 8 selection Rudy Gay in the 2006 NBA draft. Battier has been called "the ultimate glue guy" for playing sound, team-oriented basketball, making his teammates more effective without flash or padding his own stats, for making the most of his skills with discipline and hustle rather than raw athleticism.
He's known for his extensive preparation in studying the opposing team and the player he is assigned to guard: "I try to prepare for my opponent as as possible. I want to know every angle on the man. I read many, many pages and go over strengths and weaknesses many times before a game.'Proper preparation prevents poor performance.' That is a motto I like." The Rockets made him the team's only player with access to its sophisticated statistical data that they compiled on all opposing players. In a game between the Rockets and San A
Streetball
Streetball or street basketball is a variation of basketball played on outdoor courts, featuring less formal structure and enforcement of the game's rules. As such, its format is more conducive to allowing players to publicly showcase their own individual skills. Streetball may refer to other urban sports played on asphalt, it is popular and important in New York City. Some places and cities in the United States have organized streetball programs, operated to midnight basketball programs. Many cities host their own weekend-long streetball tournaments, with Hoop-It-Up and the Houston Rockets' Blacktop Battle being two of the most popular. Since the mid-2000s, streetball has seen an increase in media exposure through television shows such as ESPN's Street Basketball and City Slam, as well as traveling exhibitions such as the AND1 Mixtape Tour, YPA, Ball4Real, it is popular in other countries like Philippines. Most of their streets have their own basketball court. Tournaments are organized during summer and holiday season.
Divisions are divided into 4 brackets, Midget, Junior,and Senior division. Streetball rules vary from court to court. Players divide into teams by alternating choices. No referees are employed, so invariably a "call your own foul" rule is in effect, a player who believes he has been fouled needs to call out "Foul!", play will be stopped, with the ball awarded to the fouled player's team. Calling fouls is disfavored; 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 groups, of the seriousness of a particular game. Other violations which are enforced include traveling, double-dribble, kicking and backcourt violation. Since there are not always enough players to play on a full court and full-court games are more physically demanding, the majority of Streetball games are played on a half court. Special rules have been developed for half-court play: At the beginning of the game and after each made basket, play begins at the top of the key.
A "checking" system is used to ensure. This involves the offensive player saying "check" while throwing the ball to his defender; the defender makes sure his/her team is ready and throws the ball back to begin play. If the ball goes out of bounds during play, the ball can either be checked from out of bounds near where the ball went out or at the top of the key, depending on the rules established before the game. FIBA had to add the ‘check clock’ rule into play in their streetball tournaments due to some players taking excruciatingly long amounts of time to check the ball, interrupting the flow of play; this ‘check clock’ means that when the defending player has been checked the ball, he has to return it within 5 seconds. If the defending team gains possession of the ball through a steal, block, or rebound, they must take the ball out to beyond the three-point line before they can score a basket; this does not need to be at the top of the key and no checking is required. This is analogous to taking the ball to the other side of the court in a full-court game.
A common feature of street basketball is the pick up game. To participate in most streetball games around the world, one goes to an outdoor court where people are playing, indicates a wish to participate, from all the players who were at the court before one has played, two players acting as "captains" will get to pick their team out of the players available and play a game; the team captains alternate their choices, but different courts have differing rules in regards to player selection. Many games play up to 11, 13, 15, or 21 points with baskets counting for 1 and 2 points, it is possible to do, or 1's only - each basket counts as 1 point 2's only - each basket counts as 2 points 1's and 2's - each basket counts as 1 point if inside the arc, or 2 points if outside the arc 2's and 3's - each basket counts as 2 points if inside the arc, or 3 points if outside the arc 1's, 2's and 3's - You need at least 3 teams for this, baskets count as 1 or 2 points until one of the 3 teams score a certain number of points the other 2 teams play for second place with baskets counting for 2 and 3 points Players play'win by 2' which, as in tennis, means that the team has to win by a margin of at least 2 points.
Sometimes a local "dead end" limit applies. The most common streetball game is 3 on 3 played half court. Another common variation to the rules is the "skunk" rule; this means that if a player reaches a certain point without the other player scoring, the game is over. The skunk rule limit can vary, but is used at the score 7 to 0. Sometimes in a half-court game, a "winner's ball" or "make it, take it" rule is used; this means. Full court basketball is not played with these rules, but, in most instances, the winning team gets to choose which basketball and which direction they get to use. If the ball goes out of bounds players must check up. Ano
