Bugs-23, Thugs-0
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Tonight, we made it up to the famous Rucker Park, reknowned for its streetball style of basketball.
If you’ve ever seen AND 1 stuff, then you know what kind of stuff I’m talking about. So Kimi, Nathan, Susan and I decided to venture up to 156th and 8th ave. to be a part of the streetball phenomenon. We were trying to make it for the Entertainer’s Basketball Classic. We were deep in the heart of Harlem, so Susan, who is half black and half white, was there to provide us some street cred. The rest of us did not fit in nearly as well. There’s me and Kimi who both have black hair at least and Kimi’s pretty dark. And then there’s Nathan--white gentleman who came straight from work in a button down dress shirt and slacks and shiny black leather shoes. He looked like a recruiter in a sort of Jerry-Maguire-ish sort of way. I’d also like to mention that out of the entire crowd there that night, there were 4 white guys, and 3 asians (and that’s including us).
In any case, we took the 1 train up and started walking East. We came to where we *thought* the park should be...and found nothing. Baffled, we looked around but saw nothing but a bridge and gas stations. Kimi walked up to a car that was stopped at the traffic light and asked, “Where’s Rucker Park?” The lady in the car gave us a concerned look and said, “Oh, that’s hard to get to from here...” And then something amazing happened. “Why don’t you hop in the car and i’ll drive you there.” ?!? OK! So all four of us jumped into her little sedan with a baby and dry-cleaning in the back, and off we sped to the game! We must have looked either really helpless or really inocuous or both. And whoever said that New Yorkers aren’t nice is on crack!
Anyway, she dropped us off right in front of the courts! We thanked her and made our way over. The first game was still going, so we lined up like good children behind the lines of police barracades, officers and security guards. As Nathan later stated, “They gave me the most thorough body search I’ve ever experienced.” Needless to say, security was tight.
As we waited, a commotion occurred. I’m still not sure what happened but I think a fight broke out between the two teams and they called it a game before they reached the last 7 minutes of the second half. Sad for them, but Yay for us! We finally got to go in! We were all excited as we sat down, ready for the game. It began with a lot of energy from the crowd. Suddenly, the energy became panic. Something was happening! And that something was BUGS! The court lights had just turned on and swarms of small gnat-like bugs began to surround the lamps. Some however, either got stunned, lost their way or decided that humans were better company than light bulbs, and as a result began to rain down on the fans in the stands.
People began screaming, itching, batting at things in the air. It became so distracting that the guy calling the game stopped talking about the game for the rest of the half! Women, men, prissy and tough alike all began to shriek and scratch, spreading mass hysteria with every swat of the hand. Thugs, wearing their chains and designer kicks, cowered in fear as they pushed out of the stands toward the exit. By the end of the evening, there were only a hand full of us left. But we remained strong and stayed to the end--we were rewarded with a couple of sweet plays and two dunks (one was a “nervous” dunk and the other a windmill).
At the end, i think it was pretty clear who had won…
the BUGS most definitely scored on the humans, 23-0. ouch! At least we had an interesting experience doing something new and adventurous! Yay for being adventurous! Who knows what will happen next.
Rucker Park from across the street after everything had been taken down