Film review: 'Doin’ It in the Park' sheds light on New York’s street ball subculture

Rucker Park. Goat Courts. The Cage.

For any hoop head, these locations are places of worship in New York, the so-called Mecca of basketball. The lore of street ball legends is born in asphalt and embedded in a rich tradition of unorganized pickup hoops that has thrived for decades. And now, thanks to two game-changing basketball ambassadors, for the first time ever, those stories will be preserved for future generations.

“Doin’ It in the Park” is Pickup Basketball 101, a tribute to the finest New York street ball has to offer. Basketball may be a universal sport, but in New York, the game is elevated with a distinct flavor that the movie attempts to expound on in great detail.

Hip-hop icon Bobbito “Kool Bob Love” Garcia and neophyte filmmaker Kevin “Baguette” Couliau, both street ball players themselves, embraced the challenge of paying homage to the sport’s culture. Armed with only their bicycles, a video camera, and personal life savings, Garcia and Couliau paid homage to 180 courts across five boroughs, namely, Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. Upon arriving in each venue, they then got a firsthand account of the temperaments and customs found in each playground.

Viewers are gifted an insider’s perspective of the drama that unfolds on a daily basis on these courts. Within this documentary, Garcia and Couliau were successful in consolidating the rich content of street ball that is already available on the Internet. YouTube clips may be littered with mixtapes of the finest cult heroes in the blacktop, but none of those videos capture and deconstruct the sport to its bare essentials the way this film does.

Garcia himself narrates the entire film, his enthusiasm audibly reverberating right from the beginning, keeping the audience engaged as the opening credits roll out a vivid montage of basketball courts from all over the Big Apple.

Like any standard documentary, talking heads are prevalent. The documentary initially begins with former pros such as Geoff Huston, who points to the ingenuity of players who would play on makeshift rims such as hampers, monkey bars, and empty garbage cans. Then, street ball Ed “Kid Sundance” Davis described the rudimentary details of alternative games such as 21 and Horse.

Garcia describes pickup basketball as a movement that tightens community bonds. People stopped whatever they were doing to watch the greatest at the craft lace up their sneakers. After all, street ball served as the breeding ground for the likes Julius Erving, Wilt Chamberlain, and Richard “Pee Wee” Kirkland to hone their talents. A smattering of Dr. J highlights with crowds that reached all the way to the top of the buildings were included for good measure.

Competitive spirit is a recurring theme throughout the documentary. Kenny Smith may be known for his two titles with the Houston Rockets and his witty game analysis on Inside the NBA, but he reveals a different side growing up in such a cutthroat street ball environment. Until he was 15, Smith did not get a chance to call “next” on the main court of the playground, where all eyes get to judge the true greatness of a pickup baller.

Kirkland provides an earnest, albeit brash account of pickup basketball. It was not about the pick-and-roll or the give-and-go. It was all about how to “make it happen.” Respect is earned by winning, not by sheer braggadocio or sartorial fashion statements. Garcia also whipped out the archives, brandishing a 1994 clip of Kirkland talking with him about the nuances of three-on-three basketball.

The movie speaks in a very inclusive and indulgent tone of gung-ho personalities sharing a genuine passion. Greg “White Chocolate” Ganley mentioned the ritualistic approach of how players would see each other at the same time every week without having to send each other Facebook or text messages. People just knew that there was a game to the played and took to the court.

Court decorum is an unwritten rule that varies across the boroughs. The amount of trash talking should be directly proportional to the player’s skill level. Wearing an NBA jersey to a pickup game? It is akin to putting on a bullseye target on one’s back. Bringing along a girlfriend? Prepare to get shown up and embarrassed. Thinking of getting a nickname? That is earned post-game, not declared pre-game.

Three demographics that were featured stood out and kept viewers rapt, as they put New York street ball in a whole new light. The first group was the Rikers Island inmates, who saw pickup basketball as a sanctuary from prison life. When they step on the court, no homicide or bank robbery charges are mentioned. Their worth is equal to the intensity of play that they bring in the court.
    
The second minority are the women ballers who are initially seen as tag-alongs, but there are those who excel and even outplay some of their male counterparts. As girls, Niki Avery and Milani Malik have a tendency to be looked down on just because of their gender. But they do not say anything about being picked last when teams are being selected, choosing to fly under the radar and earning the respect of their peers after dropping 40 points on them.

But the third and most inspiring collection of players can be found in the courts of Each One Teach One at Pedestrian Landing Playground in Manhattan. A group of deaf players conversing in rapid-fire sign language can be seen patroling the courts from the wee hours of the mornings to the late hours at night, overcoming their handicap to play the most silent form of hoops. Despite being unable to hear the bounce of the ball, their love for the game is not diminished one bit.

Anyone who considers himself a basketball aficionado must have played pickup basketball at least once in his life. “Doin’ It in the Park” is an inspiring and authoritative film that will move viewers to grab a group of friends and sweat it out at a gym or in the backyard. Though the film is thematically disjointed and fails to centralize on a unifying plot, Garcia and Couliau deliver a pioneering output that leaves its mark as the gold standard of future street ball films to come. —AMD/KG, GMA News


"Doin’ It in the Park" was shown at the Ronac Basketball Court last July 6 at a one-night only exclusive screening sponsored by Nike. Bobbito Garcia and Kevin Couliau graced the event as part of their world tour. Download a digital copy of the documentary from the official website here. http://buy.doinitinthepark.com/

Favian Pua currently works as a sports analyst for Kambi Philippines and is a frequent contributor to GMA News Online Sports. He also maintains a sports blog, All-Time Fave and can be found on Twitter. The views expressed in this article are solely his own.