Tag: rucker park

Big 12 Conference to partner with historic Rucker Park

The Big 12 announced a partnership with historic Rucker Park.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark certainly hasn’t forgotten his New York roots. Ahead of Kansas State’s Sweet 16 matchup against Michigan State in Madison Square Garden, the conference announced a partnership that will bring Big 12 basketball to historic Rucker Park.

This announcement comes off the heels of the Big 12 announcing a conference-wide NFL pro day at the Dallas Cowboys practice facilities in Frisco, Texas, near conference headquarters.

“Rucker Park is one of the great landmarks in basketball and is a cultural icon – we are excited to be able to bring Big 12 Basketball to its court,” said Commissioner Brett Yormark in a statement from the conference. “We are committed to growing the Conference’s footprint in a variety of ways, and we want kids across New York City to experience Big 12 Basketball first-hand.”

“Big 12 coaching clinics at New York City’s Rucker Park is an iconic collaboration,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “I’m thrilled that through this partnership, our young people will have the chance to learn from some of the best in the business, bringing Big 12 basketball right to their front door.”

One thing Yormark has shown in his short tenure is that he has the propensity to push the envelope.

Archibald’s storied basketball career …

Archibald’s storied basketball career started in New York City on the city’s famous playgrounds. Coming out of the Bronx in the 1960s, Archibald displayed skills molded by taking on other streetballers in many of New York’s famous parks, including Rucker Park, where he developed a knack to score and facilitate. “What I remember him always talking about was the New York playground legends,” said Cedric Maxwell, Archibald’s teammate with the Boston Celtics from 1978 to ’83. “Guys that he played with and he always talked about — Joe Hammond ‘The Destroyer’, Pee Wee Kirkland — all those guys out of the city that played down in the Rucker. I kind of lived vicariously through him when it came to New York, because he’d always tell me stories about different places that he’d go to in the summer. In my mind, he took me down 42nd Street so many times, and I had never really been there.”

Boston’s Jaylen Brown helps give historic Rucker Park a new look inspired by the Maya ball game

The mecca now has a mesoamerican-inspired flavor courtesy of Brown and rapper A$AP Ferg.

Rucker Park is arguably the most famous basketball court in the world not graced by NBA teams (though plenty of NBA players play on it), and the famed New York City streetball mecca just got a re-design courtesy of rapper A$AP Ferg and inspired by Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics and Maya culture of all things, according to Mark Elibert of Hip Hop DX.

According to Elibert, Harlem native A$AP Ferg got together with Brown, the NBA Players Association (NBPA) and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to reopen the Greg Marius Court at Holcombe Rucker Park in Harlem this past Oct. 9 after he re-designed the court with a Maya flare.

“What really inspired this court design, because I had so many designs, I spoke to my friend Jaylen Brown, he plays for the Boston Celtics,” explained Ferg.