Streetball Legend White Chocolate and his teammates defeated a team of university students, 131-127, last night at Ritchie Coliseum.
With names like future, country, wizard, and white chocolate, the roster of the Streetball Legends team that played a squad of students at Ritchie Coliseum last night read like answers to a Mad Libs puzzle.
But these nouns are proper, and their basketball games are filthy.
White Chocolate, Future and others who honed their games on the playground and made their names on MTV and the AND1 MixTape tour brought their razzle-dazzle to about 250 students last night, defeating a group of intramural all-stars 131-127 in a 48-minute, referee-less hodge-podge of three-pointers, throwdowns and turnovers, turnovers, turnovers.
“You saw some things on the court you may never see again,” said Chocolate, also known as Randy Gill, who grew up in Silver Spring and played basketball at Bowie State University.
Indeed there were missed dunks, goaltending, carrying, double dribbles and traveling violations, but the only foul would have been to play defense. Such rules – which were overseen by a student whose only resemblance to a referee was his black-and-white Jack Daniel’s shirt and the fact that he stood on the court – gave way to occasional breathtaking sequences.
With slightly more than two minutes left in the first quarter, for example, Baby Shaq’s three-point attempt bounced off the front rim and the backboard before being thrown down by Big Swole. The next possession, Chocolate tossed an alley-oop to Hopps, whose ability to instantly spring off the court could have garnered him the nickname Bouncy Ball, if it carried more street cred.
“It’s much like the Harlem Globetrotters, but they are much more versed as far as tricks are concerned,” said senior African-American studies and communication major Takirra Winfield, the performing arts director for SEE, who sponsored the event.
“It’s exciting, it’s superexciting,” said DJ KDub, who regularly drops beats for Streetball Legends performances. “It ain’t scripted. I see them play all the time, and some of the stuff they do I still can’t believe it.”
The spontaneity and excitement of these performances have enabled most of these guys to list “professional basketball player” as their occupation, even though they’ve never played a minute in the NBA. Future, aka Malloy Nesmith, has been entertaining crowds for about 10 years. He organizes the Streetball Legends, who play as few as two and as many as 10 games a month.
While the players testify to the fun they have making fans “oooh” and “aaah” with their hoopla, they are keenly aware that Ritchie Coliseum is not the MCI Center, and they do not play in the NBA.
“A lot of them could have been signed, but for some reason it didn’t work out for them,” Winfield said.
Don’t tell Chocolate his dream of playing in the NBA is dead. Though he has a tattoo on his right forearm of a crown perched on a basketball above the words “King of the Street,” Chocolate would prefer to be playing againist King James – LeBron James – in the NBA.
“I’m trying to make it there,” said Chocolate, who spent the summer working out with the Washington Wizards and currently plays for the American Basketball Association’s Maryland Nighthawks. “I’m going to make it there.”
For now, though, Chocolate, 27, is toying with students who dominate the Campus Recreation Center. At one point in the game, Chocolate, whose masterful ballhandling skills make you wonder if he is using a joystick, bounced the ball off his opponent’s head. The defender, annoyed at being shown up in front of a large crowd, started aggressively defending Chocolate, who passed the ball to a teammate, then grabbed the defender’s shirt, pulled him close and gave him a hip thrust, sending the crowd whooping and hollering.
“I didn’t know he was so funny with his dances after he gets you, and how he poses for pictures,” said Travis Lauchman, a junior English major.
If Chocolate is the ringleader of this circus, Big Swole is the acrobat. DJ KDub recalls a play in a past game when Swole’s body was on the same horizontal plane as the rim.
“There’s a guy over there who can fly,” said Shanel Espreo, a junior psychology major, before suggesting a possible defense. “Maybe we can throw our players in the air.”
Not all fans in attendance were enamored with the players, however, especially as the game wore on and some of the tricks were repeated.
“Future got stripped by a white guy,” said freshman kinesiology major Jaret Johnson, who thought the performers in person were less exciting than they are on TV. “They’re not meeting my expectations.”
But for those who were on the court, the legends were more than just sizzle.
“They’re tough, they’re real tough,” said Jason McAlpin, a sophomore business major who played on the university team. “You can tell how much skill they really have.”
Contact Brendan Lowe at lowedbk@gmail.com.
