Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Demo Square, post: 3817307, member: 10861"] QDOG5, Sorry, I'm a little older than Jim Carroll was when he played. I may or may not have played outdoor pick up games with Jim, but I never knew it, even with his trade-mark red hair. As I said, NYC hoopsters back then were part of a small cult of athletes from all backgrounds who would travel all over the Tri-State area looking for a good run, escape or some self-esteem. But it's a big town. Often as teenagers in the summer, we'd get a handful of tall players together in a beat- up car & "travel" to faraway places like Riis Park near Coney Island, Uptown (155th), Downtown (W. 4th) Rockaway Beach ("McGuire Brothers, Court"), Rego Park, SJU (played with Dove, Cluess & the McIntyre's), NYU up in the Bronx back then (Hairston & Kramer), or even out to Nassau & Rockville Centre's decent year-round hoops scene. We'd bring a new net with us for those VERY thick, reinforced park hoops. What we found? Were other beat up cars & other tall guys from distant parts of the city looking to ball. It was not uncommon for a car full of some seriously addicted & life-challenged former high school greats to absolutely destroy a car full of well-known college All-Stars, dunking them into submission. Now that was the fun for us hoopsters back then. And nothing was organized! No cellphones! No ESPN Highlights! Word of mouth or invite only. It just happened naturally from a love of the game - like in Connecticut's cities & anywhere else 'Where the restless stalk that baseline!" NOTE: There also were "money games" - another topic. The big difference from now was there was nothing like AAU or even that many open summer leagues back then. We just played outdoors (2-10 players) & loved it, adapting to the seasons, sometimes shoveling off the park courts to practice our dunks - Ha! Of course, Noo Yawkers also like to talk when they play pickup. It was either very frustrating or really funny back then. In some places, trash talking can get you slammed up against a chain-link fence or razored pretty quick. And there wasn't even any serious money for the best of the pro's then, who all had second jobs. The 50's-mid-60's Knicks were always terrible. So interest in the pro's & the sport in general was minimal - except for college double headers at The Mecca - MSQ (Thank You, Ned Irish!), where the sharkskin & silk-suited gamblers courtside ruled. It was fun just watching them Thursday Nights, Ha! "Hey, how many is Komives good faw?" Their cigar smoke was so thick in the old 50th Street Gahden, you couldn't even see the overhead scoreboard! I later became aware of Jim Carroll as a musician in a very good late 70's band. But I soon left the City & didn't hear of him again until "The Basketball Diaries" arrived. Jim lived way up in Inwood (Kareem's old neighborhood) while I grew up on the upper way way West Side, both poor "dirty white boys".- Ha!. Never met the dude - but would have liked to as many of his interests were also mine. Carroll later lived in the cool, isolated & recalcitrant town of Bolinas, CA, a place I know quite well & have visited many times. But again, I never had a meeting with Jim Carroll. I can say that so many of the guys I played pickup hoops against & with became renouned college basketball coaches. I crack up now when I see them on TV, still on the sidelines in their 60's & 70's: McKillop, Larranaga, Little Ricky, Mahaney, The Greenburg's, etc., etc. Sadly, so many of my guys have passed away now. I hope they are still dunking, no matter where they hoop it up. Too many words. This is a dunking thread. Sorry guys! Glad I was able to experience that feeling a lot as a youngster, for more than 40 years, & through your posts here. Hey, did anyone else get a bit of a lift on their dunks off that green Tartan rubber court in the Old Field House? I sure did. Thanks for the memories, QDOG5. Father Demo Dunks on the house for everybody! [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach