This past Sunday, HITS held their 11th annual Bash At The Beach event. The festivities began with the 16 & Under All-Stars beating the Colin McCrae All-Stars from Brooklyn. The New Jersey Nets & McDonalds came out to support Joe & Randy Cruz‘s organization by holding a youth skills camp called Future Stars. Several Nets trainers, with NBA Hall of Famer, Darryl Dawkins, taught the young athletes
Darryl Dawkins and the Future Stars
Not to leave the loyal fans with nothing to do, there were also several contest where people had the opportunity to win a lot of great prizes (Yankee tickets, a Nintendo Wii, an iPod and more).
Fans line up to get a chance to win prizes
The main event of the day was the Men’s All-Star game. Representing New York, the HITS All Stars played against the ESBL All Stars (representing Baltimore, Eastern Shore). The ESBL jumped out to a quick lead by forcing fast break play, but the HITS squad settled down and took control of the game. Halfway through the first quarter, the HITS All Stars grabbed the lead and never looked back. The real problem for the ESBL All Stars was that they had no answer for the game’s MVP, Steve Burtt Jr., he was getting to the basket with ease. A bright spot for the ESBL team was the performance from Stacy Brown. The Maryland forward hustled on both ends of the court and kept his team in the game, without him they would’ve definitely lost by 20+.
Stacy Brown & Miles High (now known as ‘T.O. Is My Son’) competed in the dunk contest. Stacy did an off the backboard alley-oop while dunking over his coach (who was sitting down). Not to be outshined, Miles High took off just after the foul line and leaped over Joe Cruz, but surprisingly that dunk didn’t get him the title. I’ll be posting the video to our Youtube channel shortly.
The Man Up Invitational is a new league thats currently being played in Brooklyn. It’s one of the only summer leagues in New York being played indoors, and with a recent heat wave in the city we’re sure they’re thankful for that. They’re also using Macleem uniforms with moisture wicking material (aka Dri-Fit) which will help cool off some of the players. However, not even our gear will be able to ice these shooters, check out the league leading scorers going into week #4.
Dyckman Basketball Court is another well known court that we have recently added to our growing collection of Legendary Courts. Located uptown, in New York City, this court has played host to some great streetball games. We had the opportunity of playing with the Brazilian team against the Dyckman All Stars back in 2008.
With the free agency drama going on now in the league, I decided to add my thoughts on one of the teams who vying for one )or more) super star free agents -The New York Knicks. This is my 5 year plan for them to get back into serious competition.
For the first 2 years, get whatever leftovers to play for the Knicks but leave enough cap space to sign a maxout contract should one appear on the horizon. Carmelo, are you listening? I think Kevin Durant is going to be locked away for at least another 5 years. The new CBA won’t be as generous as this one so it is better to sign a contract/extension under the old rules.
Beginning with the third year, the Knicks will have all of its picks. Keep them and use them. That means scouting has to be upgraded. I don’t want to see surprises like drafting Landry Fields in the second round when you can just invite him to your camp. A better use of the pick would have been Lance Stephenson. Landry Fields was on no ones top 100 so a camp invite would be great for him.
Trade for players with athletic skills not ice cream skills.
Find well motivated players with high basketball IQ.
We’ll have a championship team in 5 years. …and I don’t want to hear from basketball players that it was there lifelong dream to play for the Knicks.
Jay Boogie, Now U Know, K-Ups, and No He Didn’t joined Team Sports Power International for several good will games against several professional teams in Liberia, Africa. During this game against the NPA Pythons, the Vice President of Liberia came out to enjoy the action.
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