This past Wednesday, Nike Basketball unveiled its newest home for summer basketball, the plush, newly constructed Rivington Court in New York City’s Lower East Side. Check it out after the jump.
The complex features a parquet floor placed in the middle of the schoolyard at Lower East Side Prep, with two sets of stands and VIP seating bordering the court. On one end of the fence is a digital scoreboard, while across the way is a giant, movie-theater video screen to provide instant replays and help milk the iconographic “oohs†and “aahs†of playground basketball.
To kick off the summer festivities, Wednesday night’s schedule featured two undercards and one main event. First, the best high school kids from Queens and the Bronx faced off in a precursor to the 3rd annual Battle of The Boroughs, a one-day, four team win-or-go-home tournament in late August. Each of the four teams—Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, and Harlem—will use Rivington Court for practices and scrimmages leading up to game day.
After the impressive scrimmage, the 700-plus fans were treated to a Nike+ Dunk Contest, which included five contestants and two celebrity judges: NBA swingman JR Smith and renowned New York disc jockey DJ Enuff.
And finally, in fitting fashion, the main event of the night featured reigning Dyckman champions Team NIKE returning to defend its name against its newly formed counterpart, Team NIKE II, in a battle for streetball bragging rights. The game was close throughout and featured a number of college and professional ballers, both past and present.
The Bronx and Team Nike I each took home wins.
But despite the victory, this is the last New York City will see of Team Nike for a while. Yesterday, the super-squad flew out to Europe to train for its World Basketball Festival tour, which includes trips to London and Paris to take on fellow all-star teams from around the globe. Bingo’s troops will then return to the States to play in the U.S. World Basketball Festival in Washington DC in a four-team tournament against all-star teams from Chicago, Los Angeles and D.C. And after that, in fitting fashion, Team NIKE’s summer will conclude with a rematch against Nike II and then against Ooh-Way, the only team to knock off Bingo and Co. at Dyckman last summer.
In the meantime, Team Nike II will call Rivington Court home. They will take on different teams every Wednesday night, under the bright lights of downtown New York City.
The energy, fan excitement, and game intensity will all increase in the following weeks. If Wednesday’s prelude was any indication, even with Team NIKE’s imminent furlough, streetball is officially off and running.
Game on, World.
