Reliving Kobe Bryant’s Rucker Park game in 2002
BY ALEX MITCHELL
Perhaps Kobe Bryant’s most
iconic NYC moment happened
on a rainy summer day on 155th
Street in Harlem back in 2002.
That’s when the then-23-
year-old, number eight wearing
Black Mamba laced up and put
on a show at Harlem’s famed
Holcombe Rucker Park — coming
off his three-peat championship
run with the Los Angeles
Lakers.
For many Harlemites and
basketball fans, Bryant displayed
the most electric game
they had ever witnessed; even
the late NBA legend spoke
about Rucker’s energy charged
from the NYC crowd.
“The memory I’ll defi nitely
take away is the people down
there at the game watching…
and interacting with them,”
Bryant said in an interview
following his Rucker game in
which Kobe sported an “Entertainers”
jersey.
“Having a good time with
them, talking trash,” he continued.
Bryant being trash talked
during an Entertainers Basketball
Classic game is pretty
much the most authentic New
York experience imaginable —
but the Harlem crowd showed
plenty of love to the hypeman
proclaimed “Lord of The
Rings.”
Actually, that was only the
start of the in-game nicknames
given to Bryant by the MC Jeffery
“Hannibal” Banks, who
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was announcing the game.
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Then came Kobe-wan Kenobi,
The Final Frontier, Junkyard
Dog, and so many more
names for the to-be-hall of
famer.
“That’s my man right
there,” Bryant said, noting that
the names Hannibal and others
donned were “very, very
creative.”
Due to the rain, Bryant’s
performance ended prematurely;
though not before an afternoon
of 15 points, 7 assists,
and 7 boards on the Rucker
concrete.
Meanwhile, the EBC immediately
payed homage to Bryant
for not only his 2002 performance
but his career as
a whole shortly after the sad
news broke yesterday.
Legends never die they live
on in our memories. S.I.P Kobe
Bryant & Greg Marius
A post shared by EBC at
Rucker Park (@ebcruckerpark)
on Jan 26, 2020 at 12:18pm PST
Bryant returned to Rucker
Park some years later during
the World Basketball Festival
in 2010, this time to teach the
youth rather than crossing up
some unlucky few.
“It’s the basketball knowledge
and the passion that people
have in the city,” Bryant
said on the Rucker hardwood
when asked about what’s made
New York so special to him.
“I think it’s beautiful,” he
continued while talking about
the global expansion of the
sport.
It was those two summer
days that inspired a generation
of NYC basketball, many of
whom began playing the sport
because of Bryant and many
who will continue to in his legacy.
File Photo