Greg Marius Court at Holcombe Rucker Park is a

basketball court In basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor, with baskets at each end. Indoor basketball courts are almost always made of polished wood, usually maple, with -high rims on each basket. Outdoor su ...

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, at 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, just east of the former

Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...

site. It is geographically at the base of a large cliff named

Coogan's Bluff Coogan's Bluff is a promontory near the western shore of the Harlem River in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. Its boundaries extend approximately from 155th Street and the Macombs Dam Bridge viaduct to ...

.History in the Making at Rucker's Park
Many who have played at the park in the

Entertainer's Basketball Classic Entertainer's Basketball Classic is a basketball tournament held at Rucker Park in New York City. It was founded by Greg Marius in 1982. In 1986, the original Rucker Park Tournament became the Entertainers Basketball Classic. Participants of the to ...

(also known as the Rucker Tournament) achieved a level of fame for their abilities, and several have gone on to play in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA).

History

The park was established in 1956 next to 156; the school closed in 1981. The land that the park is on was once the site of the 8th Avenue Railroad Company. Since 1974, the park has been named after Holcombe Rucker, a local teacher and a playground director for the

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolo ...

. Rucker started a basketball tournament in 1950 in order to help less-fortunate kids stay off the streets and aim for college careers. The players in the Rucker Tournament featured

slam dunk A slam dunk, also simply known as dunk, is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air, controls the ball above the horizontal plane of the rim, and scores by shoving the ball directly through the basket with one ...

crossover dribble A crossover dribble is a basketball manoeuvre in which a player dribbling the ball switches the ball rapidly from one hand to the other, to make a change in direction. In a typical example the player heads up-court, dribbling the ball in (say) the ...

s, and bravado that excited the crowd, a playing style then foreign to the

(NBA). In June 2017, New York City mayor

Bill de Blasio Bill de Blasio (; born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961; later Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm) is an American politician who served as the 109th mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he held the office of New Y ...

dedicated the court to Greg Marius, founder of the

streetball tournament held at the park. The park underwent $520,000 in renovations between August and October 2021, funded in part by the

National Basketball Players Association The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) is a labor union that represents National Basketball Association (NBA) players. It was founded in 1954, making it the oldest trade union of the four major professional sports leagues in the Unit ...

and

. In addition to the basketball court, the park has a baseball field,

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the ...

courts, children's playground, bathrooms, and a spray shower. Rucker Park was featured in the TNT television film ''On Hallowed Ground: Streetball Champions of Rucker Park'', which aired in 2000 and won a

Sports Emmy Award The Sports Emmy Awards, or Sports Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Sports E ...

. It was also featured in the 2018 film ''

Uncle Drew ''Uncle Drew'' is a 2018 American sports comedy film directed by Charles Stone III and written by Jay Longino. It stars Kyrie Irving as the title character from his Pepsi Max advertisements that began airing in 2012, along with former NBA player ...

''. In 2022, Rucker Park became the first outdoor venue for

The Basketball Tournament The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is an open-application, single-elimination tournament played each summer in the United States. The 2022 edition features 64 teams with a $1 million winner-take-all prize, broadcast by ESPN. TBT was founded in 20 ...

, a single-elimination winner-take-all tournament with a $1 million prize, acting as one of eight regional venues of the competition.

Notable players

Although many professional basketball players have played at the court after gaining prominence, many others developed their basketball skills at Rucker prior to becoming notable in the sport, including: *

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Kareem (alternatively spelled Karim or Kerim) ( ar, کریم) is a common given name and surname of Arabic origin that means "generous", "noble", "honorable". It is also one of the Names of God in Islam in the Quran. Given name Karim * Karim A ...

* Rafer Alston * Kenny Anderson *

Nate Archibald Nathaniel "Tiny" Archibald (born September 2, 1948) is an American retired professional basketball player. He spent 14 years playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most notably with the Cincinnati Royals/Kansas City–Omaha Kings ...

* Metta Sandiford-Artest *

Sylvester Blye Sylvester "Sy" Blye (born February 14, 1938) is a former American street and professional basketball player. Blye was famous in the Rucker Park league in New York City, being named to its Hall of Fame. He played briefly in college for Seattle U ...

Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 years and is widely reg ...

* Julius "Dr. J" Erving * Connie Hawkins * "Jumpin" Jackie Jackson *

Stephon Marbury Stephon Xavier Marbury (born February 20, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player and current head coach in the Chinese Basketball Association. After his freshman year with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, he was selected as th ...

Jamal Mashburn Jamal Mashburn Sr. (born November 29, 1972) is an American entrepreneur and former professional basketball player. Nicknamed the "Monster Mash", Mashburn was a prolific scorer as a small forward in his 12 seasons in the National Basketball Assoc ...

Earl Monroe Vernon Earl Monroe (born November 21, 1944) is an American former professional basketball player. He played for two teams, the Baltimore Bullets and the New York Knicks, during his career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Both teams ...

* Chris Mullin *

Satch Sanders Thomas Ernest "Satch" Sanders (born November 8, 1938) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played his entire professional career as a power forward for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) ...

Kevin Durant Kevin Wayne Durant ( ; born September 29, 1988), also known by his initials KD, is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball f ...

* Brian Taylor *

Sebastian Telfair Sebastian Telfair (born June 9, 1985) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the NBA and the Chinese Basketball Association. Telfair was picked thirteenth overall in the 2004 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers on ...

* Jamaal TinsleyJamaal Tinsley Interview
''

Inside Hoops InsideHoops.com, or Inside Hoops, is a basketball news website that was founded in 1999 by Jeff Lenchiner. The site, which updates several times a day, primarily delivers NBA basketball coverage. The site also features basic daily college basketb ...

'', January 7, 2005. Accessed October 7, 2007. "InsideHoops.com: In your high school years, out of the gym, which parks were you playing at? Jamaal Tinsley: Everywhere. West 4th. 68t-h, the Pro-Am tournament. Rucker. Soul in the Hole. That's it, mainly, in New York City." Other amateur players who made a name for themselves at Rucker but never played in the ABA or NBA included

Earl Manigault Earl Manigault (September 7, 1944 – May 15, 1998) was an American street basketball player who was nicknamed "The Goat". He is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players to never play in the NBA. Early years Earl Manigault was b ...

, Joe Hammond and Pee Wee Kirkland.

References

External links

*
Court profile of Rucker Park basketball court

Photo gallery: Hopefuls Tryout for Rucker Park Basketball Tournament
{{Harlem AND1 Parks in Manhattan Basketball venues in New York City Harlem Streetball Sports venues in Manhattan Protected areas established in 1956 1956 establishments in New York City