Nike World Basketball Festival in NYC: Company Bringing More Than Shoes

This summer, NIKE Inc. and USA Basketball are bringing the world's top basketball teams and musical performers to New York City for the inaugural World Basketball Festival, a four-day celebration of the performance and culture of the game.

The World Basketball Festival features Nike’s leading brands such as Converse, Jordan Brand and Nike Basketball.

On August 12, the celebration tipped off with an invite-only event at Radio City Music Hall.

As fans raced all over New York City and exploded on Facebook and Twitter pages to win tickets, members of the USA Men’s Basketball team joined stage to showcase their talents. Earlier that day, players took the time to practice and run drills with local kids. For three hours, players on stage perfected their craft with alley hoops, spin crosses, crossovers, and whirlwinds.

The four-hour show ended with a collection of classic’s performed by the Mogul/Grammy-Award winning artist Jay-Z.

“Even those who weren’t a fan of Jay-Z were that night,” says Ikeema Rudder, one of the event winners.

The basketball and musical performances were streamed live on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/wbf while highlights are available online at www.NBA.com and www.USABasketball.com. Also, ESPN2 ran a tape-delay of the basketball performance last night.

WBF moves its talents to New York City’s Basketball court at the legendary Rucker Park in Harlem.

The two-day saga includes open scrimmages and games between international teams such as Brazil, Puerto Rico and China plus youth teams from the five boroughs of NYC. It’s a family weekend that includes entertainment, giveaway prizes, open court, games, free haircuts, and body art.

Before the crowd erupted, an early morning scrimmage started at 8 AM on the wood customized court for Michael Jordan’s Breakfast Club.

After a brief Q&A session with the Hall of Famer along with NBA superstars Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul, Jordan Brand and Michael Jordan handed out checks as they continue to support local youth programs like Boys & Girls Club of Harlem, YMCA, and the Urban League.

“The Rucker Park has always displayed talented amateurs who’ve mastered street ball,” said Lawrence W., a local player.

When I arrived to the Rucker courts around 3, I didn’t think I’d find a seat.

Each stand of bleachers were filled and a lot of late comers had to sit in between the aisles. The first game for the Battle of the Boroughs between the Bronx and Brooklyn were comprised of some of the top high school ballers.

A quick recap follows as both St. Raymond’s High School rising juniors Daniel Dingle and Kerwin Okoro dominated both halves to lead the Bronx to a 58-56 win against Brooklyn. Though Okoro struggled at the free throw line, he had three 3-pointers after halftime, including what would end up being the game-winner with 56 seconds on the clock.

Other entertainment included break dancing from NYC’s b-boys, but the highlight must’ve been standup comedy from announcer Joe Pope. His list included Kamari Murphy as “Lloyd Banks," Darrel Lucky as “Coffee Ear Mugs," Joey DeLaRose as “Ray Charles” and the nicknames for rest of the roster were just as funny.

Another fun filled day at Rucker Park features games by Harlem vs. Queens and Puerto Rico vs. NYC All Stars. Any special guest appearances have yet to be announced, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Basketball junkies and fans of the game are thrilled to be a part of the celebration.

It feels good to know that big name corporations such as Nike want to give back to the community and have these events where anyone can attend. The grand finale of Nike’s WBF will occur at Madison Square Garden with a double header of USA Men vs. France at 1 PM and China vs. Puerto Rico to follow.