Basketball enthusiasts are familiar with playground legends like “Pee Wee” Kirkland and the famed streetball parks that NBA stars frequent such as Rucker Park. Over the years, New York has been referred to as “the Mecca of Basketball.”
The New York Knicks were once a franchise that epitomized the grit and grind of New York City’s blacktop playground origins with hard play night in and night out. In times past, the toughness of Knicks players like Patrick Ewing, Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley inspired children growing up in the inner cities.