Venice Seaside carried all of the traits of a celebration Sunday night: 90s R&B tunes from DJs, social influencers — with tripods in tow — displaying as much as get a view of the basketball courts to seek out out what the fuss was all about and sufficient flashing lights to seize any European vacationer’s consideration.
A lot of what you’ll have discovered throughout Legends Weekend in Venice — celebrating 20 years of basketball tradition and group — had the traditional hallmarks of the antics discovered on the boardwalks, right down to the crowds surrounding performers corresponding to “2K The Clown” and his posse dancing in clown make-up on the half-court brand because the blue and orange sundown light from day to nighttime.
Marcus Henry spins the golden ball he acquired after profitable the three-point contest on the Veniceball’s twentieth annual “Legends Weekend” at Venice Seaside on Sunday.
On the heart of all of the insanity, a weekend honoring Kobe Bryant — who as soon as broke his wrist in 2000 trying a dunk on the courts — and plenty of different late street-ball icons who made their affect on the boardwalk was Nick Ansom. Ansom, who rollerskated up and down the basketball court docket with a plastic orange prime hat atop his head, is the founder and chief govt officer of Veniceball.
Ask the legends — who’ve been enjoying bodily, hard-nosed basketball on the courts for half a century — or up-and-coming basketball gamers who’ve made Venice their very own with their slick model on the courts, Ansom is the guts and soul of modern-day Venice basketball, the person who’s stored the mission — of basketball and household — transferring and rising 12 months by 12 months.
“That is the goodness of individuals proper right here,” Ansom stated, earlier than the finals of the Venice Basketball League kicked off on Sunday evening. “Look the place we’re. We’re a legendary place, probably the most iconic basketball courts on this planet. I name it the hoopers’ paradise.”
Hoopers paradise began with Ken Hicks, who helped begin organized Venice basketball within the Seventies. Hicks, who grasped the microphone to share phrases of knowledge on Sunday, was handed his literal flowers from Ansom halfway by means of the day’s occasions. Venice, Ansom stated, represents a basketball tradition that remembers its previous whereas additionally honoring its current too.
Gamers compete in the course of the closing recreation of the Veniceball “Legends Weekend” at Venice Seaside on Sunday.
Ansom, who’s French, moved to Venice from France when he was 13 years previous in 2000. He discovered English on the boardwalk, discovering solace on the basketball courts, carving his means right into a group he hoists on his shoulders in the present day.
“Basketball is a common language everywhere in the world, and we ball right here 365 [days],” Ansom stated. “I used to be right here at midnight, enjoying final evening and enjoying with any individual from Australia, a few drunk guys dwelling in Venice, and it’s simply the sweetness and magic of basketball that unites us. It transcends colours. It transcends borders.”
Sunday’s occasions included a youth basketball all-star recreation, a Venice legends five-on-five recreation, a vertical soar contest, a three-point contest, a dunk contest, a celeb recreation and lastly, the VBL males’s finals. Every occasion offered its personal aptitude.
Rasheed Smith, a Venice basketball participant who performed within the Legends recreation Sunday, has been hooping on the boardwalk for 48 years. Two months in the past, Smith pulled right into a gasoline station and caught sight of a 1989 black Cadillac limousine. He walked as much as the proprietor and handed him his cellphone quantity, asking that if he ever considered promoting, Smith wished to be the primary name.
Two weeks later, the proprietor referred to as. Smith bought the limo. There was a objective. He knew it was the very best match for one in every of Venice’s high-flying dunkers to leap over to create a brand new signature dunk for Legends Weekend.
“Doesn’t that sound superior?” Smith stated earlier than the dunk contest.
Certain sufficient, the dunk turned a spectacle, simply as Smith predicted. Chris Staples, a basketball social media star recognized for his out-there dunks, took Smith up for the problem — profitable the dunk competitors with a leap and slam over the limousine.
Clockwise from prime left; A participant soars by means of the air within the slam dunk contest; The judges rating the slam dunk contest; dancers carry out on the Venice Basketball League’s twentieth Annual Legends Weekend; and followers absorb all of the motion.
“I didn’t suppose that was the plan,” Staples stated when requested if he ever imagined a limo could be part of his dunk repertoire Sunday. “However [Legend’s Weekend] all the time brings out the adrenaline, the power, and I simply need to have the ability to get my followers and supporters a dwell present.”
Staples’ dunk earned 10s throughout from judges, Josiah Johnson, Rafer Alston, Craig Smith and former Lakers participant Cedric Ceballos, who can be the commissioner of the VBL.
Johnson, the previous UCLA males’s basketball participant and son of Marques Johnson, who was featured on the L.A. courts within the 1992 movie “White Males Can’t Leap” starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, stated Venice is the closest you’ll discover to road basketball in New York.
“It’s acquired that West Coast Rucker Park sort of vibe,” stated Johnson, who as soon as sponsored Legend’s Weekend along with his short-lived 2016 Comedy Central present, “Legends of Chamberlain Heights.”
Gamers compete throughout Veniceball’s “Legends Weekend” competitors at Venice Seaside on Sunday.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
Alston, who earned his “Skip to My Lou” nickname throughout pickup basketball runs at Rucker Park as a young person earlier than embarking on an 11-year NBA profession, acknowledges the tradition on show in Venice.
Very similar to Smith, who touted the bodily nature of the courts that constructed a aggressive environment whereas additionally constructing a household, Alston understands the way in which basketball fosters camaraderie.
“I grew up in round such a group, so I do know what it means to a group like this, man,” Alston stated. “It’s a day each time they’ve this occasion. Everybody’s having a superb time. Everybody’s completely happy after we’re all collectively right here.”
