The Oral History of the AND1 Mixtape Tour

For a brief moment in time, the AND1 Tournament was the top of the basketball world, with names like Skip 2 My Lou becoming synonymous with its brand.

and1 mixtape tour oral history
Complex Original

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and1 mixtape tour oral history

The story of the AND1 Mixtape Tour, as told by the streetball players who lived it.

As told to Ralph Warner (@SoloWarnerBro), Angel Diaz (@ADiaz456) and Jose Martinez (@ZayMarty)

The year was 1998. Michael Jordan had just solidified his legacy as the GOAT with “The Final” Shot against the Utah Jazz in the highest-rated Finals series in NBA history. NBA popularity was at an all-time high but the game was about to change. That same year, a grainy video of Rafer “Skip 2 My Lou” Alston was making rounds. Put together by DJ Set Free, the footage showed Alston doing work in the streetball Mecca known as Rucker Park. The fusion of tracks by Rawkus artists including a new rapper by the name of Mos Def with Skip 2 My Lou’s slick moves united two worlds that had been synonymous since the ‘80s: Streetball and hip-hop.

While the multi-millionaires in the league ruled the basketball universe from fall through the spring, summer has always belonged to the streetballers. Starting 15 years ago in 1998, and lasting throughout the mid-2000s, the summers would belong to the AND1 streetballers. Jordan’s retirement and the league’s lockout a few months later would send the NBA into a decline in popularity from 1999 throughout the early aughts. Meanwhile, by the end of 1999 over 100,000 copies of the "The Skip Tape" a.k.a. AND1 Mixtape Vo1. 1, had been sold.

From that point through the mid 2000s, names like Shane “The Dribbling Machine” Woney, Anthony “Half Man, Half Amazing” Heyward, Waliyy “Main Event” Dixon, Grayson “The Professor” Boucher, and Philip “Hot Sauce” Champion became household names. Rather than rattling off the stats their favorite players were putting up on the hardwood, kids were talking about the wizardry going down on the blacktop. Let's just come out and say it: from the late ‘90s through the mid 2000s AND1 was bigger than the NBA.

The Nike “Freestyle” commercial that dropped in 2001? Heavily influenced by AND1. Tracy McGrady going off the backboard during the 2002 All-Star Game? Seen countless times on AND1 mixtapes before it was witnessed by 20,000 at First Union Center in Philadelphia. NBA Street and NBA Street Vol. 2 selling over three million copies combined? Without a doubt boosted by the popularity the basketball brand founded in Paoli, Penn. back in 1993.

Though relatively short-lived, for a brief moment in time, the AND1 Tournament was the top of the basketball world. From the days when legends were breaking ankles at The Rucker and Barry Farms in Washington D.C. to the days where suburban kids were practicing those same moves on Huffy hoops in their backyard, here’s the oral history of how streetball became mainstream.

THE PLAYERS

DJ Set Free - Born in NYC and raised in Philadelphia, Set Free is responsible fusing together hip-hop and streetball in the AND1 Mixtape series.

The Dribbling Machine - Shane Woney is a Bronx native who built his streetball reputation at Rucker Park before joining AND1 for the first year of the tour.

Half Man, Half Amazing - Anthony Heyward is from Brooklyn and gained his moniker after Rucker MC Duke Tango witnessed him elevate and dunk over a much larger player.

Headache -  Tim Gittens was one of the first streetballers to sign with AND1. His name rings bells on every NYC court.

Main Event: The Linden, N.J. streetball legend worked with AND1 representatives to develop the idea of having the original AND1 Mixtape game and tour. Dixon played on the tour from 2001 through 2006.

AO -  Straight out of Philly, Aaron Owens has filthy ballhandling skills and dishes some of the best alley-oops in the game.

Helicopter - At a young age, sixth grade to be exact, John Humphrey threw down his first dunk. Since then, the North Carolina native has amazed spectators with his leaping ability at 6'1" while staying true to the fundamentals of the game.  

Prime Objective - Lonnie Harrell didn't have the flashiness of streetballer, but the guy possessed a fundamentally sound game and could score points in bunches, which became evident when he dropped 55 points on the AND1 team.

The Professor - Grayson Boucher hails from Keizer, Ore.; he joined AND1 in 2003 during their "Survivor" contest. His streetball reputation grew to legendary heights after hitting a game-winner at Madison Square Garden during the 2003 Tour.

Skip 2 My Lou - Rafer Alston took his legendary streetball exploits all the way to the NBA.

Sik Wit It - Born Robin Kennedy, the Pasadena, Calif. native was given the nickname "Sik Wit It" from his friend, Reggie Cotton, who thought his moves were sick, on the concrete and everywhere in between.

Baby Shaq - Hailing from Washington, D.C., Baby Shaq is the enforcer in the paint with incredible size and a pro-ball style of play.

Philip "Hot Sauce" Champion was contacted on multiple occasions but did not express any desire to participate in the oral history.

RELATED: Grayson "The Professor" Boucher Explains What the Ball Up Summer Streetball Tour Is All About (Video)

DJ Set Free: It starts with the mixtape in '98. AND1 had a bunch of videotapes in the area of the kitchen of the office, and we used to go back there and watch them. There was all this old playground footage of Rafer [Alston] at the Rucker. Back then I was DJing, and I would play the tapes and turn the sound down and start DJing. That’s when it clicked, and I was like, ‘It would be incredible if we could package it and it would be the first ever video mixtape.'

I was working with Rawkus and they gave me some exclusive tracks to put over the video, and that’s how the idea came about. I was like, ‘It still needs a couple more things,’ so I called artists I knew, like Mos Def. And once I hosted it, we got the drops to come in, and then we took it back to AND1 and we were like, ‘We got something.’ That’s how the mixtape started. I remember we came back, and we were like, ‘OK how many tapes should we do?’ I think at first, we did 10,000 VHS’s, and it got so crazy, 'cause we took them to New York and Rucker, and after that we pressed like 100,000 VHS tapes.


 

We were like, ‘OK how many tapes should we do?’ I think at first, we did 10,000 VHS’s, and it got so crazy, 'cause we took them to New York and Rucker, and after that we pressed like 100,000 VHS tapes.

—DJ Set Free


 

Headache: I was the first, well, me and Waliyy [Main Event] were probably the first players to sign. AND1 came looking for players, and at the time I was probably one of the hottest young guards in the city of New York coming out of college. You know, just lifting the city up. And he approached me with this opportunity. We went around taping a little bit and Waliyy was arranging the first game in Jersey, and wanted to see how it was going to go before the [AND1 Mixtape] Tour was even thought about. They wanted to sell more T-shirts, I guess ‘cause that's what it was based on. That's when it first started.

So we wanted do it now, get a little bit of gear, a little bit of money, and it's like, OK we'll do it. It was something that we loved, and everyone figured it would be for a short period of time. I wasn't expecting it to be as big as it was. That was completely different. You know, 'Let's just try this and see if it works.' It was more like that. The first seven were: Future, we talked to him. Craft Ferguson, that went to New Mexico University. Half Man, Half Amazing, we picked up Shane The Dribbling Machine, Main Event, and Skip [2 My Lou]. And that was the first six guys that were actually a part of the tour. That was the ground phase.

The Dribbling Machine: Somebody was talking about a shoe company that wanted us to play a game in New Jersey. It wasn’t really a tour we were talking about. We just were talking about me, Main, and Half playing. That summer, we played at Rucker. I think we had won a championship that game, at the Rucker Park on Fridays. That tour right there, it was more of a game. When we found out a tour was coming, it was more like a year later after that first initial game.

Skip 2 My Lou: I heard of the tour in the mid-'90s sometime. The late-'90s actually, when I was coming home from college. They asked me to be a part of it.

Main Event: In the summer of '99, I met with someone from AND1 named J.R.—nice guy, not there no more. I spoke to a guy named J.R., talked to him on the phone, had a meeting in New York City me and him, affiliated with AND1, and he was like, ‘Yo, we just put 100,000 copies of Skip 2 My Lou out. We want you to be in Vol. 2. We’re going to take all of your footage and make a tape.’ I was hyped. He was like, ‘We wanna offer you a sneaker endorsement deal.’ You’re talking to a kid who played Rucker Park, played all around the world, AAU, All-American, stuff like that. So I was excited. ‘Word, a sneaker deal?’ That’s unheard of. I slept on it. Then it came to my mind—if I give them all of my footage, I’m going to be just as good as my last move. It would’ve just been a temporary type thing. I chilled for like a week, got back in touch with them.

The idea that I came out with in that week—I wanted to bring something to the table for other guys, not just me. Other guys who I played ball with for over ten years, something that we can do. The idea that I came up with was to take the best streetballers—I think it was five of us. It was Shane, myself, Half Man, Half Amazing, Aircraft, and Future. That was the five that I brought to the table. I said, ‘Let’s take five of the best streetballers in the world not in the NBA and present and promote their brand.’

AO: I was on the first tour. It was 2000 and I was playing a New York City game that summer. And then I was at HoopsTV.com at their office. AND1 was next door. I met the guy, Pete. I was in my first year out of college. What happened was, I had my tape—you know Skip's tape was out—so my man took my clip-tape for the pros, that the NBA had, took that tape and put music to it. The guy from AND1 got it. I went up there a couple times and they started sending me stuff.

Then like the end of July they mentioned the Tour, and was like, "you wanna go?" And that's how it started. We all flew to L.A. and it was like five of us, which was: Headache, Main [Event], Shane, Craft and Biz and me and [Hot] Sauce. That was the first game at Southwest College.


 

At first I said no, but then he said, you'll get paid $500 per game and I was like, who would turn that offer down? I accepted the offer and things took off from there.

—Baby Shaq 


 

Half Man, Half Amazing: We had a game at Rucker, and after the game, Main Event came over to me and said, ‘We might have something going on with AND1, would y’all be interested in playing?’ I said, ‘Of course.’ It was about six or seven of us. We had a couple of small games—had a game out in Linden, [N.J.], Main Event’s neighborhood, which we did pretty good. We had a couple of games after that at some small venues, and it just took off from there.

Prime Objective: When the AND1 Tour came to D.C. during the time that All-Star Weekend was in town in 2001, they offered me a contract, but I was still trying to get in the NBA. Later on, I played at Rucker Park on the New York All-Stars team. I had 55 points in that game and they offered me a contract again. At that point, I was playing in the NBDL.

But there are politics in everything. My last opportunity was with the New Jersey Nets. I actually got there through politics because Irv Gotti—who was the head of Murder Inc.—was going through a bidding war and one of the execs at another company was one of the owners of the Nets. Gotti told him to give me a shot, a fair look and everything will take care of itself. I went down there to work out and it went well. They brought me back the next day and they eventually put me on the Summer League team. I had a good summer, so they brought me to the Nets camp. It all ended though when they snatched me out of practice and the doctor scared me to death, saying he didn't like the readings I had. Crazy stuff. They said they didn't want me to die, but when I came back to my own doctor who I've had since college at Georgetown, he said I had the same readings that I've always had. It was all bullshit. After I was tired of chasing that NBA dream, I decided to join the AND1 Tour. 

Helicopter: In the summer of 2002, I just came home from college. I talked to one of my good friends, Tracy Williams, who actually did some work with Shane. I decided I was going to give it a try and see what happens. Once I got out there, Prime Objective spotted me from the college dunk contest, so he asked me to do a couple dunks and the rest is history.

Baby Shaq: I'd say, 2002. I heard about it but never went out. Then, the following year, the opposing team's coach at the time was Mike Ellis. He came to the gym looking for Pat The Roc and I was with Pat. Mike asked Pat who I was and eventually he came over, asking me to play against the AND1 team. At first I said no, but then he said, you'll get paid $500 per game and I was like, who would turn that offer down? I accepted the offer and things took off from there. I can honestly say I was in the right place at the right time.

Sik Wit It: The first time I heard about the tour, I was in Pasadena [Calif.] playing basketball in the gym by myself and someone came up to me, saying there was an AND1 tryout and that I should go out there. Someone gave me a ride and I did it.

The Professor:  I heard about the tour in 2001 when they were shooting it and then they actually came to Oregon in 2002 when I was in high school and I played against some of the guys in 2002. There's a clip of me in AND1 Mixtape Volume 6, a lot of people don't know. Just one highlight. And then in 2003 they came back around, they came to Portland, Ore. and that was the first year they were doing the "Survivor" contest.

They needed the "Survivor" contest to look for the next unknown streetball player that would become the next member of the AND1 team. So I entered, ended up staying on the whole summer and won a contract at the end.

DJ Set Free: It’s funny, because ball players use rap music like a force. They listen to it and they work out to it, and I think a rapper speaks the words that a basketball player lives. From the rapper’s side of it, looking at a basketball player, it’s that big stage—it’s a different stage, money’s different.

It’s a dream for both sides, and they all grow up together. Basketball and hip-hop is like a marriage made up in the urban communities, really. Now it’s global, but back in the day I think it just went hand-in-hand.

Main Event: Think about it. When you see athletes period. What do they have on their head? They’re listening to some form of music. Whether it’s hip-hop, reggae, rock, jazz—the connection is there. We get hype off of music. That’s what we’re listening to. The connection is there.

Right now, hip-hop is in the same situation as streetball right now. Who’s real, who’s fake? Why D-Block, Styles P, or Jada not making the same money that Soulja Boy or these new names coming in the game are? 'Cause they learned the business. That’s because Styles ain’t gonna sign no 360 degree deal. When we was at AND1, we had contracts, we had salaries. Now guys is getting X amount of dollars per game. That’s going backwards.

Headache: I trained this way, I played this way. Basketball has such a rhythm and excitement to it. Everything you do with basketball, from the way you play to the way you dribble, is a feel. It's a feel. It's like, "I'm hot. I can feel that. Yeah." And the same thing with music and hip-hop. It's a touch. It's a feel. And music's the same way because to create that great song or that No. 1 hit—it's a feel. If a basketball player tells you he thought his move through before he made his move, he's lying.


 

Ball players use rap music like a force. They listen to it and they work out to it, and I think a rapper speaks the words that a basketball player lives.

—DJ Set Free


 

Skip 2 My Lou: It's just the culture. When you grow up playing on the playgrounds of New York City, it comes with the territory. It kind of makes each other. I think it goes hand-in-hand.

AO: Anything urban's gonna be hip-hop. Rappers wanna be basketball players, basketball players wanna be rappers. 

Baby Shaq: For me, hip-hop and sports are all about emotion. You can't do anything without emotion. Once you're on the court or the stage, you can freestyle because there's no real guidelines to hip-hop or sports, except the rules that make us stay inside the lines. 

The Dribbling Machine: From the history of basketball, hip-hop, it’s all street related. We needed hip-hop to motivate us to play in most of these games. What motivated us wasn’t the people we played against—it was the music we listened to. Half Man, being from Brooklyn, I’ll never forget... I was a fan of Buckshot Shorty, and Fab 5. Half’s from Brooklyn, so it linked us on the down-low tip, and it said, "You know what? We got the same thing in common with basketball, and we love the same music." Hip-hop is very appreciated.

Half Man, Half Amazing: Being at the age we at, we grew up with hip-hop. It automatically became a part of us. It was our adrenaline music, got us pumped for the game. Like we said, we wasn’t worried about who we was playing, we just wanted to get ourselves hyped-out, hyped-up, so we could go out there and do what we needed to do.


 

Hip-hop was our adrenaline music, got us pumped for the game. Like we said, we wasn’t worried about who we was playing, we just wanted to get ourselves hyped-out, hyped-up, so we could go out there and do what we needed to do. —Half Man, Half Amazing


 

Sik With It: People love music. When the people come out, they hear it and it brings out a certain vibe inside you. In hip-hop and basketball, it's all about doing your thing; every sound we make with our dribbling and the things we do, it just coincides together.

Helicopter: Streetball is an expression. Time changes, people change, but your expressions stay the same. It's just a way to let loose and express yourself. Not the illegal stuff, but... You know those things you're not supposed to do, but you get away with it? That's what it is.

The Professor: I think basketball and hip-hop are so synonymous because it's so popular in the inner city. Basketball is one of the cheapest sports. All you need is a hoop and a ball. Not even a hoop sometimes. You just go dribble. I think it just targets the same demographic. I just feel like it's a win-win with basketball and when AND1 combined them with the mixtapes I feel like it was golden.

Main Event: Vol. 2 is pivotal. If you look at any AND1 documents or how the whole thing went, they skip over Vol. 2. But you can’t take out the history of what built up to this. Vol. 2 was very important, because now they got something to go off of.

We took the five major cities: It was New York, L.A., Chicago, Detroit, and Philly.  We’d go to the park—unknown territory—inner cities, the hood, whatever you call it, and be like, ‘Yo, we got next.’ They’d look at us like, ‘Who are these guys?’ We’d get on the court, display what we can do, and you gotta remember, when AND1 first started, it was all real basketball. It wasn’t the fake moves or the commercial comedy stuff. It’s just that the guys that I picked had a flair to their game that was entertaining but in the confines of the rules of basketball. That made it even more crazy. We played, and by the time you look up it might be like 10 people. You look around a little later, the whole community was out there.

Headache: Yeah, It was different. Before you take it for granted, like, "Aw, it's just basketball." We've been around 50 [Cent], we've been around Jay Z, we’ve been around Puffy. Like, we knew each other forever because we’re fans of them and vice versa. They sponsored teams that we played for coming up. To me the superstar stuff wasn't big to me. Like when all the superstars come watch the game and all that? That wasn't big for me. I grew up in Harlem with Dame, Cam, and Mase. The New York guys were used to the celebrity. But we played in front of some big crowds. I was used to it, though, because I played for Wisconsin in college.


 

We've been around 50 [Cent], we've been around Jay Z, we’ve been around Puffy... They sponsored teams that we played for coming up.

—Headache 


 

Skip 2 My Lou: I think the second year of the tour when I saw every city and state we went, everyone gravitated to it. Whenever we brought the tour bus through the neighborhood they loved it. 

AO: TV. When the TV hit, it was like, it was cool. We did the first tour in 2001. ESPN picked it up in 2002. And then you could just tell momentum was gaining as it was running. Think about it, we still have the highest-rated original entertainment on ESPN network besides Sportscenter. That in itself is crazy.

Helicopter: AO, Spyda and I would go to basketball camps and instead of learning a bounce pass or shooting, they wanted to dribble like Hot Sauce. That's when I realized that the AND1 Tour was changing the game.

Sik Wit It: After the third year, I realized that the AND1 Tour was a cultural phenomenon when we went platinum on Vol. 5. I knew hip-hop and basketball really went together, so I knew it was going to grow big.

The Dribbling Machine: I’m from the Bronx, the Edenwald Projects and I had my whole neighborhood wearing AND1. We wear Nikes, we wear three-four hundred dollar sneakers, and you go outside and you see the No. 1 guy in your neighborhood who everybody loves and respect, he got on the AND1. You got the neighborhood bullies, they bullyin’, they got on the AND1 sweatsuit. That’s when I knew it was down: when people stopped wearing Nikes, and stopped wearing Adidas. We had a following of people just wearing AND1 throughout the whole summer.

A perfect story: We were in Florida—Half-Man, Main Event, the AND1 guys—it was off tour, we were doing our regular streetball games, but AND1 was in town. The Detroit Pistons just won the NBA Championship. We were in a nightclub, and the they shouted us out and gave us more respect than the Detroit Pistons. I went to the DJ, I said, "Listen, we got Chauncey Billups, we got Ben Wallace in here." And their exact words were, "Man, we don’t care about them, y’all more popular than them right now." That was the reality check. We were more popular than NBA Champions. That was real big.


 

The Detroit Pistons just won the NBA Championship. We were in a nightclub, and the they shouted us out and gave us more respect than the Detroit Pistons. I went to the DJ, I said, 'Listen, we got Chauncey Billups, we got Ben Wallace in here.' And their exact words were, 'Man, we don’t care about them, y’all more popular than them right now.'

—The Dribbling Machine 


 

Half Man, Half Amazing: When we started traveling—and we were going to places we had never been before—we were getting automatically recognized. That’s when I knew we were really onto something. Regular guys, walking through the airport, and the minute you step off, "Hey that’s the guys from—" and from there, the momentum just built up.

The Professor: I actually knew it was a cultural phenomenon before I was even on there because I really remember watching the AND1 mixtapes and hearing the buzz about it. I remember AND1 the clothing started to get hotter and I'm sure they were bringing in a lot of money with mixtapes. It was in ESPN Magazine. I actually read about the tour coming to Portland in ESPN the Magazine. I knew it was huge.

Baby ShaqWhen I came back home, people started looking at me differently. They were looking at me like I was an NBA player, and it felt good.

DJ Set Free: I remember one of the funniest things was when we were on tour, and all the guys were inside at like Footaction. We were in the South somewhere, and I was just standing outside by the tour bus and a car came by. A kid was pointing at me, and people knew who I was at the time. The car came back, and it looked weird—he was du-raged up, and he came out the car, and he’s staring at me, and I was just looking at him. He opened the trunk, and I was like, ‘What's about to happen?’ He pulled a ball out and just started dribbling, and I was just like, ‘Oh this is really crazy.’ I thought he was about to shoot me or kill me or something. It was like Boyz N’ The Hood meets Punk’d or something.

Headache: It was like a band of brothers who basically always had fun with each other no matter what, or get at each other. Then you had that one day, me and you might be tight but we gonna get on Shane today—then you ain't shit. It was like a brotherhood. You didn't know whose day it was gonna be to get fucked with. Two-hour snap sessions. Of course, being on the road people are gonna get on your nerves, but most of us knew each other from the basketball scene already.

Skip 2 My Lou: It was odd. It was odd. I think over the years we all got along well. But I think when it first started it was a clash of egos.


 

When we practiced, you would think we all hated each other. We didn't run plays, so it was basically a pick-up game with arguing, cursing, pushing—no punches thrown—but close to it.    —Prime Objective 


 

AO: You had your egos and your ups and downs because you've been on a bus with somebody from June to August. [There's] definitely gonna be some tension, but the vibe was cool. I mean, I was cool with everybody. When it comes to me I like to have fun so there was no ego with me. I'm not crying about the game. I ain't worrying about shit. Yeah, it's not really that serious. For me it was cool.

Baby Shaq: Being on the road, you're going to get into arguments from time to time. But that goes with everybody; NBA players do the same thing. The way I see it, if we don't argue, we don't really like each other.

Helicopter: We were a big family and just like a family, we didn't always get along. Certain guys stuck with each other and you had your different groups. Older guys stuck together. Me, Spyda, Professor and Baby Shaq hung out. AO was the ringleader and big brother who made sure nothing happened to us younger guys. Shane did the same thing, too. Good thing is that once everyone got on the court, it was just about basketball.

Prime Objective: We all used to go out together, but with everything, there's cliques. Myself, AO and Go Get It hung out. Main [Event] and Shane hung out together. But when we practiced, you would think we all hated each other. We didn't run plays, so it was basically a pick-up game with arguing, cursing, pushing—no punches thrown—but close to it.

The Dribbling Machine: For me, it was great, because we were the big brothers of the tour. If anything go down on the court, off the court, we were the big brothers. That’s what made it good, 'cause them guys came, they asked questions—they learned the game and the business at the same time.

The Professor: With AND1 there was always clashes, man. I don't think anyone hated each other but there was so much competitiveness in the air and when we hoop people really took stuff to heart. There was lot of tension all the time. But we loved each other at the end of the day. We'd get a little heated though.

Half Man, Half Amazing: We were all like brothers. If you had one mother that had 11 sons, of course there’s going to be some strife every once in a while. You had your issues. Every once in a while, you’d try to talk to somebody and they might be a little naive to what’s going on, and they might not want to hear it. But if you explain it to them and they want to hear it, a month down the line, two months down the line, they actually see it happen, and it’s like, "Hey, Main, Half, and Shane were right. I need to listen a little more now."

Sik Wit It: It was cool, man. Everyone came together. Everybody had their days but we gelled as a family. We rallied together when people had issues off the court. We would just build each other up.

Headache: I have two cities. When Riverbank [NYC] first opened, that's where I grew up playing at. For us to come back and play there, my stomping grounds, it was the best ever. We got over 2,000 people in there—it was flooded. When I took a picture, it's like wall-to-wall, no standing room, bleachers going to the sky. They don't even look real. The picture itself doesn't look real. Crazy. It's just incredible. That was one of the best things for me, to come home.

The second one I love, I love going to L.A. to play because they think they're great. You know how they are, the Sun Coast, so I loved going out there and beating up on them. They had some good ballplayers but we always came out on top. When we walked in the room we already knew we were good so it was like, "When we come out of here we're gonna step on y'all." And we're gonna take the sunshine. Like, "Yeah, we're here, we're gonna kick you in the ass and then sit down with your girls and get a sun tan." The game in L.A. was like a rock concert, like five to six thousand came out.


 

The game in L.A. was like a rock concert. "Yeah, we're here, we're gonna kick you in the ass and then sit down with your girls and get a sun tan."

—Headache



 


 

Sik Wit It: When we played at Madison Square Garden in New York... They don't really run plays with AND1 and streetball, but I was blessed enough for them to run a play for me and I knocked it down. Peter Vecsey came up to me and said, "You're one hell of a basketball player" and coming from him, that's big out here in New York. But, after that, Professor hit the game-winner, so I didn't get all the praise. But that's just how it happens.

Skip 2 My Lou: Venice! Every summer they play ball in Venice Beach. For us to go out there and add another three to four thousand fans to their city, that was big.

AO: D.C. in 2005. We were doing the Crash the Course that year so we were going to most of the big cities like two days before the game, and go to their Pro-Am league or whatever and play against them. So the following year we got beat by 20 in D.C. But it was only because a lot of folks said we couldn't play. So you go in and you're trying to prove to yourself. As individuals we all played good but as a team we didn't. So the next year we go back down there. No fucking smiling. No playing around, and they had a better team. They had Mike Beasley, Brian Chase. They had a better team that year, and we beat them. I like that type of basketball. We proved to them that we could play ball.

Prime Objective: Our international tour, when we first got to Japan. Oh my goodness, it was big. It was a sea of fans, all outside and waiting on us. It's a moment that I will never forget.

Helicopter: New York City. It was first time going to New York. Being from North Carolina, I got to play in the Garden a couple times and all I can think about was where Jordan made a shot on the court. But, it was a great experience, seeing how everyone comes together no matter what's going on.

The Dribbling Machine: There’s nothing like coming home to New York City, the Garden, and you know AND1 used to give us tickets. Just in New York City, we had 200 comped tickets. I came back to my old neighborhood, came back to the projects, introduced the AND1 Mixtape Tour to some of the kids.

The Professor: I would say Jackson, Miss. That was the most memorable for me because: 1. It was the first time that we beat AND1 on the tour. I don't know if that was their first loss. It was like one of their first losses. Maybe their second. Ever. That was huge. 2. It was this crazy sold-out crowd at Jackson State. Third, David Banner performed at halftime. And it was insane. He was like one of the hottest out right then.

Headache: I think I'm a little different than most guys. I had a lot of moments that were exciting during a game. And I think for me it's more about the kids. The response that we have from the kids. We walk into a building and underprivileged kids who'd never think they could see us go crazy. The fact that we can put a smile on the kids' faces when we walk in the building. I go walking down the line to sign autographs because I wanted everybody to get one. I'm walking down the line and a mom was upset because her daughter didn't want to get off the line to go to the bathroom because she wanted Hot Sauce's autograph. She didn't want to leave without the autograph but Hot Sauce had already left and went inside because the fifteen minutes was up.


 

I go walking down the line to sign autographs because I wanted everybody to get one. I'm walking down the line and a mom was upset because her daughter didn't want to get off the line to go to the bathroom because she wanted Hot Sauce's autograph.

—Headache 


 


 

So me, Escalade—God rest his soul—and AO got down to her and we signed autographs. She peed on herself, so they had to change her clothes or whatever and we signed autographs and we hugged and took pictures with her. She's one of the last ones. That little girl, man. That showed me we weren’t just playing streetball anymore. It was about us but at the end of the day it was what we did after that. It was what we touched and what we inspired.

DJ Set Free: It was seeing Hot Sauce after we just picked him up down in Atlanta, and he’s dribbling. It was like a mixture of Michael Jackson’s dancing and David Copperfield’s trickery. It was this moment where he was doing his thing dribbling in front of a defender, and he threw this pass. The ball would hover in the air, and the defender would turn around and always look, and then he would just grab the ball back and just shoot it. It was like, ‘Oh goodness.’ It was so dope.

Sik Wit It: I've had a lot of them. I have played a lot of basketball and doing pretty well in a ton of cities, but it's a blessing when the kids come up to me and tell me that I did a good job. I can't point out one single moment.

AO: You know there's too many, man. We done did so much and broke so many barriers with the streetball stuff, even today to be able to still be doing this. I don't know man. I mean, alright, shit...probably our first game in Japan. That was crazy. It was like the first time we was over there and it was like...when I say 11,000, it was 11,000 and like 9,000 stayed for autographs. It was crazy outside because they had the joint set up. 

Main Event: My most memorable moment was seeing it go down. That’s my most memorable one. It’s always stuck in my head, seeing the company just go down, because they went for the dollars and not the community.

Baby Shaq: The very first game. I didn’t think streetball could go as far as it did. It was a big deal for me.

Helicopter: Anything with the fans. I can go over to them, sign something and they know my story, so they believe that if I made it, they can too. Everyone sees the NBA guys, but they can't relate to them. You see them on TV, but we were always around. People could see us and that was always great.

The Dribbling Machine: Honestly, it’s too many, but the most remembered moment is just being around each other. We did everything together, as far as me, Main, and Half Man—we were the OGs. We was used to that type of life. Teaching to me was the most important thing. Teaching the guys how to perform, know when to play real basketball, know when to set a guy up. That was my most memorable thing.

The Professor: That whole year in 2003. Just the fact that it went from a recreational opportunity to a career opportunity. I was really just going to the game as a fan. If I had to pick one extact moment it would be when I had a game-winning shot in New York. We actually beat the AND1 team at Madison Square Garden.

Headache: We had a contract with AND1. We signed an endorsement deal with them but on the back-end when we did the tour, I helped them sign to Pepsi. I went into the interview, I talked to the marketing guy and he loved us. He loved our personalities and he was like "I love this guy," and they came aboard. Same with Lay's potato chips. But we didn't see that money. That money went to AND1. We were in the commercial and stuff like that. We see appearance fee money and stuff like that. You know how they do the contract shit and break it down.


 

We weren’t on it to make money, so the AND1 contract was good, because it was more than what an average cop made. I seen the six digits. Everybody didn’t have the opportunity to see six digits, but I had the opportunity to see six digits.

—The Dribbling Machine


 


 


 


 

Sik Wit It: I was on a set contract with AND1. We would get paid every two weeks. The money was good for the most part—I mean, you always want more. It just so happened that I got blackballed for a couple of years from a couple of people, like a New York cat named [coach] Steve Burke. He was a real trip. We were just playing streetball, having a good time and it became too much like a business. After they fired certain people, he came in, gave affirmative action and was treating us like we didn't have a sense of our own. We had to get rid of that cat. He messed up a lot of things, but hey, he has someone to answer to just like we all do.

AO: We all had endorsement contracts with the company. And then with that, I wound up swinging... you know, make moves. Because you're on tour and you're meeting other sponsors, so I had my contract with AND1 and then I swung and had a contract with 'Boost Mobile.' I was endorsed for that. Then a little thing with 'Mountain Dew' and stuff like that. We did the video game—both video games. I was in the first video game Street Hoops then I was in an AND1 game.

Helicopter: We all had contracts, so I wasn't worried about anything else. It was a multi-million dollar company.

The Dribbling Machine: Everybody’s contracts were different. Everybody knows in the beginning we started out with $5,000. We weren’t on it to make money, so the AND1 contract was good, because it was more than what an average cop made. I seen the six digits. Everybody didn’t have the opportunity to see six digits, but I had the opportunity to see six digits.

People think that AND1 was all robbing us and stuff. They didn’t know about us, man. Yeah, they made millions of dollars, but what do you tell a kid that makes $60,000 a year with no education? Guys with no education, they're making the same money as a guy with a Master’s degree. The paper’s good. Nowadays, everybody’s getting taken advantage of and there’s no money in it now. That’s the problem with that.

Half Man, Half Amazing: The guys worked out their own deals. Everybody had their own contracts. I can’t speak for everybody about what their contract looked like, but I know everybody had their own contract.

Main Event: When we was at AND1, we had contracts, we had salaries. Now guys is getting x amount of dollars per game. That’s going backwards. If [the company] eats, we gotta eat. My thing is, don't rob the community and don't rob the fans. Yeah, we got paid x amount. Six figures for some guys over three months. In the offseason we need to be in the schools of the same cities we play in during the summer. We need to build relationships with those people, don't just promote when it's time to play a game there. Let's get an AND1 scholarship, let's leave something.

Main Event: This is no disrespect to any of the players, I’m just telling you the truth. Things started changing when it started going from ‘getting legends’ to where AND1 started ‘creating legends,’ it messed with the fan’s subliminal minds. You keep showing this person. We started getting guys who didn’t even make their high school team. Started getting guys that never played outside.

When we picked up Hot Sauce, we were trying to teach him basketball. And teach him how to play confined within the rules.  I tell people, ‘Hot Sauce good, he’s cool.’ I tell them, ‘He’s one of the best illegal ball handlers I’ve seen in my lifetime.’ Instead of him learning, I think Sauce single-handedly messed up what streetball is. The culture of streetball. Sauce is more of a Globetrotter, could’ve had a great career with the Globetrotters or the Harlem Wizards or the Generals or whatever. They didn’t really understand what I was saying. I’m not hating on him, but this is what streetball is.


 

Things started changing when it started going from ‘getting legends’ to where AND1 started ‘creating legends,’ it messed with the fan’s subliminal minds. —Main Event


 

Headache: I think when it started to get commercial for me. You know I eat and sleep basketball. This is my baby. I love it. Here and now when I play, when I go get different jobs and I go play ball in Iran and coach and stuff like that, I eat and sleep basketball. You know basketball's given me so much, taken me to so many different places and my thing is: yeah I want us to have fun, I want us to play hard—but the integrity of the game has always been there. That's what I grew up on. When it started getting to the point where I'm playing against a guy, he's trying to do my trick on me. They're trying to do Hot Sauce's trick on Hot Sauce. That ain't what the tour's about. But the guys in the media room they're telling the team, "You gotta put on a good show." That wasn't what it was about. What it was about was, you let them play their game and we gonna put the show on. That's what it's about. They can try to do what they wanna do but we gonna put the show on.

The Professor: In early 2006 the Tour got bought out for like $400-$500 million. The four guys who owned [the brand] and started in '93, they split it four ways. When they sold it, it got in the hands of a guy who lived out in California and his wife, and they were both in like their 70s or 80s, and they didn't know anything about basketball.

AO: I left because we were trying to get our own joint going when AND1 was really disbanding, going both ways, that was the 2007 year when we were all signed. So it really wasn't like, just leaving going somewhere else. It was just the fact that we were trying to build our own brand.

Prime Objective: I left because of the coach, Steve Burke. I didn't like the direction they were going, they sold the company and Burke was controlling. I was 30 at the time, so I wasn't a kid. He tried to change it into more of a college thing and tried to treat us as such. He used to fine me and other people for stupid stuff.

Helicopter: My grandma and others have instilled in me to never be content with one thing, so when I wasn't on the AND1 Tour, I was playing overseas. I’m a basketball player. I grew up running plays, doing screens, things like that. Streetball is what I had to learn, so it was always good for me to go back and forth.

Half Man, Half Amazing: It was when we started going into the bigger venues, they started trying to turn it into a circus act more than basketball. What we always wanted to do was, regardless of upper management and however they wanted to have AND1 perceived, we wanted to let everyone know, "Hey, when you come here, regardless of what you think, you’re going to get some real basketball. You’re going to get a game."

Also, when things started changing, we saw that this might not be a good fit for us 'cause we saw what the management was trying to do. They were trying to get the older guys out, meaning me, Main, and Shane, trying to push us out.

The Dribbling Machine: I knew that from day one when I first signed the contract—I was already 30 years old—it was always a business opportunity to get my family situation financially ready. I also knew once you start reading magazines, you start hearing other guys are on the team. Like one guy told me that Hot Sauce is better than Allen Iverson. Once I start hearing that, and the turn it was taking, it was time for me to turn away.

Headache: There are no real killers. There are no real guys that come out and dominate the game the way we did. Everybody's trying to create these elite teams like the NBA's doing. When I was growing up I never wanted to play with Skip. I wanted to play against him. I want to play against the best to see where I measure myself at. If I play against Skip and he beats me, I'm in the park the next day or the same night.

Skip 2 My Lou: It hasn't changed. To be honest, it's the same. It's just...the AND1 Tour died and the fans just went their way. They love streetball.

DJ Set Free: I think now kids want to be dribblers. What AND1 did was take Magic Johnson's basketball play. Kids wanted to be that "Showtime." You had to run a whole court before you got to the rim. Now, as soon as they take the ball out of bounds they want to move. They want to figure out how they can throw that pass a different way, so we always heard it. A lot of the stuff you couldn't do in the league, but then you did start seeing a lot of stuff from the tapes being done in the league.

Main Event: Now when you go out there like that, everybody knows what to expect. I play ball hard. When I broke my head and got 18 staples, that’s not rehearsed. That’s not fake. When me and Half Man shattered the backboard, that’s not fake.   What I’m getting from parents is like, ‘Yo, my son just got cut from the team for trying to put the ball in his shirt. It became kind of messed up, and I felt bad. But when I go tell these guys, ‘Yo, let’s teach how to basketball game.’

People don’t know, Hot Sauce used to throw the ball in the crowd after he break somebody down because he couldn’t get to the rack. He didn’t alley-oop it or what have you, because he couldn’t finish a play. He’d throw the ball in the crowd. At the end of the day, sports is about scoring, and stopping the other team from scoring. I thought that’s what it was about. It got off of that and just got to where they were saying, ‘Okay, we’re just gonna use and take the entertainment value from this.’

AO: It's like music, I guess. It had its ups and downs and bumps. You know, music doesn't sell and then it's selling again, like rap. There's this rap and there's dance rap and then it's back to gangster. So we're trying to reinvent the game and give it another buzz. 


 

It’s not as good as when we were playing. It just seemed as though people back then were really working on their game. Nowadays, it seems like people just think they can be good without recognizing the hard work it took. —Helicopter


 

Prime Objective: It's changed a lot. With summer streetball, NBA players are starting to take over. And when the NBA players aren't playing, the turnout isn't so good. That's a mistake that was made because of the lockout season since the people running the leagues started promoting the league's players instead of Joe who lived across the street. You gotta keep your regulars at the top.   

Helicopter: It’s not as good as when we were playing. It just seemed as though people back then were really working on their game. Nowadays, it seems like people just think they can be good without recognizing the hard work it took to be a Professor, Spyda or AO. The younger generation just thinks you can walk on a court and do certain things, but that’s not the case.

Baby Shaq: It’s more real now. We’re playing more straight basketball. But we’ve almost brought it back to those AND1 days. Just a couple more steps.

Sik Wit It: Streetball can still get big for years to come.

Half Man, Half Amazing: The skill level has dropped a little bit. The thing about streetball now is, from my experience, a guy will come out and have one good game, and he’s the man. Whereas in my era, you had one good game, you ain’t prove shit. You have to be consistent with what you do.

The Dribbling Machine: It’s changed tremendously. I just came from a streetball game, and a fan came up to me, and the question that he asked me was, "Shane, who’s nice out here?" And I knew what he meant by that. It was a bunch of OK players. You could go to a park in New York City during the day and it’s empty now. When I grew up, every park was crowded. We’re going through a social network world. Everything is Facebook, Twitter, so the kids are spending more time on the PlayStation than they're working on their own game. That’s what’s killing streetball right now.

The Professor: Guys have different styles of play playing now. The energy is the same. The game being up-tempo's the same. Guys still jump out of the gym. Our guards are still some of the best ball-handlers in the world. You just got different guys.

The Dribbling Machine: Right now, this is my third year of running my own non-profit organization which deals with over 800 kids. It’s futuretalentbball.com. It’s all grant money. I take troubled, at-risk kids, and I put them in a basketball league. I actually threw a basketball league where I lived in the Bronx, and these were my enemies. I know of people who stood in jail for killing people in the neighborhood who got into it today. I came back to this neighborhood to prove we could do something positive in the neighborhood, and to just show these kids a different life with basketball. The goal ain’t basketball here. The goal is to educate these kids and just keep them off the street and keep them in a positive environment.

Headache: I talk to a lot of the guys. I talk to Professor every once in a while. Probably more Professor than anybody. Lot of guys are still running around. I talk to most of all the guys that live in the city. I see maybe Shane most of the time. I see Future all the time. I see Biz on and off. Yeah, I'm in Cincinnati. I'm there with them for this season and then I'll be in New York in July doing camp. I do a camp. I do training in New York for that program they do when they do the arts in sports thing. I've been doing that for like five years with them. I do public speaking with kids. I do everything. I'm a true Latino Jamaican black guy.

Skip 2 My Lou: Man, just doing a lot of camps, clinics in different countries, working with AAU teams, coaching prep school ball. Just trying to stay busy with basketball.


 

While the game in Japan stresses fundamentals, the AND1 experience taught me a lot because there's nothing that someone can do over there that I haven't already seen. I had to guard AO every day. I know that every day at practice, I would guard some of the best players in the world. —Helicopter


 

AO: Yeah I'm on the Ball-Up Tour now. It's fun. As you see it's a different presentation. That's the thing for TV, the way it look. Keeping the crowd involved when there's timeouts at halftime and stuff like that. 

Helicopter: I just finished playing another year overseas in Japan, led the league in scoring and second in steals. I'm home for the summer, but I'll be back over there in September. For the last two years, I was playing for the Saitama Broncos and now I gotta decide where I'll play next season. While the game in Japan stresses fundamentals, the AND1 experience taught me a lot because there's nothing that someone can do over there that I haven't already seen. I had to guard AO every day. I know that every day at practice, I would guard some of the best players in the world. It would just boost my confidence and make me play harder. 

Main Event: Today I run a company called Ball For Life. The whole basis is building experiences for life through sports, education, and entertainment. You put all those three things, now we’re grooming the future. We planting seeds. We gonna watch it sprout. Going back to that community. We’re gonna leave legacies on and off the court, because that’s what this kind of about. I’m able to make money from what I did without the ball bouncing, that’s what we’re trying to do with these guys. Set themselves up after ball.

Prime Objective: I started my own marketing and advertising agency called Prime & Co. I have an AAU program called Team Prime and I’m also working on doing a reunion tour. We don’t have anyone signed to it right now, but many of them are interested in coming back to play and 2014 is my set goal. I have a basketball tournament called the XBX. I’m already in talks with the sponsors of that tourney and tying them in with the reunion tour.

Baby Shaq: I’m playing with Ball Up now and we’re bringing streetball to the next level.

Half Man, Half Amazing: I recently just got back into teaching. I’m back in assistant teaching with the Department of Education. A friend of mine named Larry V, we’re working on a company called the Blacktop Association, where we acquire some players and start our own tour. Maybe do some things with Shane and Main Event with their Ball For Life Foundation.

The Professor: It's kind of funny, I never ever stopped touring. I never ever stopped playing streetball. After my last AND1 season in '08, for about four or five months we were doing streetball exhibitions with this company called 'Streetball Live.' It was run by this lady who was doing these games all over the world. After that I joined Ball Up. They started with the idea of wanting to clean up where AND1 made the mistakes and then make the tour the main focus. It's been great so far. We're in year three. We're in the middle of our second nationwide tour.

Headache: I think we had an incredible influence. I think a lot of people don't want to give us credit for it. Even now. When I watch NBA games and just basketball in general, even the new guy, like Damian Lillard and all them, think about the new adidas commercial. We changed, forget about basketball, we changed the face of marketing for all sports. Even tennis has a hood-style commercial with the music playing, the rap music. You've probably seen it. I laughed. I tell everybody, I said "No way," because we had disagreements and because we couldn't come together as a group when we needed too, we should all be millionaires with no problem. They didn't play music in arenas while the game was going on. They weren't playing no Jay Z song. No hip-hop. The 112. Peaches and Cream. That shit was all conducted by us.


 

You’re on TV, people knew your name, we had people running behind the bus, people in the arena almost fall off balconies for a sweaty towel. It was like being part of a rock group.

—Helicopter


 

Sik Wit It: It was a great experience. It wasn’t great all the time when you’re on the road, but it’s all about the many people you can reach when you’re traveling across the world.

Skip 2 My Lou: I think a lot of guys in the NBA, they grew up playing streetball. Not necessarily playing the And1 style of streetball, but just playing streetball in their neighborhood, like, street tournaments. That's what all these guys grew up playing so they can relate. Streetball had a culture before And1. It depends what city and state you in. A lot of inner cities...they don't mind if the tour rolls through or not because they gonna play basketball in the streets. It was fun. Something different than just a NBA game, a high school game or a college game. To me it's something fun—something to go to and something great to be a part of.

Main Event: [Sighs.] AND1 was a company that was fueled by the legends. But what is the legacy now? Huh? There is no legacy. The legacy is that we lost Flash, man. We lost Escalade. We lost Conrad McRae. That might be the only legacy. It was a phenom that was taken to heights unknown but my thing is we could've still been in the driver's seat of this brand. The legends have a legacy because we continue as we did before AND1.

AO: Just in general, it brought the fun back. For them years, the first couple years, it just brought the fun back to basketball in general—like, streetball. You gonna have your naysayers and your doubters [Laughs]. Fuckin' Red Auerbach told us we was fuckin' up the game. I was like "It's not like we got a DVD about doing dumb shit. We just playing and if you like the show, watch the show." And it was funner then a motherfucker. That's it. I'd tell them it was funner then a motherfucker. It was a helluva ride.

Helicopter: Man, it was excitement every day. Every day there was something new. You’re on TV, people knew your name, we had people running behind the bus, people in the arena almost fall off balconies for a sweaty towel. It was like being part of a rock group.

Baby Shaq: It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. I got to travel and see the world for free, all because of this basketball.

The Professor: It was one of the most exciting forms of basketball, ever. Honestly, it was a worldwide sensation. It was some of the most exciting basketball ever to be played anywhere.

Half Man, Half Amazing: It allowed basketball players to experiment with different types of moves, taking chances, and in some ways, it kind of opened up the NBA a little bit. They knew they had some competition on their hands. They had to let these cats freestyle just a little, tiny bit than what they’re normally used to seeing in organized NBA basketball.


 

Honestly, it was a worldwide sensation. It was some of the most exciting basketball ever to be played anywhere.

—The Professor


 

The Dribbling Machine: For me, it was a double-edged sword. A catch-22. It had a good mark on streetball as far as giving jobs, giving kids job opportunities, and other kids got to make money, and kids got to see and touch people they see on TV. But as far as the game itself, it kind of tainted basketball. I used to always tell the kids, "If you want to house a basketball team, don’t be like Hot Sauce." It was good at the time, but years later, it hurt New York City, and it hurt basketball, because people blamed us for kids walking and traveling, which kids beendoing that. The Globetrotters been doing that way before.

As far as the NBA, it was big on the NBA. People could say it or not, but And1 was this close to being the next NBA. As far as a popularity contest, if you wasn’t an NBA All-Star, you couldn’t compare with And1.

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