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Description:
This celebration of a unique, wildly populist basketball event in contemporary America is sporadically thrilling but always boisterous fun, more boastful hip-hop video than even-handed sports documentary. Why not: boasting is certainly in keeping with the spirit of the annual Entertainer's Basketball Classic at Harlem's Rucker Park, a summer tournament that pits neighborhood legends against professional players in some very showy, showdown streetball. Some call it a "Second NBA," but others just think of EBC as a very cool thing, where local, non-pro heroes such as Bone Collector, Keithy Keith, Sticks, and Alimoe can play their game their way, on their turf, to a crowd of 1,500 and occasionally steal thunder from the likes of the Trailblazers' Derek Anderson, the Warriors' Rafer Alston, and even the Lakers' Kobe Bryant (whose long-awaited arrival in Harlem causes near-hysteria). Recommended as a touchstone of spectacle and deserved pride. --Tom Keogh
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