Venice Seashore carried all of the traits of a celebration Sunday night; 90s R&B tunes from DJs, social influencers — with tripods in tow — exhibiting as much as get a view of the basketball courts to seek out what the fuss was all about and sufficient flashing lights to seize any European vacationer’s consideration.
A lot of what you’d have discovered throughout Legends Weekend in Venice — celebrating 20 years of basketball tradition and neighborhood — had the basic hallmarks of the antics discovered on the boardwalks, all the way down to the crowds surrounding performers equivalent to “2K The Clown” and his posse dancing in clown make-up on the half-court brand because the blue and orange sundown pale day to nighttime.
Marcus Henry spins the golden ball he obtained after profitable the three-point contest on the Veniceball’s twentieth annual “Legends Weekend” at Venice Seashore on Sunday.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
On the middle 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 courtroom with a plastic orange prime hat atop his head, is the founder and CEO 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 center and soul of modern-day Venice basketball, the person who’s stored the mission — of basketball and household — shifting and rising 12 months by 12 months.
“This is the goodness of people right here,” Ansom mentioned, earlier than the finals of the Venice Basketball League kicked off on Sunday night time. “Look where we are. We’re a legendary place, the most iconic basketball courts in the world. I call it the hoopers’ paradise.”
Hoopers’Benic 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 way of the day’s occasions. Venice, Ansom mentioned, represents a basketball tradition that remembers its previous whereas additionally honoring its current, too.
Gamers compete in the course of the closing sport of the Veniceball “Legends Weekend” at Venice Seashore on Sunday.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
Ansom, who’s French, moved to Venice from France when he was 13 years outdated in 2000. He realized English on the boardwalk, discovering solace on the basketball courts, carving his method right into a neighborhood he hoists on his shoulders in the present day.
“Basketball is a universal language all over the world, and we ball here 365 [days],” Ansom mentioned. “I was here at midnight, playing last night and playing with somebody from Australia, a couple of drunk guys living in Venice, and it’s just the beauty and magic of basketball that unites us. It transcends colors. It transcends borders.”
Sunday’s occasions included a youth 12U basketball all-star sport, a Venice legends five-on-five sport, a vertical bounce contest, a 3-point contest, a dunk contest, a celeb sport and lastly, the VBL males’s finals. Every occasion offered its personal aptitude.
Rasheed Smith, a Venice basketball participant who performed within the Legends sport Sunday, has been hooping on the boardwalk for 48 years. Two months in the past, Smith pulled right into a fuel 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 known as. Smith bought the limo. There was a goal. He knew it was the perfect 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 awesome?” Smith mentioned earlier than the dunk contest.
Certain sufficient, the dunk grew to become a spectacle, simply as Smith predicted. Chris Staples, a basketball social media star identified for his out-there dunks, took Smith up for the problem — profitable the dunk competitors with a leap and slam over the limousine.
Chris Staples, a former Harlem Globetrotter and world slam dunk champion, soars over a limousine whereas dunking a basketball. Staples received a dunk contest Sunday at Venice Seashore.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
“I did not think that was the plan,” Staples mentioned when requested if he ever imagined a limo could be part of his dunk repertoire Sunday. “But [Legend’s Weekend] always brings out the adrenaline, the energy, and I just want to be able to get my fans and supporters a live show.”
Staples’ dunk earned 10s throughout from judges, Josiah Johnson, Rafer Alston, Craig Smith and former Lakers participant Cedric Ceballos, who can also be the commissioner of the VBL.
Johnson, the previous UCLA males’s basketball participant and son of Marques Johnson, who was featured on the Venice courts within the 1992 movie “White Men Can’t Jump” starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, mentioned Venice is the closest you’ll discover to avenue basketball in New York.
“It’s got that West Coast Rucker Park kind of vibe,” mentioned 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 Seashore 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 youngster 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 best way basketball fosters camaraderie.
“I grew up in around this type of community, so I know what it means to a community like this, man,” Alston mentioned. “It’s a day every time they have this event. Everyone’s having a good time. Everyone’s happy when we’re all together here.”
