Sign of the Twine: Talking Game with the Hilltop, Week 5

“I got my introduction to b-ball on the schoolyards, playgrounds and P.A.L. Centers in Philly.”
                       -Hilltop

B-ballers,

What it do? The summer of 2K12 is barely a week old and the temperatures have already reached triple digits. SMH. The disappointment of having one game day within a 3 week span is worse than battling this sweltering heat. Na mean?

To beat the heat, I decided to dig up some b-ball roots with my man Hilltop. This old school West Philly baller can relate to my b-ball origin and has the game time experience to make the players around him better. Real talk.

The legends from my hood lived on the schoolyard courts. I learned how to play the game by watching cats like: Soup Bone, Silk, Sarge and Munchie. I’d watch them play all day – occasionally sneaking in a layup or a short jumpshot at the opposite end of the court. To me, they were the cream of the crop. So, you can imagine my enthusiasm when I was finally considered good enough to compete with and against North Philly’s best. Getting my shot thrown over the fence by Sarge or assisting Soup Bone with a behind the back pass, was my rite of passage as a baller. Ya heard?

I learned so much about the game from those old school ballers. When I asked Hilltop about his role on the currently first place Runnin Rebels, he didn’t hesitate to take the wheel and drive me to familiar territory.

My role with this team (Runnin Rebels) is to perform blue collar labor as an elder statesman. To maintain momentum – allowing the ‘young guns’ to set the court ablaze. Ya dig? The enthusiasm of this Lansdowns Avenue product breeds new meaning to the death row b-ball movement. Hilltop understands that our league is a statement of progression: “This league shows that outcasts of society can interact within an organized atmosphere and partake in the competition with respect and sportsmanship.”

Hilltop and I were bred from the same launching pad. We could talk for hours about Earl “The Pearl,” Wilt “The Stilt,” West Philly’s High’s “Speed Boys,” Hank Gathers, “Bo” Kimble, Dr. J, and Rasheed Wallace. I mean our b-ball discussions could go back further than George Jefferson’s hairline. Feel me?

We spoke on the Sonny Hill Future League summer sessions – as well as the black top battles on 41st and Aspen, throughout the 80’s. He took pride in telling me that he learned the fundamentals of b-ball playing in the military and postal service’s intramural leagues. I even gave Hilltop a play-by-play of my late game heroics in the championship games at Neuman Basketball Camp for Boys. Hitting the game winner against future Drexel University Hall of Famer, John Rankin, allowed me to bring home the hardware and a b-ball swagger that continues to drive your MannofStat, to this day. Ya heard?

“You know what, MannofStat? There isn’t a best b-ball era, per se, in the 2-1-5, because Philly continues to produce a neverending legacy of quality Baller.” And there you have it. Our knees may grow gimpy, but the old school will continue to teach. Word to “The Blueprint.” R.I.P. Earl J. Richmond (D.O.E., 5/6/05).

Keepin it 100,

MannofStat, NP 4 Life
Copyright © 2012 by Leroy Elwood Mann