Location Scouting -- Rucker Park: Shanghai

After watching a colorful piece about graffiti in China’s cultural capital on cnn.com I decided to check out one of the sites first hand. Although Dr. J never dunked at this Rucker Park and Kobe never imitated Jordan at this Rucker, I still had high expectations because of the name. Our regular courts at XuJaHui Park feature well manicured life sized pictures of Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose documenting their 2009 visit. The other places (Moganshan Lu. and Changning Lu) featured in the Shanghai graffiti documentary are well done, however Rucker Park’s character illuminated a link between art and sport. Hip-Hop music, break dancing, graffiti, and basketball all became popular in China in the last fifteen years and are often grouped together as they are in the US.

We walked into an old factory in Pudong’s Lupu District and made our way up a decrepit stairwell with posters of such stars as Dikembe Mutumbo. On the third floor the familiar squeaks of sneakers mixed with snares and bass made us smile. Some of the graffiti pieces on the staircase and the walls of the gym were awesome.

The six yuan admission we found to be immediately worth it because of the chain on every hoop. The sound of a leather ball ripping down on a chain net is a glorious sound. It’s the definition of character, and for generation hip-hop, it’s the definition of childhood. The ten indoor courts were practically empty but the walls were packed with practice hoops and tags thrown up by different local artists featuring English and some Chinese characters.

As my stiff muscles began to relax and we tried to warm up Jay-Z and Pharrel’s twentysomethingth collaboration played on the Rucker’s speakers . The local headband wearing dudes didn’t let us finish our game of twenty one before they demanded we play for honor. We won and they went home. The games were tight and it was good cardio. At least we don’t have to chop off our pinky finger to keep our honor (culturally insensitive joke).

As we hung out and played the greatest “everyman for themselves” game, I felt I was playing at a place where great players will play. While the original park’s history in Harlem/Washington Heights goes hand in hand with the NBA and New York City, this Rucker is China’s temple of Basketball. As the CBA gets improves with players like Starbury and the popularity of Mr. Naismith’s sport continues to grow, Chinese players will excel during this century. Yao Ming played here, and PEAK who has countless NBA stars signed is sponsoring Shanghai’s Rucker Park. Come one come all to ball! Five minute walk northeast from the Dalian lu. Stop on the 4 train.

Scouted by Thomas Demerath