........................

the legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault

maybe the greatest player who never made it - except on the playgrounds

from the article:

"Part of the Manigault mystique is that he never made it, that he succumbed to the street life that consumed many of his friends in the 1960's. The man Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once called ''the best basketball player his size in the history of New York City''




https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/16/s...his-realm.html

Which one is he ... on the right? That looks like some sick hops, like Darrel Griffith or something.

I dunno, he's no Paul Anderson.

yes, and that is a jump ball - from a standstill - you can see part of the ref in the background
the pic may not have caught him at the very top

legend has it people put dollar bills on the top of the backboard so they could watch him jump and pick them off

who knows if it's true?

he was only 6'1"




HBO made a movie about him called Rebound

The original Goat! Earl was most known for the double dunk, not too balls, but dunking with one hand and then catching the ball and dunking it again with his other hand.

BTW Don Cheadle plays goat in the movie. Recommended!

I love me some Don Cheadle!

...................

this linked article is about some of the great Washington DC playground players
a lot of the focus is on a player nicknamed Chicken Breast
the legend of Chicken Breast is somewhat similar to the Goat's
I'm from DC and got to see this amazing player on the playgrounds a few times

but the most amazing playground player I ever saw was Superman
nobody knew his real name
he wasn't really a great player
but he was this big, muscular guy with huge calf and thigh muscles
he was only about 5'11'

Superman stood under the basket and grabbed rebounds or received passes into the post
then he would jump up from a standstill and easily dunk in heavy traffic
he was like a mini Wilt Chamberlain
it was astonishing

the writer of this article is very gifted and really knows playground basketball
it is by far the best article of its kind that I have ever seen



https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-1e3451b0f710/

cool articles, thanks. i like that FJ is resident playground basketball expert. what makes 2+2 great.

God Shammgod

Jesus Shuttlesworth

The professor

Youtube legends really weren't that good. God Shamgod was just a circus act.