Rims were rocked, ankles were crossed and and some egos were bruised, but it was all in good fun as Global Hoops 2016—the biggest street ball event and urban music showcase the country has ever seen—brought the swagger of the streets to the Mall of Asia Arena on Saturday night.
Made possible by King Bally Productions, the urban scene spectacle featured a mixture of sick beats from the country’s hottest hip-hop acts and of course, a no-holds-barred anything-goes playground style hoops from the best street ballers from USA, China and the Philippines.
American representatives ‘Court Kingz’, led by streetball O.G. ‘Hot Sauce’, lived up to their name after winning both exhibition games against their foreign counterparts, albeit in a dominating and highly entertaining fashion.
Led by high-flying, human pogo-stick forwards “Jumpman”, “Mr. Viral”, “Jumping Joe” and “Megatron,” the USA ballers easily cruised to lopsided victories, while also electrifying the basketball-crazed audience with some high intensity windmill dunks and alley-oops.
Aside from their aerial supremacy, the team’s ball-handling savants “Zig Zag”, “Mani Love”, “Master Jeng” and “Hot Sauce” dazzled the highlight-hungry crowd with some ankle-breaking crossovers and fancy no-look passes.
The ‘Court Kingz’ squad was also flawless in one-on-one competition, as both “Master Jeng” and “Zig Zag” came out triumphant against the Philippines’ Nino “Lil’ Flash” Ventura and China’s “Helmet” in their respective matches.
Not to be outdone, China’s Team RPZ led by their own street ball superstar “MoreFree,” electrified the crowd with their torrent outside shooting and wicked handles.
Even their bigmen displayed some slick ball handling, as “Helmet” surprised his defenders with a never-before seen 360-degree dribbling display. True to his monicker, the burly-but-flashy bigman brought out a biker helmet with multi-colored dreadlocks during a match against the hometown team.
Despite falling short on both of their exhibition games, the Philippine squad turned out an impressive showing during their matches.
Retired professional ballers laced up their sneakers once more—including crowd favourites Willie Miller, Rich Alvarez, Don Allado, Ren-ren Ritualo, Carlo Sharma and Wesley Gonzales, with Gilas staple Jimmy Alapag acting as the team’s coach.
While collegiate superstar Jeron Teng and PBA player Ronjay Buenafe rounded up the star studded line up, along with local street ballers “Lil’ Flash,” “Zero Gravity”, “Bounce” and “Ball Hustlah,” who held their own against their bigger and flashier opponents.
Apart from the thrilling on-court performances, the country’s local hip-hop scene turned up and represented the three-stars-and a sun with epic performances from Quest, Gloc 9, Abra, Alex Omiunu, Rjay Ty, Loonie, Ron Henley and event emcee, Mike Swift.
For his contributions to the local urban scene, one of the godfathers of OPM hip-hop Andrew E, was presented with the “Icon Award” by King Bally President, Allan Delos Reyes.
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“I have so much appreciation for this!!! Thank you very much Global Hoops and King Bally productions for the #IconAward,” he wrote on Instagram.
After spoiling countless Filipinos with jaw-dropping highlights and bad-ass street music, “Global Hoops 2016” executives generously honoured representatives from Children’s Hour, Earth Day and Christian Mission Services Philippines (CMSP) with a promotional cheque which would benefit their causes.
