Archive for the ‘Ballers’ Category

Italian Freestyle Crew on the Rise

DaMove

Members of the DaMove Crew showing off their skills

Members of the DaMove Crew showing off their skills

Right now, the biggest thing in italian freestyle basketball has to be DaMove, a crew that has received rave reviews and has performed more than 500 shows all over Europe since its formation in 2000.

However, they look back on humble beginnings: The Crew was founded by Lorenzo”Aig $cream” Pinciroli and Fabio “K-lean” Mastromatteo when they met at the national finals of the Adidas Streetball Challenge. From that time on, they started to travel all over Italy, meeting other high-flying Dunkers and Streetballers. Addicted to the game, they looked everywhere for tournaments, playgrounds and dunk contests, always trying to find the next challenge or battle. As they got more exposure and got used to travelling on low cost night trains, spending the nights at beaches instead of fancy hotels, organizers started recognizing their skills and began inviting them, even providing them with some money for the journey, food or hotel. Read the rest of this entry.

Reppin’ the Canaries

Talentino23

If you haven’t heard of the Canary Islands, there’s a good chance you’re not the only one. But since COTW is all about representing world streetball, it´s about time to change that and put the Canaries on your map. Although you may never have heard of any of them, there are quite a few ballers on the small islands located west of the North Africa coastline. One of them is Tino del Toro Velasco who earned his nickname “Talentino” due to his blacktop skills. He represents his home island Gran Canaria and StreetFlavour Crew.

Tino del Toro Velasco a.k.a Talentino

Tino breaks down a defender.

Only 5’6″ (1.73cm) and 149 lbs. (70 kg), Talentino is foremost a spectacular scorer who is quick, athletic and can throw it down, despite his size (or lack thereof). He was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where he still lives and plays ball along with his StreetFlavour teammates Andres “What’s the Method” Leon, Christian “c-aL” Almeida, Gabriel Bermudez, Orlando “Tito” Canino and friends like Rayco Hernandez. Read the rest of this entry.

Melbourne’s Area 51

The Dunk Machine

Chand aka Area 51 stands small at 5’8” but flies hign with a 51 inch vertical disrespecting the limitations the human anatomy and earth gravity impose upon mankind.

Physical boundaries seemingly do not go for Area 51 who really has some serious-ups. Check out the video below to see what is going down in Australia dunkwise.

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There is certainly some sick talent in Australia emerging from playgrounds all over the country. It is for a good reason that Australian basketball is on the upside again. If you want to find out more about streetball in Australia stay tuned – there is more to come!