Denver was alive and kicking with a little bit of flavor as the And1 Mix Tape Tour made its sixth stop Wednesday at the Denver Coliseum.
Local players auditioned on a makeshift blacktop under Interstate 70 with the hope of playing against the And1 all-stars in the main event – and gaining a playing contract with the sporting gear company.
The level of players who showed up at the open run were unknown scrubs like the Denver kid named “8 1/2 Mile” – named for his striking resemblance to rapper Eminem.
College ballplayers like former University of Colorado forward Chris Copeland also came out to run.
“Me and a couple of guys thought it be fun to get in the game a little bit,” Copeland said. ” I got a couple of buckets.”
Copeland was selected for the main event and was schooled on the court, as And1 player Aaron “AO” Owens bounced the ball off Copeland’s forehead for some crowd entertainment.
“I did OK today, but I didn’t make it,” said Preston Adams, 19, of Denver. “They thought since I was a short white kid they could push me around.”
The Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony and Hakim Warrick of the Memphis Grizzlies also came out to support the And1 players.
“It’s just a brand of basketball you can’t get anywhere else. Even in regular streetball court leagues in like New York and D.C., you can’t get the energy this has,” said Grayson Scott Boucher, a.k.a. The Professor, And1’s first contract winner.
The And1 Mix Tape Tour started in 1999 and has grown larger each year.
The company’s name stems from the “and 1” play in basketball where a player receives a free throw and a point for the basket. The company began by making trash-talking T-shirts with sayings like, “I saw your game the other day and it was on the back of a milk carton.”
After the trash-talking threads came the mixtapes that featured streetballer-turned- NBA player Rafer Alston, a.k.a. Skip to My Lou. ESPN caught wind of the streetball tapes and began its reality show called the “And1 Mix Tape Tour.”
Boucher won the And1 contract in the first season of the show. He is named The Professor not because he is highly educated – he spent one year in junior college – but because he “schools” players on the court.
The Professor seemed to be the fan favorite Thursday. His background is much different from the rest of the And1 players. He grew up in Keizer, Ore., playing indoors.
“It only doesn’t rain about three months out of the year in Oregon,” The Professor said.
He was planning to bag groceries at a local supermarket, but catching on with And1 gave him the chance to travel the country and get paid six figures to play the game he loves.
The And1 players showed some of their best moves on the local team. Up first was AO, who let loose with one-handed slam, which garnered a grimace from Anthony.
The game continued like a regular streetball game, with hard fouls and lots of trash-talking. The referees seem to have not gotten the memo, making calls as if it were the NBA Finals.
After a multitude of technical fouls, MC Tango, the resident rodeo clown-MC, called the refs to center court, undoubtedly to tell them to ease up on the calls. After all, this is streetball.
After being bumped by and cursed at by some of the And1 players in the first half, two of the three referees quit in the second half.
And the And1 all-stars ended up losing 103-79.
As the players left the court, a group of kids from the Red Shield Recreational Center clawed at the players, asking for any piece of their uniforms.
Despite the loud, raunchy music, the cursing and bravado, the kids seem to love the players and the And1 game.
“This is playground,” AO said. “This is something you can get up in the morning and do in your neighborhood park.”
