As a kid I would play 21 with my friends as a warm up game or until we had enough people in the park to run full court games. For an added challenge—and workout—we’d actually go full court from time to time.
21 is a basketball game whose rules can vary slightly from neighborhood to neighborhood. Generally, it is every man for himself, no out of bounds, and few, if any, calls. When you score, you’re awarded up to three free throws. If you make all three, you get possession of the ball and another opportunity to score. After scoring 21, you need to break the ice—make a free throw—then hit a shot from deep to win. Depending where you play, if you miss that shot, you’d go down to 15. Some places make you go down to zero. If you shoot an airball on that final shot, you go to zero. I used to play with “no humbles,” which meant that your free throws couldn’t bounce around the rim before fortuitously dropping in for a bucket. I loved this game because it would force me to handle double teams and work on my ball handling and deep shooting.
Bobbito Garcia’s Full Court 21™ made one of my favorite childhood games official and he took it to a global level. Needless to say, I was amped when Bob told me he was starting the tournament back in 2013 and he entrusted me with capturing its essence. No teammates. No outs. All grit and lots of imagination. Since the tournament's inception in 2013, I’ve had the privilege of documenting the game through stills and video.
As a culmination to the 2015 season, I created a sizzle reel for Bob and Slam Magazine premiered it on their website. I’m happy to share the video with you here on my blog.