Take a walk with me these next couple weeks as we lead up to playoff weekend at iS8, where the best in the area feel obligated to be and some of the country's top talent make the trip in for to see what the underground legend is all about.
Hang that in your living room Picasso.
The Nike iS8 league is back again here in New York with the fall season underway.
Over the next few weeks, I'll bring a concerted effort for the out-of-towners to get a feel for the magic that comes in and out of that gym.
It's what I like to think of as my generation's Rucker Park, and actually once read somewhere that had Tom Konchalski call it that.
So take a walk with me these next couple weeks as we lead up to playoff weekend at iS8, where the best in the area feel obligated to be and some of the country's top talent make the trip in for to see what the underground legend is all about.
Here's one from the archives on a kid that embodied what iS8 is all about - showing fire, playing with guts, and respecting the game.
It's one I've had in the stash box for a little while - a flashback from 2004 and that year's fall MVP Stefon Jackson, who's now in 2007 the leading scorer at UTEP heading into his junior year.
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The usual Stefon Jackson is all smiles after a teammate makes a big play and after he gets done putting up big numbers.
"D.J.," short for "Draining Jumpers" - the nickname given to him in the Philly hoop circles and what everyone calls him - finished up his prep career going for the camp record of 44 points in the All Star game at Five Star and winning season MVP for the IS8 fall season.
Jackson's game was on full display in Queens, N.Y. at IS8. His team, the Philly USA Ballers, reached the championship game of the 30-plus team league that all the top New York, New Jersey, Southern Connecticut and Philadelphia high school and prep players compete in during the fall and spring months.
Despite Philly's falling short in the final to the Playaz Club, Jackson's big game after big game made him the clear selection for season MVP. He dropped 24 points in the quarterfinals, 26 in the semis, and 36 in the championship loss, and averaged right around 30 points per game for the season.
"I love competition. I'm real competitive," the Rip Hamilton clone said. "I just like to lace 'em up and go to war. I always want to win at anything I do. Just the feeling of a challenge gets me going. My mid-range game is my strength, but I love to go one-on-one and break people down too."
But there's more to him than just knocking down what seems like 80 percent of his mid-range shots.
Something was unusual those IS8 playoff weekends when Jackson would take the floor for pre-game shoot-around. While all his other teammates had on their Nike IS8 jerseys, Jackson would do lay-up lines in a grey hooded sweatshirt that read "George Union" in blue lettering.
"That was my little brother's school. I wear it to remember him," Jackson said that fall. "He's locked up now. Most of my friends are, but I still write to them to let them know I haven't forgotten about them."
Philly itself has been a challenge more than basketball has for a kid like Jackson. He's at college for free, but his resiliency to get to that point is admirable considering what he's endured.
Jackson grew up playing places like Germantown PAL, the local basketball league from when he was younger. He said how the crime rate is "very high" in Germantown. But he says sports have kept him focused. He was a football player as well, up until the 11th grade.
At Martin Luther King high school, the basketball team reached the semi-finals in his junior season. That was his break-out year he says, as he averaged close to 25 points per game for King.
It was after that year that he says with the help of uncle and mentor Delmontro Christmas and his grandmother, Lena Jackson, that he and his cousin Dionte Christmas (Temple) decided to take it up a notch.
"They've been everything to me," Jackson says. "I love them to death and they guided me so much."
After all those buckets in the IS8 finals though, DJ fouled out with just over a minute remaining. It was on a collision with another player that Jackson was called for taking him down as the two went for a loose ball. The game was out of reach as the Playaz were up double digits. Still, the intensity was high. Many of the Philly players were tight about the situation they were now in, and having to watch the foul right in front of their bench only added to the frustration.
The reality was that Jackson just fouled out of the championship game that he had been having his way in. But he never lost his cool. He remained calm, and before he would head to the bench to sit with the clock winding down, he went and helped up the player who he had just knocked to the floor.
Needless to say, it was no surprise when Jackson also received the Sportsmanship Award to go with his MVP trophy. And immediately after receiving the award at center court from IS8 commish Pete Edwards, Jackson headed over to the Playaz bench and shook each and every one of the winning team's hands.
"The atmosphere was great, New York showed me a lot of love," he said. "But I like to show love and get love. If I think somebody played well, then I'm going to shake that man's hand. I did a lot of that in New York and I met some good people in New York."
