He is a known hustler..
Going to see the NBA open a "refurbished" (I use the word lightly) court in south London on Friday was like the old days. The Streetball.co.uk days.
Firstly, four of us went along...on a school day as well! Now that we're all grown up with jobs and shit, that doesn't often happen.
But secondly, and most importantly, my brother once again stole the show.
For people who never knew about Streetball.co.uk, I'll give you a very quick history. The site basically started because my brother was going to various tournaments back in the late nineties, early two-thousands, and driving crowds wild with his crazy moves. I'd film it all on a crappy little camcorder, put the footage online and then watch as tens of thousands of people viewed the clips and commented on them (remember, this was WAY before the days of YouTube and all that kind of stuff).
It's been years since Stuart did anything like that. But on Friday, he rekindled some of the old magic.
After a little press conference, a coaching clinic and some interviews (with the likes of David Stern and Michael Beasley), the event was on the verge of wrapping up.
Nets guard Devin Harris was standing near us and my brother said "man, I wanna play him in a one on one".
So I asked Devin "you wanna play this guy in a quick one on one?"
"Sure," was the reply.
Watch the clip to see what happened next.
This was classic Stuart Tanner. The weirdest thing was this though....for years, we'd turn up to events, and you'd see kids nudging each other and whispering "that's Stuart Tanner...those are the guys from Streetball.co.uk".
But that hasn't happened for quite a while now, and there's a whole generation of young ballers out there who have no idea who he is, or how big the site was and the things we used to get up to.
So imagine their shock to see some random white guy, wearing jeans and a sweater, coming out and embarrassing one of the best point guards in the League.
As we left, every kid was watching Stuart as he walked out of the court.
"Oi bruv, you're sick! You should get a trial," one group of guys said.
"Nah man," replied Stuart, "I don't even play anyone".
In the words of Flip from Above The Rim (played by the late Bernie Mac): "They can't erase what we were man. They can't erase what we were".
http://basketball247.co.uk/gt/archives/00000009.shtml
