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On a sweltering day in the summer of 2002, some of Baltimore’s finest basketball players assembled for a game on the city's east side at Collington Square Park. It was something close to an All-Star contest. And millions of people would end up watching.
Fifteen years ago, The Wire debuted on HBO. The highly acclaimed series, which spanned five seasons from 2002 to 2008, depicts the decline of the American city, told through a fictionalized reality of Baltimore. The story is often defined by loss—of life, industry, opportunity and institutions.
In 1973, Baltimore lost something else: the NBA, when the Bullets moved to Washington. But basketball continues to thrive in Charm City. It’s a pillar of the town that molded Carmelo Anthony, Keith Booth, Michael Lloyd, Skip Wise, Sam Cassell, Muggsy Bogues and so many other great players. Without basketball, the story of Baltimore would feel incomplete.
The Wire’s ninth episode, “Game Day,” brings the police detail’s investigation of the notorious Barksdale organization to the basketball court, where rival drug dealers from the east and west side preside. This is the oral history of how The Wire’s hoops game unfolded, and how just a few minutes of on-screen gameplay managed to authentically portray Baltimore’s rich culture of basketball.
CHRISTOPHER CLANTON (Savino Bratten): Baltimore is known for heroin as well as basketball. You already have the storyline of drug dealers, the typical cliche with a twist hood story. With Baltimore, you had no other choice but to involve the basketball aspect.
DAVID SIMON (creator): We wanted to do something with the natural competition between east side and west side.
Read the rest here - https://www.si.com/nba/2017/04/17/t...more-basketball-nba?xid=socialflow_twitter_si
Fifteen years ago, The Wire debuted on HBO. The highly acclaimed series, which spanned five seasons from 2002 to 2008, depicts the decline of the American city, told through a fictionalized reality of Baltimore. The story is often defined by loss—of life, industry, opportunity and institutions.
In 1973, Baltimore lost something else: the NBA, when the Bullets moved to Washington. But basketball continues to thrive in Charm City. It’s a pillar of the town that molded Carmelo Anthony, Keith Booth, Michael Lloyd, Skip Wise, Sam Cassell, Muggsy Bogues and so many other great players. Without basketball, the story of Baltimore would feel incomplete.
The Wire’s ninth episode, “Game Day,” brings the police detail’s investigation of the notorious Barksdale organization to the basketball court, where rival drug dealers from the east and west side preside. This is the oral history of how The Wire’s hoops game unfolded, and how just a few minutes of on-screen gameplay managed to authentically portray Baltimore’s rich culture of basketball.
CHRISTOPHER CLANTON (Savino Bratten): Baltimore is known for heroin as well as basketball. You already have the storyline of drug dealers, the typical cliche with a twist hood story. With Baltimore, you had no other choice but to involve the basketball aspect.
DAVID SIMON (creator): We wanted to do something with the natural competition between east side and west side.
Read the rest here - https://www.si.com/nba/2017/04/17/t...more-basketball-nba?xid=socialflow_twitter_si
