The real basketball on the street, this is the hotbed of basketball culture, is the soil for the professional league to send talent, the reason why the United States is strong in basketball, not only the difference between races, but also in their unique street ball culture, the following is the legend of American street basketball - "Goat" Earl Manigault.
Maybe not many people know Goats on the mainland, because there is no way to get to know the street basketball masters of these American cities. He is the street basketball legend that once took the streets of New York - goat, his actual name is Earl Manigault, if you want to really understand street basketball, then you may be able to learn a lot from THE GOAT. The 7-foot 2-inch Jabbar he beats, maybe you think the so-called "Giant Killer" should be at least as tall as Jabbar, or it should be like Wilt Chamberlain, otherwise it should be stronger than Jabbar, such as Moses Malone, but the "Goat" is neither jabbar tall nor Jabbar strong, and his actual height is only 6 feet 2 inches! But even more stunning is his basketball talent, his elasticity and explosiveness are invincible, and he can easily get the 25 cent coin placed on top of the rebound.
He once bet $60 with someone, made a set of 36 consecutive back-to-slams, these are still pediatrics, his signature dunk "one ball double dunk", still let the neighbors relish, endless memories, he can first stuff the ball in the air into the basket, the other hand to take over, and then pull back to irrigate again. If you don't believe in his magic at the bullring, then at the 1964 High School Star Game, the Goats showed another two-handed dunk that jumped from the free throw line. It's magical enough.
When the goats seized the opportunity to attack quickly, a dragon went straight to the front, and one of the players who retreated at that time was 6 feet and 6 feet 8 inches, and the goats calculated their steps, and the two elders also followed the laying net. An amazing scene happened, the goat dribbled to the free throw line and actually closed the ball and jumped, no one could know what the goat free throw line wanted to do at that time, the two elders followed the jump at the same time to block, only to see the goats flying higher and higher, and when the two elders began to land, the fans in the audience stared at the goats, braking time, the goats raised their hands to surpass the two elders to block, and suddenly dunked the ball into the basket, the fans' expressions were silent, looking at each other, and it took a while to come back to God This is a miracle, and suddenly there was deafening applause. Goats have amazing elasticity, terrifying air-lagging ability and endurance, not to mention in the 60s, even in the 21st century, it is also a world-shattering and crying ghost.
The goats were two years older than Jabbar, and the duel between the two in the public high school league was the strongest and hottest game in New York, and in 1962, the goat led the famous Benjamin Franklin High School to defeat Jabbar's Power Memorial High School and won the league championship. The two were recognized by New York as two new stars in the future basketball world.
Jabbar is indeed a future star, graduating from high school and entering NCAA college basketball powerhouse UCLA, then entering the NBA and becoming one of the greatest centers in NBA history. But the goat's life is facing a wave of setbacks, and the expulsion from the school team on suspicion of marijuana smoking in the senior year of high school completely shattered the future of the goat. Although he later transferred to Laurinburg Preparatory School in North Carolina through a friend's introduction, his friend hoped that he would be able to get away from the dark street life and think about and plan the future basketball path. In the end, the goats reluctantly finished their careers in the penultimate place, and entered a traditional black university in North Carolina Charlotte, Johnson C. Smith, the goats still did not grow in their studies, and the varsity team had conflicts with the coach, just because his style of play was too advanced, beyond the old pedantic eight-strand style of the time, not to mention the dunk, even the No look pass or the dribble behind the finger was considered by the coach to be a demon, and then the goats could no longer stand the basketball talent, dribbling creativity was suppressed, He packed his bags and returned to his hometown of Harlem, New York, and continued to live a life of chaos on the streets.
His hard life, coupled with his immature mind, the goat can only seek his relief in the bullring, where the goat can shake down giants such as Jabbar, Chamberlain and Connie Hawkins, but as long as they are out of the bullring, the goat is useless, has no purpose in life, and lacks opinion, and can only go with the flow and disappear in the dark of the street.
While serving a 16-month prison sentence in 1969 for apprehending a goat for contraband, the famous writer Pete Axthelm published "The City Game," a book about Street Basketball in New York in 1970, with a chapter delving into the legend of the goats, most ironically, when prison guards signed the goats. Bill Daniels, the owner of the ABA Utah Stars, had invited the goats to participate in the physical test after reading the book, but by then the goats' bodies had already been eaten by contraband, and he finally failed to get on the professional basketball stage. Then in 1977-79 the goat was imprisoned again for premeditated robbery, and this big heel fight also left the 30-year-old goat with nothing.
After his release from prison, he finally realized that he had a good habit and cut off contact with street friends, he actively promoted grassroots basketball in the bullring arena where he was famous in the past, in addition to being a volunteer coach, he also held a "goat basketball tournament", he hoped that teenagers could use him as a mirror and rely on basketball to walk out of a different road, rather than self-destructing like him.
Eventually, the Goat died of heart failure on May 15, 1998, at the age of 53, and the New York Parks Office went to great lengths to commemorate the Goats' later efforts to promote public basketball by changing the name of the 99th Street and Amsterdam Avenue street basketball court to "Goat Park" that same month.
Although the goat's street basketball legendary career has come to an end, but the legend about him is still circulating in the streets of New York, as long as you mention the goat in the bullring, no one knows, no one knows, and deeply regrets this legend, because in the eyes of everyone, he will always be "the greatest player who has never played in the NBA". This is the strong root of American basketball, countless spiritual beliefs, countless street basketball culture, such soil has spawned an incomparably powerful American dream team, which is also worthy of our deep thinking about the road to basketball culture construction, I hope Yao Ming can do it.