Joe "The Destroyer" Hammond: The greatest streetballer ever to be a never was?

[kentatm]

I also posted this in the street ball forum but since so few people go there...

Is this guy the ultimate case of when keeping it real goes wrong? He might possibly one of the biggest what ifs in basketball history.

http://nowherebutpop.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/020_joe_hammond-300x300.jpg

http://cdn.slamonline.com/online/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/joe-hammond-slam-1.jpg

http://www.basketsession.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Joe-Hammond-et-kobe.jpg

[QUOTE]

[oarabbus]

Dr. J is an overrated chump so not impressed by that Rucker Park story

Rest is pretty impressive

[chocolatethunder]

Dr. J is an overrated chump so not impressed by that Rucker Park story

Rest is pretty impressive
Totally impressive that a dude got locked up and did 11 years. Man he really showed the lakers who was boss.

[Dro]

Thx for the thread.....Always interesting to see those who never made it...There's always been talent all over the place.

[kentatm]

Dr. J is an overrated chump so not impressed by that Rucker Park story


dude come now

50 points in a half of ball while guarded by NBA players is impressive regardless of if you think a legend like Dr J is overrated.

[KevinNYC]

Thx for the thread.....Always interesting to see those who never made it...There's always been talent all over the place.

I kept reading your post and saying this story is super-familiar to me, but it doesn't look right the right guy. After following your link, I see I was thinking of Pee Wee Kirkland. (http://www.complex.com/sports/2012/11/the-20-greatest-players-who-never-played-in-the-nba/never-played-in-the-nba-1)

It was amazing how much heroin money was moving through harlem in the 60's and 70's.

[oarabbus]

dude come now

50 points in a half of ball while guarded by NBA players is impressive regardless of if you think a legend like Dr J is overrated.


Very true I was kinda trollin. 50 points in a half against a high school team is impressive (for me) :lol

[TheReal Kendall]

I stopped reading after the 3rd quote.

This dude has to be the dumbest nikka in the history of basketball.

If he would've signed with the Lakers he could've still hustled and he wouldn't have to hide his money. He could've been out in the open with it since he would've had a legit job.

[Iceman#44]

Good thread, tomorrow i Will post some quotes from "Asphalt gods", book by vince mallozzi r...some great info , like details of Hammond 's tryout with the Lakers, Hammond scoring 76 to set the Rucker alltime record and interview about hi with peter vecsey dr.j...etc...

[Iceman#44]

Quotes from "ASPHALT GODS"


"He was" said Julius Erving" a very cagey player, very slick with the ball"
A mature coach lodged in a young man's body, Hammond could not be held down; no one defense had an answer for his high-rising, butterfly-release, and money-in-the-bank bank shot that Peter Vecsey called "maybe the greatest i've ever seen."
"He owned that backboard," Vecsey said of Hammond. "He could shoot from long range, take you off the dribble and dunk on you. These days if you are a guy like Dell Curry or Glen Rice, you're a great shooter but you usually cannot take a man off the dribble, but Joe could do both. He loved to put on a show. Anything anybody could do on a basketball court, Joe could probably do it better, and i never saw a guy shoot more accurately outdoors, especially in the wind."

:applause: :applause:


"On a rainy Saturday that summer, Joe Hammond laced up his Converses and headed for the Bronx. At Fordham University, The Destroyer would enjoy the most incredible, one-man basketball afternoon in the history of New York City. As part of a unique doubleheader staged by Rucker officials, a game featuring a number of college All-Americans would be followed by a New York versus Philadelphia game that featured two rosters filled with only professional players.
In that first game, playing against the likes of Nate "Tiny" Archibald of Texas El Paso and Dean "The Dream" Meminger of Rice High School and Marquette - both players were ticked for the pros - The Destroyer took MVP honors with a spectacular 51-point performance. At one point in that contest, The Destroyer made six straight shots from what would now be considered three-point range. What made that string even more impressive was the fact that each of those baskets were banked in off the backboard, which was The Destroyer's signature shot.
Just about to head into a shower stall after that game, Hammond was approached by Teddy Jones, who coached the New York Pros.
Jones was well aware of established Liberty Bell talents like Earl Monroe and Archie Clark, and he was fearful of a new crop of talented young players sprouting up behind them in the Philly parks, dominant players and future pros of the 1970s like Joe "Jellybean" Bryant of La Salle, Mike Sojourner of Utah and Andre McCarter of UCLA.
Jones had begun to adopt a win-at-all-costs mentality, which is where The Destroyer came in.
"Hey Joe, do me a favor, man," Jones told Hammond. "Stick around for the next game. I think we could use an alternate guard."
Jones gave Hammond the only jersey he could find, a blue one, while all his other teammates wore red. Hammond joined a layup line that included Freddie Crawford of the New York Knicks, Connie Hawkins of the Phoenix Suns, and Pablo Robertson of the Harlem Globetrotters."

:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:



"Sitting at the end of the bench ad the game began, Hammond watched as Philadelphia's Earl "The Pearl" Monroe and Archie Clark burned New York's backcourt.
"Monroe was just backing Pablo into the basket and scoring easily over him," Hammond said. "The next thing i know, Teddy is telling me to get in the game."
"Pick up Monroe," Jones told Hammond.
As the action continued, The Destroyer was pretty easy to locate. He was the only player on either team with a blue jersey, as New York wore red and Philadelphia white."
"Our first possession when i got into the game, i had the ball on the wing," Hammond recalled. "I threw it down low to Connie Hawkins, who was not known for throwing the ball back outside once he got it deep in the paint. But Connie threw it right back at me and yelled, "Young fella, do what you do best!'"
The Destroyer obliged The Hawk, head-faking Monroe and whipping past him and teammate Luke Jackson for what looked like a sure dunk. But The Destroyer, as always, was simply there to score and not to embarrass. Rising high, his elbow above the rim, Hammond just dropped the rock in the pond for an easy deuce.
"All of a sudden," Hammond said, "all of these great pros were suddenly looking to feed me the ball."
With Hammond leaping high over Philly defenders and burying his patented bank shot, New York began to take control on the scoreboard. Frustrated, Monroe and Clark began trying to trap The Destroyer in the backcourt. On one trap attempt late in the third quarter, as Monroe and Clark closed in on him from either side, Hammond spun as if he were heading out of bounds, spun back inbounds and whipped the ball around his back and through his legs in one fluid motion, splitting Monroe and Clark like bowlings pins before dribbling out of traffic. By the time both defenders lunged for the ball, Hammond was past them, and Monroe and Clark bumped heads and fell to the hardwood, bringing the game to a halt for several embarassing minutes.
When it was over, Hammond had 50 points and another trophy for his granmother's museum. In one afternoon, in the space of three of four hours againt the best basketball players on God's green earth, Joe The Destroyer Hammond had tallied 101 points."

:biggums: :applause: :applause:

[Dro]

Quotes from "ASPHALT GODS"



:applause: :applause:



:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:



:biggums: :applause: :applause:
:applause:

[Iceman#44]

:applause:
Later i Will post more quotes about him...including his tryout with Lakers, his duel with the doc...etc

[Iceman#44]

More quotes from ASPHALT GODS



"CLASH OF THE TITANS

Cal Ramsey is certain as to who the best of the very best players were in the long history of Rucker Park.
"The two greatest Rucker players of all time were Julius Erving and Joe Hammond," Ramsey said. "I think Joe was that good. He was the one playground player who always stuck out in my mind. You hear a lot of talk throughout the years about 'this guy was that' and 'this guy was this', but i watched a lot of those other playground guys play, and there was an awful lot of exaggeration attached to their games.
"Joe, he could flat out play," Ramsey said. "He was a six four two-guard who could shoot and slash, a combination of Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell. He was a bona fide player who could have been an NBA All Star, and there's no doubt in my mind about that."

:applause:



On a steamy afternoon that fathers still tell their sons about, Erving, the Michael Jordan of the bell-bottom generation, led a team of professional players called the Westsiders into the park to squadre off against Hammond's Millbank squad, which included his dynamic backcourt partner, Pee Wee Kirkland.
The six six Doctor J was about to burst onto the pro scene with the Virginia Squires of the ABA. He was teamed that day with fellow pros Charlie Scott, Billy Paultz, Mike Riordan, and Brian Taylor, all hungry to win the ultimate playground prize: a Rucker championship and the lifetime of basketball bragging rights that go with it.

:applause:


When the smoke cleared, Hammond said he had 50 points, earning the MVP honors, and The Doctor 39, as the Westsiders pulled out the victory in triple overtime.

:biggums:



"THE MOUNTAIN COMES TO MOHAMMED
The Destroyer's reputation spread from coast to coast following his legendary shootout with Dr.J and company in the Rucker Final of 1971.
That same year, the Los Angeles Lakers of Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor were so intrigued with the possibility of adding Joe Hammond to their roster, the team brought the mountain to Mohammed. The Lakers, who were in New York to play the Knicks, held a special tryout for the six-foot-three and a half inch playground legend.
"He was as well known as guys from the Knicks were at that time," said Lou Carnesecca, then piloting the New York Nets of the ABA. "People talked about him like he was a god.
"How great was he?" Carnesecca asked out loud. "It would take pages to fill. It's difficult to imagine if you've never seen him play, but at a young age, he already had the experience and the technique that make players great. He had no fear. He'd play anyone, anywhere, anytime."



"The Lakers arranged the tryout through Howie Evans, who was the closest thing Hammond had to an agent. Evans took The Destroyer down to Pace University.
"To the best of my knowledge, that has never happened before," Peter Vecsey said. "That's how talented a player Joe was. The Lakers actually came to him."
At the gym, Evans introduced Hammond to then-Lakers coach Bill Sharman and general manager Fred Schaus. Scharman quickly inserted Hammond into the middle of a shooting drill that included Wilt Chamberlain, West, Baylor, Gail Goodrich and Leroy Ellis.
As was one of his routines in practice, Sharman then split his players up on each side of the court. Big men on one side, little men on the other. The goal of each group was to win the drill by making as many consecutive shots as possible. As expected, the little guys always defeated their taller teammates in this one particular exercise.
This time, however, Sharman added a little wrinkle to the drill, placing Hammond in with Chamberlain, Ellis, and the rest of the big boys.
"Joe made 18 shots in a row" Evans said. "Wilt Chamberlain started going crazy. He started yelling, 'Shoot, young boy, keep shooting!'
"Sharman was trying wo play it cool" Evans said. "He was walking around, trying not to look so much in Joe's direction."
Eventually, Sharman had the players switch sides, and Hammond rattled off another 14 baskets in a row.
"When coach Sharman ended his practice, he asked me if Joe could stick around a bit," Evans said. "He told everyone else to get dressed, and kept Joe and one other guy there to play a 1 vs 1.
"Well, Joe starts killing this guy. I mean, humiliating him," Evans said. "This guy finally gets so mad, so desperate, he throws Joe down to the ground. Finally, Sharman walks up to his guy and says to him, 'Forget it, you can't beat this kid."
Evans remembers the face of Chamberlain and several others Lakers all staring at the action through a small window that looked into the gym. Some of them had grins on their faces; others wore expressions of total shock.
And Evans remembers the expression on the face of the player Hammond had just taken on a tour of Harlem.
"Pat Riley," said Evans, "he was pretty mad that day. I will never forget it."


:biggums:

[L.Kizzle]

Best Rucker Park players were:

Jackie Jackson, Earl Manigualt, Pee-Wee Kirkland and Joe Hammond.

Most know GOAT's story. Jackie Jackson dunked on Wilt before GOAT did and also played for the Globetrotters, Walt Frazier got his style from Pee Wee and Tiny Archibald got his game from him.

[GetBuckets]

It's always great to read about the great street ballers in the past. I have always wanted t go to NY and play. One day I will

[Iceman#44]

Some more quotes from Asphalt Gods



RETURN OF THE DESTROYER
"Despite the shortage of pros, thousands still flocked to the park that summer, and were treated to an added bonus when The Destroyer, now 26, surfaced from a 3-year absence to tear up the competition.
With each passing game that summer, Hammond's scoring totals rose like the scorching temperature: 29 points in his first game back, 36 the next, then 59, which broke the outdoor league record. By game four of The Destroyer's comeback, even the basketball was sweating. Pro scouts were back in the bleachers to watch him explode for 73 points in a single contest, a Rucker record that would still be standing had The Destroyer not come along later to break it himself.
Incredibly, Hammond's 73 points rampage had come at the expense of Mike Riordan, who had been voted by NBA coaches as one of the top defensive players of their league.
"One by one, NBA players would come to the park to try to shut down Joe, but no one could do it," said Howie Evans of the Amsterdam News. "Cazzie Russell went up there talking all this smack about how he was going to lock up Joe. Well, they met in a game and Joe had 30 on him at halftime and the crowd was going wild. By the end of the game, Joe had 56 and Cazzie left the park real mad, and he never came back."


:applause: :applause: :applause:

[kentatm]

http://cdn.slamonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/joe-hammond-slam-13.jpg

http://www.slamonline.com/online/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/joe-hammond-slam-12.jpg

[kentatm]

Joe was such a beast that Nike even tried to use his image w/o paying him.




Joe Hammond, the infamous street basketball player known as "The Destroyer" is suing Footlocker and Nike. The Harlem streetballer who rocked the blacktop back in the 1970s claims that the sneaker company's t-shirt sold at Footlocker outlets violates his right of publicity.

According to the NY Post, the t-shirt in question has the tagline "Joe The Destroyer Hammon" (sic) with the picture of a broken down basketball hoop. As if using the poor man's name wasn't enough, Nike even misspelled it. Mr. Hammond was not amused by the shirt and is suing both companies for $5 million dollars in Manhattan federal court.

Right of publicity is the right of an individual to use their name or likeness for commercial purposes. If a person's image, name, or likeness is used for commercial purposes like selling or endorsing a product without his/her permission, then that would violate a person's right of publicity. Even though Mr. Hammond's name is spelled incorrectly, the fact that he was known as "The Destroyer" and was notorious as a basketball player of the streets may make his case compelling.

Mr. Hammond commented outside his Harlem home about the lawsuit. He told the NY Post: "They put a shirt of mine in Foot Locker with no contract." No stranger to contracts gone bad, it is reported that he was offered a contract to play professional basketball with the Los Angeles Lakers back in the 1970s. He is said to have turned down the contract offer because he was making more money dealing drugs on the streets.

link (http://blogs.findlaw.com/celebrity_justice/2010/01/joe-hammond-the-destroyer-fights-for-his-right-of-publicity.html)

[stalkerforlife]

Good story.

But he certainly is being overrated to make it a better story.

[Pointguard]

He was around all of my life. Heard his exploits over and over. While Archibald always came back, the Destroyer had the people's heart a bit more in Harlem, while Tiny a bit more in the Bronx.