Harlem's Famed Rucker Court To Be Revamped Thanks To NBA Players

HARLEM, NY — The basketball court in Harlem's Rucker Park, where generations of players honed their skills but which has fallen into disrepair in recent years, will undergo a major refurbishment thanks to an intervention by the NBA players' union.

Since a Harlem teacher named Holcombe Rucker first formed a summer league at the park in 1950, the court, at 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, has helped shape the history of street basketball. It has also played host to legendary face-offs between amateurs from the neighborhood and stars like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Julius Irving.

But the court, widely known as "the Rucker," has seen better days: its pavement is cracking, its gates are missing and broken, and its bleachers were damaged by a recent winter storm, Parks Department officials told a Harlem community board this month.

That led the National Basketball Players Association — the union representing the league's players — to approach the city, offering to fund $360,000 in renovations that are set to begin this summer.

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The work will a new court surface, high-quality backboards and hoops, new bleachers, benches and park gates, and a new scoreboard that will be easier for community members to program.

The court itself will also be adorned with a painting done by a local artist, according to Parks Department officials.

"You can't talk about New York basketball without talking about the Rucker," Michele Roberts, the executive director of the player's union, told Community Board 10.

The renovations at the Rucker are personal for many NBA players, who have personal histories at the court, as well as for Roberts herself, who said her brothers took her to the park to shoot hoops while she was growing up in the South Bronx.

"At a very young age, [I] learned to appreciate how the Rucker is essentially holy ground," Roberts said.

Separate from the renovations, the players' association will also fund a new three-year staff position based jointly at the Rucker and at Jackie Robinson Recreation Center, charged with running youth programs.

Board members reacted warmly to the project during the May 12 presentation, though some worried that attention to the court would fade after the three-year staff position ends. Another member suggested that the union also fund renovations to Rucker Park's playground and landscaping, which are also in disrepair.

All told, the work will "reestablish the court as a state-of-the-art basketball venue," the city said in its presentation.

Construction will last about 10 weeks, starting Aug. 16 and running through October.

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