A Delaware State University graduate visited his alma mater earlier this week. But the former Hornet hoop player wasn’t in the town to play basketball. Instead, he screened a documentary he made about basketball. WDDE All Things Considered host Sean Carlson reports.
[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/16thphilly.mp3|titles= WDDE All Things Considered host Sean Carlson goes one on one with DSU alum Isaiah Nathaniel - creator of the film 16th and Philly.]
When you think of a pickup basketball game, you might picture your local gym or neighborhood court. Maybe you’d play with some friends, maybe a few strangers… but mostly for fun.
If you’re a basketball aficionado, you might be familiar with Harlem’s Rucker Park in New York City, where a playground basketball league sent many of its players to the NBA.
But most people have probably have never heard of the courts at the corner of 16th Street and West Susquehanna Avenue in Philadelphia, that city’s version of Rucker. With the help of a Delaware State University graduate, though, that is about to change thanks to a film entitled 16th Street and Philly, which debuted earlier this month at the African American Museum in Philly. The documentary explores the history of the famed North Central Philadelphia Basket League. People in Philly probably know it better though as just the 16th Street League.
Its creator is Isaiah Nathaniel, a DSU grad, whose interest in the league is personal...
"I’m an alum. I actually played in the league and was an avid watcher of the games. Anybody you talk to in Philadelphia, they always bring up 16th Street," said Nathaniel.
Nathaniel is a Philadelphia native. He attended Central High School in North Philly. He grew up watching and playing in games in the 16th Street league. He later went on to play D1 basketball at DSU, seeing action in over 80 games between 2000 and 2004.
But Nathaniel wasn’t the only 16th street graduate to play ball beyond the playground.
The league was known to regularly see basketball greats like Wilt Chamberlain, Hank Gathers and Doug Overton. The film also takes a look at other players that were legends on the playground and beyond.
But 16th and Philly isn’t just a movie about basketball. The backdrop for the film is Philadelphia’s urban landscape in the 1980s and 90s, which resembled many American inner cities in that era. Poverty, crime and drug use were rampant.
But for those who frequented the 16th Street League, including Isaiah Nathaniel, the courts were a beacon of hope in a blighted neighborhood.
"That league was so much more than just basketball, it was about community, it was about bringing people together, it was about a joint effort to do something good in the community," said Nathaniel. "The irony of it is that it’s in the heart of North Philly, which is technically considered one of the most economically-deprived areas. But when this league took place it was booming, and it was safe. And in the heart of North Philly you didn’t have to worry about fights, or violence, because everybody respected the league."
Nathaniel has been taking 16th and Philly’s message of hope on a debut tour, screening the film all around Philly and beyond. He showed the film at Del State earlier this month as part of the university’s celebration of Black History Month.
He says that the movie is a great way to explore an aspect of African American history and culture that hasn’t been looked at in this way before.
"Why not Black History Month? It educates young people in Philadelphia about their basketball history, something to be prideful about," said Nathaniel. "But on the other hand, it gives something the nation can be prideful about, something Delaware State can be prideful about because I’m one of the producers on it. It’s a whole collective African American history piece that I think we did justice to."
But Nathaniel adds the lessons from 16th and Philly are more than just about Black History. He says it’s about the game.
"You can learn a lot about pride, not about prima donna. You can definitely learn a lot about the pride of the game. Putting on for your city, carrying your city on your back." Nathaniel said.
By the early 2000s the court had fallen into disrepair. But a portion of the proceeds raised from the documentary will be donated to a fund dedicated to rebuilding the facilities at 16th and Susquehanna, as well as indoor courts at 25th and Diamond in Philadelphia.
This piece is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.