Walking through the heavy night in Harlem, turning right from 153rd Street into 155th Street, you can easily see an asphalt basketball court painted with red and green paint.
This is a sacred place in New York, Rucker Park.
In 1946, Holcombe Locke, a New York Parks Department employee, was determined to find some fun for the idle children on sweltering summer nights, so he founded a street basketball league.
But what caused a headache for the park was that the nets in Locke Park always fell into pieces within two days, and in the end the nets were not replaced at all, so to this day, the bare hoops are still the eye-catching symbol here.
Almost all streetball superstars have played here.
Many NBA stars have also come to challenge or watch games, including Kobe Bryant, Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Carter, etc.
"Today's winner is a baby tyrannosaurus!"
"OH!OH!"
At the end of a single match, the host raised the hand of a small black man and loudly said his nickname. The onlookers cheered and applauded, and some held speakers to play music.
Empty beer bottles and brown paper bags were scattered around the court.
This is different from the NBA. The streets, the bottom, and the chaos are the world of black people.
"His performance was not as good as mine, but his luck was much better than mine. I felt like I had stepped on a piece of dog poop since I was born, and my whole body was full of stench!"
"Two days ago, a record company wanted to sign me, but I just looked at that bitch a few more times and actually canceled my contract. I knew white bitches looked down on black people!"
"I will definitely become a superstar!"
After the game, the audience began to leave one after another. Tony was drinking beer and chattering to his companions.
He is a 20-year-old black guy who grew up in a slum. He has no idea who his father is. His mother has been in jail all the time. He has never read anything. He is a standard fit for a superstar.
It's a pity that he didn't have the life of a superstar, and now he is hanging around in a gang.
But there is also a vision that if black people at the bottom want to get ahead, they should either engage in sports or rap - many black rappers in the United States were gang members in the past.
And when someone gets ahead and makes money, those poor guys will come swarming to eat and use his food, and he has to entertain them with a smile.
This is a unique culture.
"Stop nagging. You always say you are good at it, but in fact you are not good at anything. Tell me what you can do?"
The companion said impatiently.
"I know a lot, I can play basketball, I know music, I can rap..."
Um?
Tony scratched his head, why did he look so similar to a trainee in China who had been training for 2 and a half years?
"Forget it, if you were really good, you would have been signed away long ago."
"I'm great, of course I'm great...but speaking of which, what is that thing? When was it hung up?"
Tony muttered, raised his head, and pointed.
There is an old apartment building next to the stadium. I don't know when an advertisement was posted. People at the stadium can see it as long as they look up.
"TikTok? What the hell is that?"
"It seems to be a short video product..."
The companion, who was a little more educated, said: "Play games, draw prizes and so on."
"Lottery? My favorite, I want to download one, I want to try my luck!"
Tony said downloading, but did not move. He continued drinking, drank all the beer, and then went home with his companions.
Of course the two of them live together, how can they have a house of their own?
When my companion fell asleep for half the night, he was woken up by Tony, "Hey! Wake up, what was the name of that thing just now?"
"Is this why you woke me up at 2 o'clock?"
The companion had no choice but to tell him: "TikTok! I hope your broken mobile phone can carry it."
"Of course I can!"
Tony ran back to his bed and started tinkering, successfully downloading one.
"What the hell, where's the lottery?"
He wasn't interested in the video, so he quickly scrolled through the video and finally saw it.
It was taken by NBA star Durant on the training ground. He casually scored a goal and then talked about charity or something. There was a challenge entrance in the upper left corner of the video.
"ha!"
He immediately clicked on it and found that it was a shooting game.
Get the specified score within the time limit, otherwise you lose.
The first level is very easy, 10 out of 10, 2-point system, and I got 20 points. The second level speeds up, 8 out of 10, 2-point system, the third level is 6 out of 10, 3-point system... to the fifth level
At that time, I was eliminated, and I only got a few points in total.
Tony clicked to check the ranking list. He was not on the list, but the guy in first place actually had more than 500 points!
"FUCK!"
"He must be cheating!"
Tony was aggrieved and wanted to try again, but found that he had to watch ten short videos before he could do it. But he drew the lottery first, and as the big turntable stopped spinning, he drew an official NBA souvenir.
"Haha! I'm really lucky!"
Then he scrolled through the video, and after this scroll, he actually took in it, and was especially interested in one kind of video.
"Look! This little girl has a chip implanted in her brain by her mother, and her mother only monitors her all the time..."
Tony has no money.
You have to buy tickets to go to the cinema and sign up for a membership to watch online. Who has ever seen this kind of free prostitution?
Although the translation was a bit stiff, it suited his illiterate appetite. Although a movie was condensed into five minutes, he just didn't have the patience.
Again unconsciously.
Just like domestic users using MiDou, Americans quickly fell into the arms of Yao Yuan, which has much richer content than those products on the market.
Tony browsed for a long time and experienced a rare pleasure from the Internet before going back to continue shooting.
This time I got 9 more points, but I didn’t win the prize. If I still wanted to play, I had to invite three friends in. He didn’t care about the day or night, and immediately harassed me.
Keep brushing along.
"Shit! Shit!"
He suddenly jumped out of bed.
Because he came across a video of a black man rapping about the same age as himself. It should be an original work. It was uploaded to TikTok and received hundreds of comments, all of which were complimentary.
"Man, you are very talented and I am optimistic about your future!"
"Can I make a video using your song? I love this beat so much!"
"Wow, a future rap star is here!"
Tony became angry again:
"Original is nothing, I can also be original!"
"I'm better than him...that's right!"
He hit his head and came up with a brilliant idea. I can also upload my work and let more and more people see it. Maybe I will become famous.
"Ha ha!"
"Wake up! Wake up!"
He started shaking his friends again, as if becoming a superstar was just around the corner.
Unlike Andrew, the young master of a Texas farmer's family, Tony belongs to those poor, marginalized groups in the United States who are marginalized by the Internet and do not have the ability to pay.