Street ball scene on hiatus, including NYC’s iconic courts

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a stillness that those who best know the New York street ball scene could never have imagined. In the six weeks since New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s actions, iconic street ball landmarks such as Rucker Park in Harlem, Brooklyn’s Gersh Park, “The Cage� on West 4th Street in Greenwich Village, Dyckman Park in Washington Heights and others have all been void of the typical soundtrack that help usher in the spring warmup across the five boroughs. “Normally before people go to work in the morning they are factoring in what game they are going to see that evening when they get home,� said Rafer Alston, who played for six NBA teams and owes most of his basketball stardom to street ball.