read what nyc basketball-icon bobbito garcia aka kool bob love had to say in ny’s nr. 1 streetball-blog “bounce magazine”, about rick apodaca’s sterling performance for team k1x …

www.bouncemag.com

amir, recently signed by virgin records (italy) has worked his way up through the italian underground, and is now ready for his major breakthrough. his street cred and underground following have propelled him to national stardom. the first single from his newest album “vita di prestigio” is called “wild style”. see the whole clip featuring an appearance by italy’s leading street-basketball squad “da move” by clicking the image below.

check amir online here: www.myspace.com/amiristhis and www.amirmusic.it

it’s been a long time, since we left you, with a dope beat to step to…
don’t call it a comeback, but the steamiest party since, well – since authorities forced us to shut down a year ago, is back on track. with a vengeance. and on the beach.
munich city beach that is. every friday. this week, we feature dj petko (baby) and a whole lotta freaks. come round for a good time …

as you know if you read this blog regularly, last weekend was a busy one for team k1x, with 3 games in 2 days.
this week, our recap is not quite as positive as it has been recently. still, we’re gonna keep it brutally honest – here’s what went down:

Game 1 – orchard beach (bx), sat at noon.
K1X matched up against Court Masters, a group of young talent that plays like every game is the championship. K1X did not match their intensity from the start but kept it close. Court masters had a 3 point lead at halftime. Going down the stretch K1X picked up the intensity and made a final push but it was too little too late as a combination of missed free throws and layups was the determining factor in the K1X losss. St. John’s University bound young gun Justin Burrelle was too much for the K1X front line too handle. Fred “the razor” led the way with 33 pts in the 3 point loss.

Game 2 – kingdome (harlem), sat at 6:30pm
This was supposed to be the easiest game of the weekend vs Smack DVD. The K1X starting line up of 3 guards included Homi, Rick Apodaca, and fellow italian pro Donnie McGrath. In the end all smack dvd needed was one guard, former denver nugget Kenny “sirius sattelite” Satterfield. the score was tied at halftime is a boring 1st half of play. For some odd reason there was abundance of hot chicks in the crowd so the male contingent stuck around. and they were lucky they did. The final 15 seconds ended up being some of the most memorable in recent kingdome history. Despite not being able to stop Kenny Sat, K1X (undefeated at kingdome so far) was up by 3 points with 15 seconds to go. And then came the drama. Kason Mims came up with a great steal and kicked it ahaead to “Pretty Ricky” Apodaca for a wide open layup that would have sealed the game. But Rick (last weeks kingdome hero, see further below…) lost the handle as he went up for the dunk! The crowd went nuts! The ball was then quickly sent down court and smack hit a desperation 3 that sent the game into overtime! pandemonium. in o.t., the momentum was too much to overcome and K1X took its first loss. k. sat’s 39 were too much for K1X. no longer undefeated, k1x’s current kingdome record is still a very respectable 3-1.

Game 3 – orchard beach (bx) sun at high noon
This was supposed to be the toughest matchup of the weekend for K1X vs P.R. Pride, who start NBA bound guard Corey Fisher and guess who – Kenny Satterfield. K1X came to play after two close losses. Tied game at the half. Without homicide, kason mims stepped up big and carried the team in a Jason Kidd type way with points , boards, steals and assists in abundance. Kenny Sat had another great game with 40+ points, but the solid team play of k1x was too much for pr Pride to overcome. three K1X players scored 21 pts (underwood, razor, mims) in a big win for K1X. Orchard beach record: 4-2.

next weeks game at orchard beach is sat. @ 4pm vs. Pops 5 who start Kiki Clark and Steve Burt jr., who are both comin of the nba summer league.
kingdome matchup to be announced shortly. stay tuned…

kingdome:
saturday, july 21st: 6:30 pm vs. team “smack dvd”. team k1x is looking to clinch the south divison title, but is coming off of what looks to be a tough matchup in the bronx earlier the same day …

hoops in the sun:
saturday, july 21st: 12 noon vs. the “court masters” (we’ll see about that one), who feature dwight “die hard” hardy.
sunday, july 22nd: 12 noon vs. “pr pride”, who feature former denver nugget kenny “sirius satellite” satterfield (currently averaging 37,5 pts. per game!).

LAST SUNDAY, K1X HAD THEIR TOUGHEST MATCH UP OF THE SUMMER FACING S&S ALL-STARS, WHICH FEATURED NYC ALLSTARS JOHN “FRANCHISE” STRICKlAND, BJ “THE BEAST” MCFARLAND AND SPEEDY POINT GUARD “WORLD PREMIER”.
K1X DID NOT HAVE THE SERVICES OF HOMICDE (LOANED TO THE NBA’S GS WARRIORS, SEE BELOW FOR INFOS), BUT PULLED A RABBIT OUT OF THE HAT, PUERTO RICAN NATIONAL TEAM PLAYER/K1X WARRIOR RICK APODACA AKA PRETTY RICKY (SEE IMAGE BELOW). THE STARTING LINE UP OF KASON “SUNNY SIDE UP” MIMS, RICK “INSTANT OFFENSE” APODACA, FRED ”THE RAZOR” WILLIAMS, CORY “UNDERTAKER” UNDERWOOD AND RICARDO “PANAMA” KIRKLAND WAS SOLID. PLAYING RIGHT INFRONT OF HIS MOM’S BUILDING, RICK CAME OUT GUNNIN LIKE THE WILD WEST, HITTING HIS FIRST 4 JUMPERS (EARNING HIM THE NICKNAME INSTANT OFFENSE) IN A TIGHT FIRST HALF THAT FINISHED TIED AT 28. EVERY BUCKET AND EVERY STOP WAS IMPORTANT IN THE SECOND HALF AND DESPITE THE WEAK PLAY FROM TEAM K1X ON THE BOARDS GOING DOWN THE STRETCH, IT WAS A TIED GAME UNTIL “THE RAZOR” HIT A DRIVING LAYUP WITH 5 SECONDS TO GO TO GIVE K1X A 58 – 56 LEAD. WITH JUST SECONDS TO GO S&S COULD NOT GET A GOOD SHOT UP AND K1X MOVED TO 3-0 AND FIRST PLACE IN THE SOUTH DIVISION.
RAZOR LED THE WAY WITH 20 AND RICK APODACA HAD 18 ON AN ARRAY OF CRAZY NBA TYPE JUMPSHOTS. “SUNNY SIDE UP” PUT THE CLAMPS ON “WORLD PREMIER” WHILE “UNDERTAKER” NEUTRALIZED “THE FRANCHISE” WITH BLUE-COLLAR PLAY DOWN LOW.

TEAM K1X PLAYS SATURDAY VS TEAM SMACK DVD AT 6:30 TO CLINCH THE SOUTH DIVISION TITLE. BE THERE TO WITNESS THE RETURN OF HOMICIDE…

french hip hop vet rachid wallas (who has collaborated with the likes of gang starr, mop, wu tang clan and busta rhymes), recently fimed the video to his upcoming album’s (“delirium tremens”) first release “wall of fame”, in nancy. the track is a tribute to hip hop & basketball and fetaures the who is who of french streetball: kadour ziani, sami salomon, steve lobel, habib and dejan ristic of slam nation, canal + anchor man legend george eddy, k1x warrior 6-kay, maxime ziaveni (pro a) and others. check back next week for a look at the whole video. here are some images of the “making of”…

catch rachid wallas on scene with his jazz band “the goodfellas” by clicking here!

corey williams got some serious burn in the nba summer league for the golden state warriors over the weekend. “homicide” justified the coaches’ trust by pouring in 13 points and 4 rebounds to go along with 3 assists and 3 steals in his first start for the warriors. saturday’s game against the knicks was the last piece of summer league action for the warriors. so corey will continue to turn people’s heads next weekend, when team k1x plays kingdome and hoops in the sun in nyc.

french mc reel carter just shot his newest video in sunny paris, here’s the “making of” of “star systeme” …

click on the picture below for an exclusive look behind the scenes!

jesus christ!
if you who haven’t seen the spezializtz live in concert, you’ve missed out on a cathartic experience. see them rock the living daylights out frenzied crowds at the biggest european hip hop festivals (splash & rheinkultur, 2007) by clicking the images below. dean is holding the camera on stage, so actually hearing anything other than roaring fans is impossible. in this case, seeing is believing.

matt caputo wrote a great piece about this summer’s best nyc tournament and player …

It would be hard to do a story about Kingdome this summer without mentioning the tournament’s most popular player.

Corey “Homicide” Williams doesn’t play in the NBA. Aside from that, he’s the most well-known player to come down to Kingdome this summer. Even with cameos from Damon Dash and rumors that Ron Artest and David Lee would be uptown this summer, Homicide (who SLAM readers may remember from last year’s issue of Streetball) is by far the star of the league. After picking up a D-League title with the Dakota Wizards this spring, he is once again poised to attempt to make an NBA roster…

read the whole feature here: www.slamonline.com

here is what went down with team k1x this weekend. not that much actually. k1x was scheduled to play at orchard beach (hoops in the sun) versus first place DDN/Sean Bell All-Stars, and looking forward to the challenge. DDN was looking to keep up the the momentum after winning Quai 54 in France and beating local powerhouse Dominican Power by 30 points last Friday. Unfortunately, the game never happened because DDN didn’t show up until after 5pm, though the game had been scheduled for 4pm! after an hour of waiting around, team k1x took off and the game was called and a win for the good guys, who are now 3:1 at “hits”.

The next game at the beach will be on july 21st (noon) when K1X takes on Court Masters who feature Mike “Optimus Prime” Glover.

The next Kingdome game will be this Sunday (july 15th 6:30 pm) versus S&S. K1x, looking to stay undefeated in harlem, will go to battle without key players Homicide and Corey “The Undertaker” UNderwood, who are both playing in the NBA Summer League.

(catch that rakim bass line?)

make way, cause here comes the k1x sweat pack.
these limited edition meet the parents, club selecaos and club selecaos all logo silhouettes in grey heather sweat materials may just be our sickest off-court kicks yet.
go harass your local k1x pusher for these sweet joints, or grab’em now at most foot locker locations all over europe.

here is a short wrap-up of what went down, brought to you first hand, by k1x team manager cee vee:

On Saturday team k1x was at the Kingdome vs. team crossover. The only marquee player that they featured was “JFK”. A slashing high riser with unlimited hops. He had some nice highlights during the pre-game warm-ups, but none in the game. With the K1X Godfather (C. Grosse) in attendance team K1X was able to pull of a 12 point victory. The game started off slow and resembled a pistons-spurs playoff game. Team k1x trailed by 8 points early on but was able to cut the deficit to one point by the end of the first half (28 – 29).
K1X started the second half with some intense lock-down defense and regained the lead and control of the game. Homicide was his usual self with 21 pts and couple of sick crossovers. Cory “undertaker” Underwood chipped in with a double double (12 & 11). The key to the second half run was the hustle and defense of Jared Frye and Kason Mims who Chris Grosse called a “mad dog” on defense. K1X is now 2-0 and will have its first big test of the season this Friday, July 6th when they face S & S, which features the best veteran big man in the city John “The Franchise” Strickland as well as guard “World Premier” and UCONN player Curtis Kelly. don’ t miss it – at kingdome this friday!

On Sunday team K1X was at the beach for Hoops In The Sun. K1x took on Back 2 Basics which featured NBA Guard Allan Ray (Boston Celtics). What was supposed to be a day off for Homicide became one of the stories that continues to make the Homicide Legend grow out of control. I called Homi myself and he was at the beach within 10 minutes for the NBA match-up. That was bad news for Allan Ray. To make a long story short at the end of the first half Homicide had 20 points and Allan Ray had 5 fouls. To make things even worse, in an unheard act of sucker-ness, Allan Ray quit and got dressed and left the park!!! Homicide has killed NBA guys before before, but none has ever quit at halftime!! K1x Cruised to an easy victory and are now 2-1 in the league. Homi finished with 39 pts, 7 dimes, 5 rbs and 5 steals. Undertaker had 21 and 9 to go along with 4 blocks. Jared Frye chipped in with 15 pts 7 rbs. the next game at hoops in the sun will be vs. DDN/Sean Bell All-Stars who feature BJ “the Beast” McFarland. Sunday July 8th 4pm.

this youtube hilight video of k1x warrior grady reynolds just hit us from poland, where grady starred like bruce willis in die hard. the all-star game slam dunk champ & mvp left a lasting impression… see why …

also read the complete grady reynolds interview here

this image is already a couple of months old, but it just reached us
here at k1x headquarters, and we didn’t want to keep it from you. it
pictures team sierra leone at the peace & reconciliation tournament
in liberia. the biggest match ever played in liberia featured team
sierre leone going up against the npa pythons in front of a record
capacity crowd.

in game one at kingdome, k1x defeated the “odd ballers”, a squad from long island, ny (the scheduled game vs. “web-star” will be played later). k1x was dominant from the start, punctuated with homicide’s spectacular dunk on a break away in the first few minutes. k1x cruised all the way and the final score was 83-65. homicide dominated with 31 pts.
witness k1x play game this weekend, details here tomorrow…

from left to right:Curtis “hardest worker” Stinson, Adrian “a-money” Carvalo, Khason Mims, Frye, Corey “undertaker” Underwood, Corey “Homicide” Williams, Bryant Chowder, Ricardo “Panama” Kirkland, (Not shown) Fred “the razor” Williams

homicide was m.i.a. for a large part of last summer, due to nba summer league, training camp and familiy commitments at home in denver. still, his infamous rep and championship at msg’s last man standing, got bronx legend corey homicide williams on bounce mag’s much anticipated top 20 list of active nyc ballplayers. actually, “ther most dangerous” came in second (!), leaving only little room for improvement this summer. but as he will be quick to tell you, he enjoys being “the hunted” just as much as being “the hunter”, and knows that cats will be coming after him, trying to make a name for themselves. about being ranked closely behin kareem “big game” reid, homicide had this to say:
“I know that. It’s always cool. I’m still behind. But I’m behind a player that is from the Bronx, that’s number one. And number two is the fact that I’m behind a legitimate player in “Big Game” Reid. He’s a winner with a lot of championships and I respect him. And that’s just one magazine’s opinion. He knows he’s number one, and I know that I could be number one as well. He’s a good guy. So being ranked number two behind him is ok. There’s a lot of great players in the city and the list made them go even harder after me because I’m ranked so high.”

check out boune mag’s full top 20 list here: www.bouncemag.com

…
Just in time to have the city talking, Bounce Magazine released its summer issue featuring its top 20 NYC players (check it out at bouncemag.com). I was placed
at 17, big accomplishment for me considering 4 or 5 summers ago I had to tag along with my cousin (he’s ranked #7 I think … Anti-Freeze) just to get on a team. So I’m just happy to be mentioned … BUT, I do feel I should be a few spots
higher. Let’s leave that alone though. Shout out to Kareem Reid, the coverboy
for the summer issue.
…
Now me, Cory Allen Underwood (notice I NEVER call myself “The Undertaker”) am usually a nice, humble, friendly person. I never run around here tooting my own horn or have people out here hyping my game. I don’t need that, my game does all that for me. But when I get a call from a friend saying “Yo C, I got the word you got killed, blah, blah, blah…they calling you Cory Underwear! (C’mon guys, think harder, they called me that in kindergarden!) And that you need to work on your game instead of writing blogs!”
…
for the full blast and more insight into the underwood’s world (including his first big outings on the blacktop this summer and some hilarious action at “the firm”), check probasketballnews here: www.probasketballnews.com

after a 5 pt loss in game 1 vs. defending champs “don’t fah-get.com”, in which captain corey williams struggled from the free throw line while going for 27points and 5 assists, team k1x (featuring a number of ny’s most talented high school ballplayers), was back on top in the second week of action at the beach.
K1x defeated Enterprise Saturday afternoon 85-66. “Homicide” Corey Williams, had an easy day at the office this weekend, going 5 for 5 from the field and scoring 12 points. Bryant Chowder of k1x led the team with 15 points. Enterprise, who showed up at the end of the first quarter, never found a rhythm to their offense and were almost down by 30 at one point.
cory underwood, who was a monster in game 1 with 35 & 12, didn’t even have to break a sweat for this one. “the undertaker”, who came late in the third quarter, didn’t suit up due to his attention span and focus on the ladies walking on the boardwalk.
Team Ententerprise had no way to match up with Homicide and 6″11″ newcomer from Dallas, Big Reggie. Homicide sat out the fourth quarter due to the large lead and k1x next generation players “jiggie” josh watkins, Brian and Kurt Lovette played extended minutes and wowed the crowd with cross overs and Alley-oop dunks.
Co-director randy cruz on the reactions to k1x vs. enterprise: “k1x came ready to play Saturday afternoon. But they, as well as everyone else in the crowd, were expecting the real enterprise to show up. No matrix, no Hollywood, no brock bottom … they did have mike keyes, who scored 40 points last week vs. the court masters. but keyes wasn’t enough to defeat k1x, who came with nine players strong. K1x will take on back 2 basics next Sunday at 4 pm.”

for more on hoops in the sun, see www.hoopsinthesun.net