Streetball

Streetball is an urban form of basketball, played on playgrounds and in gymnasiums across the world.Most times only one side of the court is used, but otherwise the rules of the game are very similar to those of professional basketball. The number of players in a game, or a run, may range from one defender and one attacker (known as one on one or mano-a-mano) to two full teams of five each.
Streetball is a very popular game worldwide, and some cities in the USA have organized streetball programs, such as midnight-basketball , as a way to keep young people out of trouble and avoid problems such as juvenile crime and drugs. A lot of cities even host their own weekend-long streetball tournaments. Hoop-It-Up and the Houston Rockets Blacktop Battle are two of the most popular. Recently, streetball has seen an increase in notoriety and exposure in media due in part to television shows such as ESPN's "Streetball" and "City Slam", as well as traveling exhibitions such as the AND1 Mixtape Tour and Ball4Real.
Streetball is often generalized as a "pick-up game", where players may or may not know one another, and is mostly recreational. But recent years has seen the rise of organized streetball crews, such as AND1. With AND1 setting the precedent, many crews train as a team specifically for streetball and often play in friendly matches(exhibitions). Some crews present slickly produced videos and DVDs for sale or available on sites like YouTube displaying highlights, dunks, and tricks. Streetball teams like Ruff Ryders, Terror Squad, and others which compete in summer leagues, such as EBC, tend to play a more "serious" game with less tricks, as the stakes are higher the games not being exhibitions.