Coatesville’s Ash Park, a few streets over from my house, is featured as Rip Hamilton’s hometown court in NBA Street Vol. 4: Homecourt. The Electronic Arts game for the XBox360 and PlayStation 3 will be in stores mid-February.
Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Todd Zuniga’s interview for 1Up.com:
“1UP: Were there any legendary players from your court? Either old dudes or guys who were NBA-good, but just never made it?
RH: Oh yeah, we had a lot of great players that come from Coatesville. Victor Ford, Coatesville legend. Darrel Lewis, Coatesville legend. Marty Eggleston, Jody McMillan, Ricky Hicks — Coatesville legends. These are guys that if you go into a barber shop, there’ll be guys in there saying, “Who’s better: Rip Hamilton or Victor Ford?” It’s fun, and that’s what we have — it’s all we have. And it’s great for conversation at the barber shop….
1UP: How much did playing on your homecourt in Coatesville have an affect on you becoming one of the NBA’s top shooting guards?
RH: I think the court in Ash Park helped me tremendously. It’s war at that court. It taught me how to be a man. You can be 13 or 14 years old, but it teaches you how to be a man real fast. It’s either go hard or go home. There ain’t no looking over your shoulder and asking “Where’s mom?” It really gave me that edge that I need to play in the NBA….
1UP: You go back and host the “Rip City Celebration” in Coatesville every year — how important is it for you to acknowledge where you came from?
RH: It’s very important for me to acknowledge where I came from. It’s all you’ve got. One day basketball’s going to be over, and I always want to be able to go back home. So one thing I try to do to put a stamp on the city is to do a free day for everybody. A free day for the kids, free day for the older people — so the older people don’t have an excuse not to be there. We do a free cookout. We give away bikes [and] give away school shopping sprees for kids. We got clowns [and] basketball tournaments. We give out trophies, give out T-shirts — we give out everything. Everything’s free. It’s just one day when everyone can unite, and come together, have fun and kick it — shake a leg or two.
1UP: What do you think it’ll mean to the people of Coatesville that their basketball court will be represented in Street 4?
RH: For the people of Coatesville, once they see this game…oh my goodness. It’s going to be bananas. You wouldn’t understand. I get chills in my body to even just think about it. It’s already a great thing for them to see me on there, saying, “Oh, yeah, that’s Rip — we got someone from Coatesville.” But to have a place where kids go everyday to play basketball, to go play in the playground and things like that — and now, for them to get an opportunity to see that? And not just them, but the everybody in the whole world? It’s crazy. I get chills just thinking about it…â€
We see the name Marty Eggleston mentioned often when it comes to local politics, but I appreciate Rip’s humility and paying homage to the men he considers his basketball heroes. I loved his quote about comparisons at the barber shop.
I wonder if Ash Park will now become a tourist attraction?
It would be interesting to follow a tour of amateur basketball players playing at each of the courts featured in the
I’m also curious to know how the game was made and what kind of footage was taken to make it look so detailed and realistic.