By: Ben Dickson
Summer basketball is coming to New York, and it will connect some of the sports richest history at a legendary venue.
The Basketball Tournament announced Thursday that it will bring its eighth and final regional for TBT 2022 to Rucker Park in New York City from July 16-20. Rucker Park, officially known as Greg Marius Court at Holcombe Rucker Park, is a storied outdoor basketball court in Harlem near the former Polo Grounds site. TBT
The annual $1 million dollar, winner-take-all tournament will be played outdoors for the first time in its nine-year history.
Chick-fil-A Tri-State will serve as the presenting partner of the Rucker Park Regional. The event will also be supported by the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and their grassroots community partner, NBA 2K.
“We’re excited to bring TBT’s brand of high stakes, open-to-all basketball to the most storied court in the world,” said TBT founder and CEO Jon Mugar. “We’d like to thank Entertainers 155 Rucker Park, the National Association of Each One Teach One, Inc., and The Doe Fund. Without their support, it would never happen. It’s a great day for basketball.”
After hosting TBT 2021 regionals in four cities, TBT returns to eight host sites in 2022. The other seven sites that were announced in January include Omaha, Xavier, New Mexico, Wichita, Syracuse, West Virginia and Dayton. TBT will take place from July 16 to August 2.
The Rucker Park regional will kick off TBT on July 16 and host Round 1-3 games. The Omaha regional at D.J. Sokol Arena on the campus of Creighton University is the only other site that will begin games on that date.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Legends are made at Rucker Park.<br><br>Now it's time to write our chapter.<br><br>TBT's Rucker Park Regional: July 16-20 <a href="https://t.co/K0ogakKz3n">pic.twitter.com/K0ogakKz3n</a></p>— TBT (@thetournament) <a href="https://twitter.com/thetournament/status/1527300906668068865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>“We are very excited for this partnership and to support The Basketball Tournament coming to the newly renovated Greg Marius Court at Holcombe Rucker Park,” said NBPA president and New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum. “This tournament promotes and celebrates the game of basketball in a truly unique fashion and this is a natural collaboration for the NBPA and our players.”
Rucker Park’s schedule includes four round of 64 games on the 16th, two round of 32 games on July 17 and one round of 16 game on July 20. Eight teams, to be announced in June, will be playing at Rucker Park.
The winner of the Rucker Park regional final will head to Dayton to take on the winner of the Xavier regional in a quarterfinal matchup on Thursday, July 28, at 9:00 p.m. EDT on ESPN2.
Named after Holcombe Rucker, a former teacher and playground director in Harlem, Rucker Park gained popularity in the 1950s. Rucker started a basketball tournament in 1950 that would help underprivileged children in Harlem continue their careers in college. The park was officially named after Rucker in 1974.
Throughout the decades, it grew into an iconic venue. Basketball legends such as Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have graced the outdoor court. In more recent years, NBA greats Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and Stephon Marbury have entertained the fans at Rucker Park.