HoopxHang at SXSW
Posted in Artists, Sound Session, Sports on March 24th, 2011 by Hyphen
(hint: floating left is when I like to pull the most)
As I’ve mentioned on the blog and Twitter, I traveled down to Austin last week for SXSW. In addition to all the incredible shows I saw and artists I chopped it up with, I had the privilege to play in the first annual HoopxHang 3 on 3 tournament. John Gotty of the Smoking Section (my personal favorite blog because of the care they put in their write ups and their excellent musical taste), Nick Huff of Hard Knock TV, and Nike Basketball organized the event and invited about 50 artists, DJ’s, managers, bloggers, record label reps, and other industry folks to take their talents to Doris Miller Auditorium.
Anyone who knows me personally knows that as much as I live and breathe music, sports has always been 329318239128x the passion in my life. I’ll go play any game, anytime, anywhere, so I was just excited to get a little run in during the trip. Also, every time these rappers come through Sound Session, you should hear them go on and on about their skills on the court. After all that talk, I finally got to play with a few of the homies! Topping it all off, Nike came through with free gear from head to toe. #winning!
Special shout to my two teammates: Kenny, a friend of The Smoking Section’s John Gotty, and Chris (pictured below) from Hollyweerd. We didn’t know what squad we would be on before we began, but we meshed pretty nicely.
After winning our first two games (yours truly with the game winners in each…#humblebrag), we were ousted in the semi-finals against the eventual champions…these guys:
That would be Push Montana (who turned into Khalid El-Amin against us), Brock (Diamond Supply), and Dutch (Smokers Club). They had a solid mix of skill, size, and intensity that proved too much for the competition as they knocked off the Pac Div homies (below) in the Championship.
Despite what had to be a logistical nightmare, the event went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time. Hats off to everyone who organized and participated and thanks again to Gotty and Nick for the invitation. Looking forward to it being bigger and better next year…perhaps we could we see a little 5 on 5 action? We need to get these rappers in shape!
Be sure to check out the official recap with more pictures and stories over at The Smoking Section.