SPORTS

East end court Hall of Fame worthy

By Noah Bruce

Portland may not be home to any of the hallowed neighborhood courts of basketball legend — Kareem and Wilt’s Rucker Park in Harlem, or the courts at Venice Beach, California, dubbed “the most famous outdoor courts in the world” — but it has a court in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, just the same.

From July 27 through December 31, the Hall will be featuring the work of Portland photographer (and hoopster) Brad Richman who has traveled to over 40 states photographing basketball. The exhibit, “America’s Game,” consists of 13 black-and-white photographs, including a shot of the court on the Eastern Promenade, which Richman believes is “one of the most beautiful courts in the world.”

Richman took the photos using an old time 4 x 5 camera (the kind where the photographer puts a sheet over his head), to produce a quality of image beyond that possible with a 35 millimeter.

Though some of the photos are from famous courts featuring serious ballers, others like the Eastern Prom shot focus on basketball as the game of the everyman. “As you get to the higher level games,” says Richman, “there are more ballet-like moves and it becomes a more vertical game . . . but that doesn’t really interest me as much as looking at the hopes and dreams and disappointments of the people who play — seeing basketball as a reflection of American culture.”

“America’s Game” is part of a larger body of basketball photos currently on display at the University of Akron. Some of the photos have also been on display at the MCI Center in Washington DC, home of the Washington Wizards. Richman, who played junior varsity ball in Silver Springs, Maryland took the pictures over a six-year span.

The project, he says, appealed to him both as an artist and as a sports fan. “I’ve tried to hit as many famous courts as I could, even though I’ve probably only been to .01 percent of the courts in this country. Still, as a sports fan, I like it when somebody comes up to me and says ‘have you been to such and such court?’ and I can say ‘I have.’ ”