Honoring the legacy of basketball, New York City and the Nike Air Force 1, take a look into what’s going on now in each of the five boroughs. With the World Basketball Festival less than two weeks away, Nike Sportswear Presents: 1LOVE, an All-Borough Block Party on Mercer Street this Saturday to celebrate the launch of the Nike Air Force 1 Borough Pack.

Music By DJ Clark Kent, DJ King Solomon, Miss Banks

Mercer Street NYC
(Btwn Grand and Howard)

Saturday July 31st
6pm – 8pm

Hope to see everyone there!

After an amazing season of NRF basketball, there were a few that stood out from the rest...

Most Valuable Player – Scott Williams
All-NRF Team – Mike Won, Brandon Smith, Scott Williams, LeKeith Taylor, Jason Burke
Rookie of the Year – Omar Grant
All-Rookie Team – Omar Grant, Terance Takyi, Billy Dodson, Nick Blatchford, Dan Solomito
Defensive Player of the Year – Terance Takyi
Most Improved Player – Al Reyes
Coach of the Year – LeKeith Taylor

For those of you who couldn't make it to the Garden and for those who did, please go check out the NRF Photo Gallery! We have all the NRF Championship photos from last night. Enjoy!

There are not many chances that people get to play under the bright lights in the historical Madison Square Garden. So when that chance comes around, it's not time to fold under pressure - especially in a championship game. Someone who took that challenge and stepped up to the plate was rookie Nick Blatchford of Uptempo. Nick has been knocking down trey bombs all season long and may have been the NRF's best three-point shooter. Last night, Nick was 4-for-6 from the floor and 3-for-7 from beyond the arc, finishing with 17 points and three assists. Add that to the W, and Blatchford earned himself the Jesse Thompkins III Award. Congrats!

Playing in Madison Square Garden is like no other place in the world. You remember shooting around in your backyard with the countdown going through your head? 5…4…3…2…1…swish. Well, last night that moment was played out by the members of Uptempo and Huarache. After some pre-game announcement thanks to yours truly, we were ready to go.

Billy Dodson got things going and hit the first bucket. And playing that tight defense with the trap right over half court, Huarache wouldn’t have it any other way. You could see that both teams were trying to work it around – especially on the large court – but everybody was missing their bunnies. Maybe it was the bright lights, maybe it was the raucous fans. But either way, the nerves were on. Everyone knew that his was it.

From the jump, LeKeith Taylor was being aggressive. While he deferred ...

Let’s be real for a minute here; Huarache is absolutely loaded. They killed it all season long in the Uptown Conference, and they’re deservedly considered the favorite to win the title. Two weeks ago, Huarache took down Generation in the semi-finals…without their best player. The roster is loaded with some of the finest talent NRF has to offer. And when Huarache takes the floor at Madison Square Garden tonight, most of the crowd will expect the Men in Black to come out on top, as they have all season.

We could talk about LeKeith Taylor’s importance to the frontcourt, the deadly Huarache backcourt, or Roscoe’s versatility on both ends of the floor. But instead, how about we focus on perhaps the most important but least talked about player in tonight’s match-up: Eric Raymundo.

In the aforementioned semifinal against Generation, Huarache slogged through an unimpressive ...

What can I say? Team Huarache is global.

The film for the (RED) TIED TOGETHER RELAY RACE we were apart of premieres today! You can check it out by clicking the YouTube link below. Also, make sure you check out the small teaser clip. Enjoy and make sure you pass it along to your friends.

(RED) TIED TOGETHER - THE FILM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viHCWJBW8Hc

(RED) TIED TOGETHER NEW YORK - THE TEASER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEJiV441s-E

NRF- Check out some of the photos in the gallery of your NRF members that held it down for the league for NIKE(RED) Tied Together.

It’s not often the best player in an upcoming championship is considered the X-Factor for his team’s chances at a title. Think about it; Kobe wasn’t considered the X this past Finals, Tim Duncan was never the X for the Spurs’ glory days, and Jordan was anything but during his reign as King. If anything, each and every one of those players was given the keys to the car and asked to set the GPS towards Victory Lane. Each general manager built their team around that weapon, and enjoyed multiple championships as a result of that decision. As July 15th approaches, however, Uptempo’s Scott Williams serves as a true anomaly to the rule; as the best player in this Finals match-up, Williams still retains the title of “X-Factor” headed into the NRF Championship against Huarache.

For a second, let’s focus on the definition of the ...