Shout Out to the Barry Farms Goodman League

Published by Kevin Durant in Blog on December 2nd, 2009 | Comments

What’s going on everybody? We play Andre Iguodala and the Sixers tonight. Should be another tough game, so make sure you tune in and support us.

So have any of you guys heard of the Barry Farms Goodman League in D.C.? That place means a lot to me. It’s one of the best spots for street ball in the summer, but it’s not your typical street ball.

The first time I played at Barry Farms was when I was 16 years old. It was the finals, a three-game series and I played in that. It was the first time I stepped on the court and I was nervous because it’s right in the middle of the projects, a part of town I never really go to. I just used to go there to watch games and hurry up and leave before it got dark, but it was fun. I knew it was going to be a rough game. The refs don’t call fouls. I knew they were going to test me because I was tall and skinny. I never played there before but I stayed strong and held my own and ever since then I’ve been going back.

I went there with Ty Lawson. Me and him have been real close friends since ninth grade and he asked me to come play with his team. My mom was a little scared. She never let me play there before but now she let me go out there and play and it kind of let me show what I can do.

I have a lot of great memories from there. I had 62 points in a game down there and I had 55 this past summer down there in the playoffs. It was one of my memorable games because it was so packed. People were sitting on the gates and they were so close to the playing floor that if you go out of bounds you were stepping on somebody. That’s how close they were, that’s how intense it was. I remember going down, knocking three after three, going to the basket. I took one step across half court, I shot a jumper and I made it. I felt like I was on. The crowd kept hyping me up and telling me to shoot and they were giving me the ball. It made me feel good, gave me that confidence that I needed.

The best thing about it is it’s not regular street ball where you’re crossing them up and throwing it off people’s heads and just playing around. You really want to win. It’s for bragging rights for the whole city. Wherever I go, whether it’s Philly or Baltimore or L.A., people say, ‘are you playing down at the Farms this summer?’ It’s starting to become nationwide. A lot of people know about it. In D.C. we’re all about talking and bragging rights, so everywhere I go in the city people ask me when I’m playing again.

It’s fun because whenever I play it’s always crowded. It’s like the same fans every game. One time it was me, Michael Beasley, local legend Kurt Smith – many people don’t know who he is but he’s a local legend. It was all of us on one court. Then we had people on the sidelines…Shaq has been there, Nate Robinson has been there. We have a lot of music artists come down there and watch us play.

In the game with Mike and Kurt the Washington Mystics in the stands. They watched us play for the first time. It was just real intense. Energy was there from the beginning. It was a packed house. We put a show on for everybody to watch. I think I had 38, 39 that game. Just fun times.

I keep in touch with the people at Barry Farms all the time. I try to do my best to give back to them, since they’ve helped me become the player I am today as far as always supporting me, giving me confidence and letting me come down and play whenever I want. That’s just a blessing because not too many people can call them up and say, ‘I want to play today.’ They put me on any team. They let just let me play. They made a DVD for me, they made shirts. It just feels good to go down there and get that support from them. Any time I get a chance to talk to them or invite them to the games, I try to do that. You can find out more about the Goodman League on their facebook.

Also, here’s some video highlights of me playing at Barry Farms:

Well, that’s it for now. I hope you learned a little something about where I grew up playing ball. Have any of you guys been to the Goodman League? You guys know of any good places for street ball? Let me know in my comments section.

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