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[indistinct chatter]
[announcer speaks Chinese]
Hey--
[speaks Chinese]
[man 1] I'm 36.
You know, you definitely feel it the wear and tear.
But, like, when I see, especially when I go to China,
I see, like, 70-year-olds, 80-year-olds still playing ball.
I was like, "That's where I wanna be."
Going to Japan, China and Asia
is totally different than Vancouver.
If you have that streetball mentality
in Canada, especially Vancouver...
you're an outcast.
[gentle music plays]
[man 2] You don't know the Notic?
Like, if you don't know about this, man,
you don't know nothing. [laughs]
You can't really mention basketball in Vancouver
without mentioning the Notic.
Yo, there's a scene in Vancouver and these dudes are nasty.
Getting hold of the Notic, it was like gold dust.
It's folklore, you know what I'm saying?
Like legendary folklore.
[man 1] I Got a call from Jeremy and Kirk,
they found a crate of old tapes.
We're talking about finishing the Notic 3.
[man 3] I come from a humble beginning.
All right. Is it recording yet?
[man 4] Yeah.
This is your segment, isn't it?
-You wanna be in it? -Hell no.
All right.
This right here is the room with Jay Slice and David Dazzle.
You know how to-- [indistinct].
I wanna explain it as I shoot it though.
[man 5] Yeah, you better shoot that flag right there.
[man 3] I'll explain it as you shoot it too though.
[man 4] Okay.
I was born in East Africa.
Me and John were born in East Africa.
Uganda, East Africa. This right here--
[indistinct] on this wall right here.
This is the flag right here.
[man 4] Uganda, a place called Kampala City.
It wasn't like, uh, it is over here.
It's a third world country. It is tough.
Me and David had to-- we used to go to the well to grab water.
My parents survived Idi Amin, right?
My mom has some crazy stories that she grew up with.
[Johnny] I was playing outside right in the front.
All of a sudden, mom hears gunshots just...
[imitates gunshots firing]
...as she runs up to the front of the porch,
grabs me, scoops me out of the way,
and then boom,
a dead body right where I was at just gets shot.
When I look at it now, yeah, there was some hardships but...
it was home, man, and-- and that's what we knew.
I remember actually living in Kenya.
I spoke to Swahili and I remember the--
the really peaceful things.
This is my boy Mohammed Wenn. This is my son.
-[all laugh] -This is my family.
My family's from Trinidad and Tobago,
my mom and dad, they came in the early '70s.
And we moved to downtown Vancouver.
[Mohammed] It was snowy. I've never seen snow before.
I was like, "We moving out here?"
[laughs] Here's this cold, frosty substance
that I've never seen before.
[Joey] Yep. It was tough.
Tough for my mom, tough for my dad.
There weren't many Black people here at all,
so a lot of racism.
Getting fired, jumping from job to job.
You come from everybody's Black, everybody's your skin color to,
"Man, like, yo, Dave, it's just me and you."
[young Mohammed] This is my school.
Guildford Park Secondary.
Me, I'm Mohammed Wenn.
Welcome to my world.
Come on. Welcome.
There were so many times
where you get called to the principal's office,
you know, for fighting a kid,
and you don't know how to deal with this,
but you're just, like, you felt you didn't...
belong.
[Joey] So I'm at school.
They say that my English is not so good.
You have to go to a special class.
Beside me, I see a lot of immigrant kids.
So I was like,
"What, are all the Black kids who are in this class, like...
are we dumb?
You know, am I dumb? I probably am dumb."
And I think that's why I played basketball
just try to, kind of, get away from that.
[Johnny] I never liked basketball.
Like, growing up I used to like hockey.
But hockey was too expensive to play.
You buy a $5 basketball, the hoop's right there.
It's on you to figure out.
[indistinct chatter]
[indistinct], yo.
The neighborhood that we grew up in was lively.
[indistinct]
Basketball, you know, helped a lot.
It kept us out of all that stuff.
[Joey] My brother, man, played on the streets,
watched him play, traveled around with him
to different courts locally.
And I had to beat him.
My brother and I were playing one on one,
and I did like a freaking running hook shot.
I'm right here and I banked it in
and I beat him.
But the city's mainstream basketball scene,
I just could not fit in.
Growing up, a lot of the guys around me
that played basketball, everybody played similar.
It was just like I'm watching Pleasantville.
[laughs] You know?
It's like why you guys all playing the same?
Come in. Come in. Right here.
Right here, my peoples.
We got the Ball Wall or the Wall of Ball.
[Joey] So the only basketball mentors I had,
you know, I'm watching on TV.
Obviously Michael Jordan.
♪ I wanna be, I wanna be like Mike ♪
Hakeem Olajuwon, Isaiah Thomas.
This here is my boy.
Like no ball is even allowed to go in this hoop type thing.
You know what I mean?
Allen Iverson too as well.
How he played, you know, kind of taking the game to another level
to, like, his crossover dribble, ball on the string.
He just had that different style.
[players cheering]
♪
[Joey] I remember in grade nine my coach didn't like
how much the crowd would kinda go crazy when I'd do a move.
Nobody played like that in Vancouver.
They look-- kinda look at you weird like...
that's not accepted here.
It was extra practice.
I put the ball through my legs,
the coach, he got mad.
Pulled me aside like,
"You're not Jordan, you shouldn't be doing that."
I was like, "What the heck?"
I had coaches telling me, you know,
"Don't play this jungle ball. That's just terrible."
Like what group are they trying to target?
Grab ball and jungle ball?
So my-- me hearing that, it's like,
"Okay, like, you don't want us to play like..."
[laughs] "...like Black people?"
I think the hurt, actually, it still today sticks with me.
People might say, "Yeah, I know.
Yeah, it's a long time ago.
Forget about how it was in the past."
But it really impacted my life.
["Always Love" by Alexander Junior]
♪ My love still remains ♪
♪ The same... ♪
[Joey] And that's why I was on the court...
♪ My love still... ♪
...outside, training all the time.
♪ Feels the pain... ♪
This is my home away from home.
♪ Whatever will happen ♪
♪ Just know ♪
♪ My heart is yours ♪
[Johnny] There comes a stage in life where you're like,
"Man, these people don't understand me.
They don't know who I am and they don't know...
my culture, they don't know where I'm from."
And then you start to gravitate to your own kind.
[Joey] I didn't know
there was guys playing like me in Vancouver.
But when I went to Burnaby in Bonsor...
saw some guys that could actually play ball.
Like, "Whoa...
okay, these guys kinda play like me."
["S.O.G" by AmirSaysNothing plays]
♪ Relations stats is at work ♪
♪ Niggas switch they latest bitch ♪
♪ I Workshop'd my relationship ♪
♪ While working on my greatest hits... ♪
[Joey] When I saw the young Black guys
when I went to Bonsor, like,
I wanted to be around that more, you know?
That's why I kept going back to Burnaby.
♪ Silence, I don't like that stuff ♪
♪ Told you once I don't like to touch... ♪
I saw the improvement.
♪ But see, I'm trying not to give a fuck ♪
♪ So now you see me lounging out on Beacon ♪
♪ While my fucking speakers... ♪
[Fresh] First time I met Joey, it was in eighth grade.
The short Black kid on the team
who is just beating my point guard
every single time.
I actually went up to him after the game
and I was just like, I-- I was like,
"Man, like, you got a little game man, you're nice."
I did say in a bit of a cocky way, like,
"You're lucky I wasn't playing."
And I was like, "We should hoop some time."
And then we exchanged ICQs.
[laughs] As funny as that sounds.
[laughs]
So my mom was born in the UK, Jamaican descent.
She moved to, uh, Canada when she was about seven.
Don't quote me on it, Mom, if I'm mistaken.
But, uh, I felt connected because I felt like
there were similarities in our game
and the way we played.
Even in my high school,
my style of basketball was a lot different
from the other players on my team.
[laughs] Yo, Joey, man. They can't handle it, man.
[indistinct] y'all leave the court now, man.
Hey!
My older brother's like,
"Yo, I got this kid that you should meet.
His name's Mo."
I'm like, "Can he ball like us though?"
And [indistinct] was like, "Yeah man, just wait.
You gonna love him."
That shit is so--
You got anything to say? Enlighten us.
[man] You ain't got shit to say?
-[laughs] No. -Yo, say something.
[overlapping speaking]
So when me and Dee met,
yeah we-- we've all felt the same thing.
[Delight] My parents are from DR Congo,
Central Africa,
and then me and my sisters were all born in Belgium.
So when I first moved here in the seventh grade
and I kept hearing about a guy another--
another Black kid in New-- in Newton, in Surrey.
They kept saying, "You need to meet him.
You need to meet him."
And I just went up to him and I said, uh,
"Are you Mo?"
And then that's-- that's how it was.
And then me and Dauphin, we met John and Dave.
And then later on, Joey, Jamal, Jermaine.
We all felt the same vibes
'cause we're all from different cultures, right?
[Jamal] It's just a unity and friendship.
Once we all met up, it was a wrap.
It was a wrap.
[laughter]
We felt like we found a community.
-[man] Get over here, yo. -[Mohammed] It's wonderful.
[man] You know, perfect for, like, some good streetballing.
Some majestic weather, you know.
And, uh, having a little streetball game.
Brought some of the boys out, you know.
[Mohammed] Bring some of the fellas, you know.
Yeah. Throwing on a bit of moves, you know.
Those Black people moves, you know?
Yeah. You know some of those moves.
[man] You know I do that.
That's what I'm trying to say to you, you fucker.
[all laugh]
We all connected, you know, on a deeper level.
There's not too many of us around in the city.
And not making fun of me
and not making fun of how I'm playing
but actually, like, supporting me.
What I'm doing, right?
We're-- we're supporting each other
and getting each other better.
-This is Mo's name. -[man] Yeah.
But to have someone else that you talk--
like to have--
to have someone else that you share that with.
So you can look at someone and laugh and be like,
"We're struggling out here."
But you can just laugh.
It's like...
yeah.
[gentle music plays]
[Fresh] I had met Joey.
We started talking through ICQ.
And one day, we went up to go hoop.
And the next thing you know,
he puts the ball around my head...
and everybody just starts going crazy.
[crowd cheering]
But the play was stopped and I was just confused.
I'm like, "What is this right now?"
And, uh, so that's how I got introduced to streetball.
[indistinct chatter]
We were watching this documentary
On Hallowed Ground
and we're like, "Man, that's tough.
Man, we can play it like that."
It's the playground,
the flashy handles, the embarrassment.
[Mohammed] I gotta give it to Rucker Park.
When we saw people running on the court,
"We're like what type of basketball is this?"
I wanted that reaction.
The style that really
comes out of the New York City playgrounds
was birthed many decades ago.
Where the elevation of creativity
was a premium.
[man] Hey, yo, check this out.
Y'all about to view the AND1 Mixtape on video.
[indistinct]
[Bobbito] About 1999, the AND1 Mixtape came out
featuring Rafer Alston AKA Skip To My Lou.
Volume 1 really set a fire
across the world.
We're watching AND1 Mixtape Volume 1.
Skip To My Lou.
It was so cool to see somebody...
could just do what they wanna do with the basketball.
Dance with the basketball, skip with the basketball.
I've never seen any-- anybody skip with the ball.
But with watching that and, like,
at a young age
knowing that you're not doing so well in school,
you're having a hard time.
And when you see somebody like Skip To My Lou,
like, he's controlling the game,
like he's starting his own chapter in his life.
I was like "This is where-- this is what I wanna do.
This is where I wanna be.
This is what I wanna do.
And I wanna be a streetball player."
[indistinct chatter]
[dramatic music plays]
[laughs]
[Joey] Hoop It Up
was a three-on-three basketball tournament
located at, uh, Science World downtown Vancouver.
That's when, you know, everybody came out.
All the top hoopers around the city.
[Mohammed] We lived life for that Hoop It Up, bro.
We didn't care nothing about school.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hurry up.
Hurry up, school year."
Imagine, me and Goosebumps we missed our prom
to go to Hoop It Up.
The night before, I couldn't really sleep,
I can't wait. I'm excited.
I'd probably talk to Joey on ICQ to like 2:00 a.m.
Talking about what we're gonna do,
what kind of moves we're gonna pull out.
We slept over at [indistinct name]'s house.
He's my older brother.
We knew we were gonna do that, but it was gonna be for us.
[man] Some Dazzle wear right there.
[Johnny] Straight out tomorrow,
the show is about to begin, right?
We didn't expect people to respond to it
the way they were gonna respond to it.
In that first game, man,
I remember I had this nervous kind of feeling.
It was the first move, yeah.
I came down pop, pop, pop.
I hit the guy, the sham guard.
And I hit the left-hand layup and that time my left hand
wasn't as good and I was so happy I hit that.
And it was smooth.
When I saw it on video, I was like,
"Damn. That's pretty smooth."
And that there, that's when I started having confidence.
Like, "Yeah, okay,
I'm gonna pull this one on them."
We just went to town.
♪ [indistinct lyrics] ♪
I take a moment to look around
and I was like, "Holy shit."
The entire court is surrounded by people.
Another team was playing their game
but it was getting so packed
that they were going on their court watching our game.
The game can't continue until you're behind the line, okay?
It was just a spur of the moment thing.
I already know we're gonna win the game.
Let me put the ball around his head.
[crowd cheering]
John, he starts low dribbling like crazy.
We started pulling moves and doing quick crossovers.
[crowd exclaims]
Then Dave comes with his move.
Like, how-- how can I be part of this?
The attention started focusing on us
and people just started running to the court.
[man] What?
It's like, you know, dribbling through my legs.
It's like, "Yo, come here man. Come guard me."
At that time, to be honest with you,
I wasn't a consistent dunker yet,
but I was just feeling so pumped
because there was just so many people around
and there was so much energy and I just--
[crowd cheering]
That was honestly my first game dunk.
I'll never forget that game.
I was like, "Okay, this is special."
We didn't know what we were doing but,
you know, we were truly trying to express ourselves.
I don't think any crowd wanna see, like, you know,
post up and like--
-Pick and roll. -Pick and rolls.
They wanna see new stuff that nobody
has ever done before, right?
[Joey] As young Black kids growing up in Vancouver...
and just wanting to be accepted.
I got some-- a little some--
a little twist type thing, and then I spin around.
But then I guess it kinda got on camera.
When you bust that move you see the reaction.
They're just, "Oh, my God!"
People change the way they look at you.
[Johnny] You know, you play organized ball
and everybody's shouting like, "Don't dribble, don't do that."
These people were yelling and telling us to do that.
Wow. They like the way I play.
Like, I can-- I can be free.
I can be Johnny Blaze.
[David] When you play organized ball as a player,
your coach is telling you
their interpretation of what basketball is.
You don't get to say what's basketball to me.
And streetball gives you the opportunity to say,
"What's basketball to me?"
[Mohammed] There's one goal
in a regular basketball game, right?
To get the ball in the hoop.
It doesn't matter how ugly that ball gets in the hoop,
you're the winner and that's it.
Nobody can say anything.
With streetball...
we step outside of that one goal.
That's still the goal.
But we step outside of it and we say,
"How pretty can you make this transition
from the ball being checked in...
to the ball going in the hoop?
How beautiful can that be?"
And we tried to do that
as much as we can, as best we can.
And that's what made streetball so exciting.
That game has forever changed my life.
[whistle blows]
[crowd cheering]
And I had these guys, Jeremy and Kirk came up to me,
during the time I didn't know who they were.
Had a camera. "Hey, man, hey."
[laughs] "Hey, we're doing a mixtape.
Can-- is it okay if we could record the game?"
I'm like, "Yeah, man. Mixtape. That's cool, man."
What went through my head, I was like,
"Who's these two white boys?"
Like, you know what I mean? "Who are you guys?"
-[indistinct] -Yeah.
Hey, get in. We'll just do one like this.
You can just, like, see me looking in.
[Jeremy] I grew up in the suburbs
of Vancouver in Surrey.
I met Kirk when we were in--
-Grade three. -Grade three.
And we've been best friends ever since.
[indistinct] ready. Again.
[Jeremy] There's a camera at our elementary school,
like, a big old VHS camera, and we messed around.
[Kirk] We grew up playing basketball
and we were in a punk band
and then we started getting more into hip hop
and that's kind of all we wanted to do
is just be filmmakers and play ball.
I was backpacking
so I go into this Foot Locker in Lyon in France
and then I notice on the TV there they're playing this tape
and I asked the guy, "I'm like, yo, what is this?"
And he's like, "It's And1 Mixtape Vol. 2."
[Jeremy] We were like, well, we got a camera, we can do this.
And we started going to our local run, which was Bosco.
And then we'd go home and log the tape
and we've spent a year filming
what's probably like 30 seconds of Notic 1 footage.
[Kirk laughs]
So we decided to go film Hoop It Up.
[Jeremy] [indistinct]
I don't know what everyone is running for.
[Kirk] By the time we got there,
there was already a massive crowd
around Joey and Jermaine's team.
[crowd shouting]
Yeah, they were just pulling moves
that I've never seen before.
[crowd cheering]
Afterwards, we were so intimidated to approach them.
Like, "Hello." You know.
Kinda felt like we were trying to ask a girl on a date.
Um, do you guys get lots of respect for your game?
-Like, off the court? -[laughs] For sure.
Yeah, we get a lot of respect.
You know, a lot of younger kids look up to us.
Those guys felt like superheroes to us.
[Fresh] When you're 15 and the thought of even
just being on camera is, like, already exciting.
We might have our own tape or we might be on film.
-My name's Jonathan. -Johnny Blaze.
Who do you think? Goosebumps, baby.
David AKA David Dazzle.
'Cause I remember you guys were like,
"Yeah, we're gonna make, like, this little VHS tape
that you guys can watch at home"
and yeah, I don't mind, like, having a homemade VHS tape.
[Jeremy] That's when we became a crew.
We called it the Notic.
[Kirk] From that point on we were like, "Oh, wait,
we have permission to, like, film anywhere.
Put the mixtapes out."
And everyone sort of rolled with that.
We were just making something we liked with our friends.
I think a lot of the stuff
when we talk about the Notic,
the stuff I regret is mostly from a place
of, like, love and ignorance, you know?
I really just wanted to see myself on camera.
[laughs]
Yeah.
[Jeremy] So we cut together the clips and interviews
in a style that we thought was kinda cool.
Who do you think? Goosebumps, baby.
I remember we had a-- we had a showing at Don Bosco.
[Fresh] I didn't know what to expect to be honest with you...
but it was like, "Whoa."
[crowd cheering]
And we loved it man.
[all cheering]
We loved it.
Oh, damn.
I was super excited and proud.
Get the fuck out of here!
[Kirk] The Notic 1 was also the first time
a lot of people got introduced to Fingaz.
We're filming at Bosco and this one kid
just starts killing everybody.
We're like, "Can we get your name for the mixtape?"
-He's like, "Andrew." -[Kirk] What's your name, man?
Andrew.
Why does your jersey say "Fingaz?"
And he's like--
When I was born I got this gift,
this extra finger.
It's right here.
[indistinct]
And me and Kirk were like, "Whoa!
Streetball legend."
[Andrew] My parents are from Brunei.
We came here in 1988 and I was four years old.
School started at 8:30.
My brother used to drop me off 7:00
'cause he had work at 7:00.
So all I had was the basketball and just--
just me and the hoop and shooting every morning
'til the school started, right?
[Mohammed] I'm like, "Who's this scrawny kid?"
Next thing you know he's jacking it.
Boom, boom, boom.
Then I was trying different stuff like being creative
and then shooting further and further.
6 could shoot. 6 can shoot.
[Andrew] Because, like, you know, I was smaller.
I don't know if it because I was Asian too,
how am I gonna get on the court, right?
But I think after The Notic came out
it was like, "Hey, that's 6, oh."
It was like everyone knew me as 6.
-[all cheering] -[man] Whoa, 6!
So we'll get on the court every time.
[crowd chattering, cheering]
[Jeremy] Kirk worked at Roger's Video.
So he would just steal old rental cases
from, like, the bin out back
and we would sling them at basketball games
out of our backpack for five bucks a pop.
And that was The Notic 1.
The mixtape that kinda started the whole thing.
[Fresh] That mixtape,
it spread throughout the city like wildfire.
[Ryan] No Canadian was putting out
no mixtape or anything, right?
So for some just young kids playing at Bonsor and Don Bosco,
having a mixtape that people watch
and represents Vancouver,
something that actually represents us too.
That's something special.
It changed the whole game of how basketball was played
in the community on the streets in Vancouver.
[all exclaim]
[Fresh] We had younger kids that would come up to us like,
"Man, we just wanna be like you guys.
We wanna dribble like you, man. Like, how do you guys do that?"
And then you start seeing the little kids
with the handles and the swag and it was everywhere.
No matter where you went.
[Kirk] All of a sudden there was another crew
calling themselves Junior Notic trying to be
the next Vancouver streetball crew.
[crowd cheering]
They're pretty sick.
You know, and to be honest, Rory was one of those guys.
[Rory] I remember I watched it at home, you know,
I watched it, like, nonstop, right?
I was like, "This is super sick."
[crowd cheering]
I already was in awe of them.
[Jeremy] We finished The Notic 1
and we sit down with Joey and we're like,
"Is there anybody we should add to the crew?"
He goes, "Yeah, there's one kid.
His name's Rory.
He's actually on the back of your tape."
And he shows us this little tiny white kid
in the middle of the crowd on The Notic 1.
And he's like, "He's called Disaster."
["It's Been a Long Journey" by Songs Of Spiritual playing]
Yeah, I just said, you know, "They gotta get me in there."
[laughs]
♪ It's been a long ♪
♪ Long... ♪
Rory Grace AKA Disaster. [laughs]
[all laugh]
♪ It's been a long ♪
♪ Long journey ♪
[boy] What happened to your ball?
It bounced off my foot. It went in there.
[indistinct lyrics]
[all cheering]
[Rory] Born and raised in East Vancouver.
Um, single mom.
Grew up in BC subsidized housing.
So it wasn't the best.
Like, came from a--
I guess a disadvantaged economic...
background.
I just remember, like, all throughout school,
high school, even, like, elementary school,
like, I was always, like, the smallest kid in my class
by, like, a long shot, you know what I mean?
Being in, like, a grade five, like, you know,
not being as big as the grade three's.
Basketball was, like, my outlet to, like,
you know, express that I might be small,
but like, you know, I-- I'm, like, tough still.
I mean, I'm gonna play like
it's my fucking last day on Earth, you know?
And it seemed like a lot of the basketball players
that I, like, idolized...
you know, like, had that chip on their shoulder as well.
Basketball was the first thing that I fell in love with.
That's dribblelitis cracked finger.
That's dribblelitis.
Basketball was my first addiction. [laughs]
First time I ever met Joey,
I was at Granville Island, right?
I just seen him play in a pickup game.
I thought his handles were sick.
Oh!
[Rory] You know, you don't see that too often.
So I was just like, "Gotta be going
where this guy's playing," you know?
[Joey] He was a small little kid...
a little handle.
And, you know, we kinda clicked.
And he always like, "Hey, teach me this, teach me that.
How do you do that? How do you do that?"
So everywhere I go, he used to just follow me
from Roundhouse to Bonsor...
to Kits Beach.
[Rory] Once I got his number,
[I'd just be calling him every day.
Like, "Where are you playing today?"
-Are you gonna go [indistinct]? -Yeah, go after [indistinct].
-[indistinct]? Yeah? -Okay. So good, huh?
[man] Whoo!
♪ Don't need money ♪
♪ Don't need trips ♪
♪ Don't need a credit card about this trash ♪
He was probably a bit annoyed that, like, you know,
that I wouldn't leave him alone.
-No. -Hey, come here. No, no, no, no.
Joey. Joey. Joey. Joey, Joey, Joey, Joey, Joey.
[Rory] He probably felt like that he had taken me
under his wing, you know what I mean?
[indistinct]
[Kirk] So Rory joined The Notic crew.
[David] I remember the first time I saw Rory,
he had this attitude of like, "You suck, you suck
and you suck."
Yo, yo come on.
[crowd cheering]
Yeah, I like that kid.
He ended up becoming one of our--
our-- our-- our crew members.
But everybody sort of clashed with Rory.
I loved him, but he was getting on my nerves.
This is my impression of Goosebumps.
He pass the ball.
Like, why is the kid always taking our moves, huh?
Y'all we chilling at Kits right now, right?
-[David] Yeah, no doubt. -Yeah, it is real weak.
It's real weak.
You got [indistinct].
Like, leave some moves out of it, bro.
Moves were our-- were our-- was gold to us, you know.
Wanna beat 'em up a little bit.
[overlapping chatter]
-I just modify. I just-- -No, we can [indistinct].
Just haters, man. You know what I mean?
Just haters, you know. [laughs]
-Fighter right here. -I'm not a fighter.
-The king. The king. -I'm not a fighter.
[Rory] It's like a past life, you know?
It's like something I look back upon
and I'm, like, super proud.
If that Rory could see me now, like, man,
he wouldn't be pleased with, like, what I--
the path I went on.
I don't know man. Next question.
[overlapping chatter]
Yo, yo, yo.
God, I swear to God, I'm killing someone.
[Mohammed] Everybody was at my house.
We're heading out to Seattle, right?
You guys rolled up, popped the trunk.
[indistinct]
No!
It was a bunch of gear from AND1.
[squealing]
-Oh, no! -Bro! Bro! Bro!
[all squealing]
[indistinct]
And bro, like, we-- we never got anything free, like--
But for us to get something free from AND1, we're like, "What?"
Bro, get-- no, man.
-[indistinct]. -[Kirk] All right.
[Mohammed] We thought we robbed a bank, bro.
-What's that? -[indistinct]
This is-- this-- this is 12 [indistinct].
-[excited squeal] -[David] They're 11, bro.
[Johnny] These are not even shoes man.
Yo, def this is--
-Wow. -[laughing]
There was so much joy in it, man.
There was so much happiness.
-I can't be-- -[indistinct]
I know [indistinct].
We went crazy man.
Like, I was wearing those shoes every day of-- of my life.
Yo, I'm rocking-- I'm-- I'm--
Those are the ones I've got.
Size 12. You can't wear 12, can you?
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
AND1 sent me these shoes.
You don't know how much I wanted the Silky Smooth.
I couldn't pay for them, man. Now I'm getting them free.
[squealing]
Somebody is getting fucked up tomorrow, man.
[Mohammed] I remember clearly. Yeah.
I remember being like...
"We made it, baby. We made it."
[laughs]
[Fresh] I think Notic 1, we were about 15, 16 years old.
We were kids that just were excited to play basketball
out of the raw passion and expression.
Someone was putting it on film.
It was pretty cool.
As we got older and we started to realize that,
you know, they're selling tapes
and from a monetary standpoint
we're thinking about the fact that, like,
you know, we hadn't seen a dollar off this thing.
Here at last. How's he feeling?
-Sick. -Hold on a minute.
Then after that you let us know we're going to Seattle
for the AND1 and at the time is when AND1 is huge.
[Fresh] We were just kids from Vancouver
and we got contacted by ESPN
to go down to Seattle and play against AND1
who were, like, the world's biggest streetballers.
[Waliyy] When I brought the five guys to AND1,
I said I could get five of the best streetball in the world
that's not in the NBA to represent and market your brand.
And that's how we created the Mixtape Tour.
[Rory] I was just super excited.
I remember meeting up with, like, the whole crew
at, like, King George Skytrain Station.
And I think it was supposed to be, like, a few of us,
but a whole bunch of people started coming.
20 of us or, like, maybe even more.
It was, like, all the players and, like, all the homies.
How did everyone hear about this shit?
The whole state of Canada is coming.
That's the fuck's happening.
We were, like, blasting music. Someone had a stereo.
[hip-hop music playing]
They wanted to see us go up against AND1.
They wanted to be part of that.
[Rory] We have to go to Mo's house to get him.
[indistinct] everybody in the house.
-He's coming down with a bat. -[laughter]
[Rory] As we're, like, driving out to the border...
me, some little white kid in a minivan,
like, full of big Black guys.
[indistinct singing]
And, like, the border guard, like, asked me to the side
and was like, "Are you good, man?
Are you good?"
And I'm like, "Yeah, man, I'm going to the open run, man.
These are my boys."
[indistinct lyrics]
I remember when we were on the roof
doing, like, the ESPN, like, interview.
[reporter] As you know, this is for ESPN.
We're filming a show called Streetball.
It was so bright, the sun was in my eyes
when they were, like, asking me the question.
I remember I was kind of like trying to squint.
My name, uh, Rory Grace AKA Disaster.
And then when I had to do
a little freestyle for their camera,
I was like, "Please, please
don't let the ball, like, go out the frame."
You know what I mean?
And then I seen the lineup outside of, like,
the-- the-- the gym we were gonna play in,
it, like, stretched around the parking lot.
That was our streetball heroes.
We were gonna be sharing a court with them.
[Jamal] I'm like, "Oh, damn." Like, you know?
Like, we gotta really pull it down right now.
Check out the mothereffing crowd, niggas.
If you look at AND1,
they had a whole clothing company behind them.
We didn't have nothing.
We just had some street kids...
and two white boys that wanted to film these street kids.
[Rory] I thought, like, the rest of the world
outside of Vancouver,
like, they ain't ready for this yet it.
[upbeat music playing]
And then Johnny Blaze got the ball
and, like, literally, like, blazed this defender.
I was coming to kill people, man.
I was coming to take ankles.
[Rory] Hot Sauce went right after the game
to, like, give him props.
[indistinct shouting]
[Joey] And, uh, Jamal went out sick with it.
He did a crazy move.
Sick-- kind of stood still, didn't know where the ball was.
You know, I had [indistinct],
and it was good, man, it was sick.
It was sick to actually go up against 'em.
They was like, "Yo, we played against some guy
got crazy handle."
I mean he could just do a crossover
but he do it so fast.
He was like the Mayweather
of street basketball.
And when I saw them play, I was like, "You know what, man?
I could bust these guys' ass, man."
[Jeremy] I was personally super worried about Rory.
He's 14, he looks like he's ten. He's going up against grown men.
[Rory] I was just, like, that nervous.
Like, this is our shot.
I'ma bust some freestyle.
I'm just come down this court
'cause this crowd is rowdy, dawg.
I'ma get them rushing this shit like nothing.
I remember the first time they passed me the ball,
I was gonna, like, bust out, like, the slip and slide
and, like, try and throw it through the legs.
[indistinct shouting]
I just hoped that, like, when I came out
on the other side of that slip and slide,
his legs were still open when I, like, set him up.
I knew if I bust the move off, like, the crowd's gonna be like,
"Whoa, what did that little white kid just do?"
[crowd cheering]
[Waliyy] Yo, the kid, little kid Rory
who is a young kid, right?
So when I saw him take on that court not scared,
you know, I would consider Rory
as one of those special ball players.
Next time I get the ball I'ma skip up the court.
Like, went perfect.
I had the bop that I wanted to it.
Like, man, like, the Rolodex of moves that I have
that I'm about to bust out, operations shut down.
Good night, Irene type moves.
[crowd cheering]
No one has seen that before.
This same guy was like, "Dean me up," right?
You know, he was like, "I'm getting embarrassed,"
and was kinda like stepping back.
[crowd shouting]
So, like, the only option I had
was to, like, swag on him...
and then just busted the handstand.
[crowd cheering]
[Jeremy] I feel like Rory kinda shut it down.
I don't think he kind of, man. That man-- I-- he shut it.
Rory shut that whole-- He shut it down.
[Waliyy] We planted that seed,
that street basketball culture seed.
And The Notic, they just one of the first fruits
that was bore, you know.
I remember Johnny Blaze came and grabbed me.
I grabbed Disaster and I held him in my hands
and I was like, "Man, I love you kid."
Kids were asking me to sign their basketballs
and, like, sign their shirts.
Like, a kid in a candy store.
I mean, this is what I practiced
and, like, play every day for, right?
I remember on the way back from that AND1 open run,
you know what I mean, I got a lot of props.
[Johnny shouting] Rory!
-[Joey] Yeah. -[Johnny] Rory Grace, nigga!
You know, like, I was good. I was, like, part of something.
[Joey laughs] Come on. Move a little closer.
I feel as though he just-- he was looking
for a community, man, to fit into.
And we just so happened to be that community.
[Rory] All the time that I spent with, like,
you know, the different people, like, in the crew,
I felt this is the family that I never had
that, like, I was supposed to have.
[uplifting music playing]
Remember this Joey All-Star Game?
[Kirk] Yeah.
[Jeremy] Joey's out there killing these guys.
And look at his coach.
I love how he looks, like, right to us.
-Exactly. -[Kirk] Yeah.
[Jeremy] Like, "Fuck this."
And, like, even being here goes back to me 2002
when I was playing an All-Star Game.
[commentator] Number 12, Joey Haywood.
[Joey] Being part of the top players
in British Columbia,
to me that was huge.
The crowd is here, people are here.
Uh, I didn't start. It was all good. I didn't mind.
[Kirk] So now it's late in the game
when they finally bring him in
and then he subs in like this.
Looks over at the camera like this...
and just starts killing guys.
[upbeat music playing]
[indistinct shouting]
[Joey] That was an accomplishment, right?
That I could play with these guys.
And I actually-- I can destroy a lot of them, too.
So I brought street [indistinct] to the game.
[crowd cheering]
And people weren't ready for that.
[whistle blows]
He subbed me out, man.
And he was pissed.
He went from like-- he was white and it went red.
His whole face was red because he was so pissed off.
I'm like, "It's an All-Star Game."
I'm feeling with my boy Joe what just happened, man.
Sometimes the authority cuts you off.
You know what I'm saying? For real.
That's for real, man. I-- I--
Yo, man, that's why I know there's a lot of hate.
[Jeremy] Joey was one of the top high school players
in the province
and he still wasn't getting the respect he deserved.
[Joey] I was lead score in high school average
like, 29, 30 points a game.
[Fresh] I don't know if it was because of the streetball stigma
or the jungle ball mentality,
but it was tough for Joey and the way he played.
[Jeremy] So Joey's graduated high school
and we all knew on, like, a fundamental basketball level,
he was gonna get a college scholarship.
He was gonna go play at a top American school.
And so we helped him make his college tape.
My name is Joel Haywood. I go to Magee Secondary School.
I play point guard for the Magee Lions.
I sent my tape to, like, maybe ten schools, I think.
I got no reply back.
Nothing. Like, "Okay, whatever."
So I never got a call.
But after that, I trained harder than ever...
and did my streetball shit, right?
It was streetball or nothing for him.
So we went all out making The Notic 2.
[rock music playing]
[Joey] The Notic 1 was a good introduction.
It was like a little tease, you know what I mean?
This is sick, but we could definitely do better than this.
I think there was just a different mindset
from the entire crew.
Now we come prepared. Now we come with jerseys.
Now we come with gear.
-There you go. -All right. Thanks a lot.
-Thank you. -That's powerful.
The Notic 2, we knew crowds were gonna be there.
[Kirk] We were like, "Let's show the world
something they haven't seen before."
[Jeremy] I feel like The Notic crew became known
as some of the world's very best innovators
of new streetball moves.
They were the ones thinking outside the box,
coming up with insane moves.
All that time in the gym, you know, I just got creative,
wanted to see, like, the limits
of what was possible with a basketball.
You don't put limits on it. You don't put rules.
You don't say you can't do this or that, you just go.
[crowd cheering]
[whistle blows]
There was a moment when a staff member
from Hoop It Up comes out
and he goes, "We want you to cheer,
we want you to clap for your team."
But...
[crowd chattering]
Somebody in the crowd yells that,
"You get that for The Notic?"
[man] You get that for The Notic?
It became such a scene,
such a-- such a vibe within the city.
Everybody was loving it, man.
[crowd cheering]
Like, where did all these people come from is my question.
I ain't never seen that many Black people in my life.
I was like, "Is this even Vancouver?"
[Joey] I think the city really needed to see...
kinda like Black culture.
'Cause, you know, we're kinda hidden at that time,
you know, in little pockets, you know.
Now this is the time, we came together.
Like, being a young Black teenager at the time,
that-- that was the kind of sense of pride for me.
Like, "Yeah, this is dope."
They were holding up on a pedestal
my community, my culture,
you know, the hip-hop we were into,
the sports we were into.
It was definitely like a coming-out party.
[Mohamed] The Notic didn't just captured the culture.
It captured joy and excitement
that we were living it.
[Joey] [indistinct], you know what I'm saying?
They charging $20 for these sick ass fades, yo.
[David] When he got the-- the sunburn from the head--
and he had his headband around it.
Holy shit! Hey, Joey's white, man.
Are you serious? Is it that bad?
[indistinct]
You can't even see anything, though.
What the fuck? [laughs]
[Mohamed] We didn't feel like outcasts.
We just enjoyed everything
that each one of us were doing, right?
And now it was rare for our-- our experience.
And I felt like we were just kinda documenting it.
And I think we can look back and go like,
"Did we have the right to tell that story?"
[Kirk] For better or worse,
we were filming something that we loved.
[crowd cheering]
[Joey] Yeah, I think people really felt a part of it.
I think we did-- you know, we think
we did a pretty good job, man.
I think we did a pretty good job representing our culture.
It's not all Black culture,
but it's a part of Black culture, right?
But there's so much more of Black culture that,
you know, other people need to learn about.
But that's a little spark.
So The Notic 1 freestyles are sort of spur of the moment.
It's sort of like a solo dance thing.
All of a sudden Mo start doing these...
They were just like, "Oh, my God."
[Johnny] I was like,
"What the heck is this?"
[Jeremy] The Notic 2 was like,
we'll always plan these things
and-- and do 'em up in a special way.
[David] I thought I killed the freestyle.
I thought-- in my head I'm like,
"Yo, this is the sickest freestyle."
And then I watched Mo's freestyle.
[Joey] Goosebumps, man...
his freestyle is nuts.
[Rory] My jaw was on the floor. I was like, "What?"
This guy was, like, rewriting the book
on, like, what was possible.
Goose was like a rock star, man. He is like Elvis.
-This Goosebumps. -[man] Goosebumps!
Wanna see the new shit?
Whoa, what the heck? Like that shirt--
you know, the ball [indistinct] that freestyle,
the ball coming down, like--
like, I've never seen anybody do something like that.
And he has a book of moves and stuff like that, like--
[Rory] I never got to see the actual book in real life.
It's a myth. [chuckles]
[Mohamed] That's why the book to me is like,
especially me as a kid, you know,
it's-- it's something that allowed me to express myself
and I still do that till this day.
[indistinct] the hopscotch? Yeah.
First I do a low dribble and shit.
I'm turning the defender and everything.
Then when he goes to the reach,
roll it right quick through his legs,
then hop over his back and it's over.
You know, and that's what The Notic is.
Just an explosion of creativity.
That created an idea
that you can come from nothing
and create something.
[soft music playing]
[singing]
Yo, let me drop the beat.
♪ Come on ♪
Then the beat snaps and you just, "Oh, my God."
Not 'cause I'm in it,
but you see people's reaction of it.
It was a masterpiece.
That tape, man...
changed everything.
♪ [indistinct], motherfuckers ♪
[Andrew] Once The Notic 2 came out,
it was, like, different, it was totally different.
We were already-- at that point we're rock stars.
We were local streetball rock stars,
people calling us like, "Yo, where are you guys playing?"
[man] Yo, when's your next game?
-[indistinct] tomorrow. -Where your next game at, man?
Police, police used to come to our games.
Oh, we're playing a game, man.
[laughs] Yo, get this on camera, man.
[David] I expected The Notic
to be a at-home VHS tape.
And then all of a sudden my mom is like,
"David, there's-- there's people calling you guys from the US
asking if David Dazzle and Johnny Blaze live here."
20 something years ago I started a website
called streetball.co.uk.
And before I knew it,
we were doing a hundred thousand visitors a month.
A million page impressions.
We ended up making that trailer
and putting it on the streetball message board website.
The Notic, it was like the realest one.
It would go viral on message boards.
Kirk, like, once a week would go to the post office
with a bag of tapes.
Germany, Australia, Japan, Hawaii.
Imagine that, when I was six years old,
I used to walk to the well to get water
and then I'm on some VHS tape that's going around the world.
Pretty cool getting stuff all the way from New York.
[Bobbito] When I saw The Notic videotape,
I was blown away.
It was a statement that
fantastic, fancy, creative basketball
is no longer only New York.
[indistinct cheering]
Yo, Mo, that was-- that was your move back then.
Fuck yeah!
-Look at that shit. -That's crazy.
[Jeremy] We got an email from EA Sports.
I remember going like,
"Imagine they put the guys in a video game."
[Rory] They were like, "Yo, we're going to, you know,
put on a black suit, all the little balls on it."
And then I was just like, "Yo,
they're gonna give us five grand?
Like, I'm balling!" You know what I mean?
Notic 2. Check it out. This is our game.
[Rory] When I first played the game,
like, I think I was just shocked.
Literally, the game is all your moves.
[Rory] That's me!
[Joey] Yeah, [indistinct].
It was amazing to be part of that, man.
Something that changed the basketball video game.
[Bobbito] One of the most successful
and popular video games
across all sports.
It's like a classic.
I just wish we-- wish we got paid a little bit more money.
[Kirk] Cool part of NBA Street,
they flew in Bobbito Garcia from New York
to do the announcing.
[Bobbito] So naturally when I went out to Vancouver,
I want to play against The Notic.
What's up, man? You good? My brother, man.
It was, like, a secret location.
It was, like, five levels below the earth.
This tiny gym, the size of West Fourth Street.
And, uh, and I got caught out there on a hesitation
for King Handles, you know, which was great
'cause now, "Okay, I'm gonna come back at you."
And-- and that's the type of, like, shared love.
Man, it was just so much fun.
You understand? Like, so much fun.
[Jeremy] That night with Bobbito,
Joey took it to a level that, like...
I've never seen that before or since.
Raise up. [indistinct]
[Jeremy] It was like, uh, an out-of-body experience.
["Clair de Lune" playing on violin]
[Bobbito] I'm a believer.
[laughs]
I'm a believer.
[Jeremy] It felt like the beginning
of something new for Joey.
Even if it was nearly the end for The Notic.
We did one last thing together though.
[Kirk] We're checking our emails one day.
It says, uh, "So-and-so SLAM Magazine."
And I'm just like, "What the hell?"
SLAM's like the basketball Bible.
Like, I read that magazine, like, religiously,
like, every month.
Like me, a basketball fanatic,
that was the only magazine we looked at, right?
Oh, man, one day I hope I could be in the SLAM magazine.
[man] Yo, [indistinct]. [laughing]
Do that little jog.
Do that... [laughs]
Taking pics for the SLAM, yo.
[Johnny] You just never know what's gonna come out of it.
It could be just this-- this little picture
in the corner of this, like, these Canadian ballers.
But I remember my boy calling me
and he said, "Yo, go to the closest corner store."
Holy smokes.
And it happened, man. It actually happened.
[Rory] We're in SLAM.
[Mohammed] That was insane, bro.
[Johnny] Like a seven page article on us.
[Rory] The most gangster photo possible.
Super proud of that moment.
Like, we're here, we have arrived.
I remember I [indistinct] all my buddies went
and we would just open all the pages to my picture
and we walked away.
There was no doubt that you guys were gonna be in SLAM,
like, the players were gonna be in SLAM.
But when we turned that last page
and Jer and I were in fucking SLAM mean mugging.
It was one of the greatest moments
in The Notic for Jer and I.
And it was one of the greatest moments
-of our lives, I would say. -Yeah.
The story of SLAM is something I'm real proud of...
but every time we wanna celebrate, you--
you think of how much that must have hurt Jermaine.
And that it's just something we can't give him back.
Yeah. First place, man. First place.
What is that, foreign county?
We prevailed, man. We fucking busted ass, man.
How could you be doing a Notic shoot for the-- And--
and-- and how could I not be called for that though?
That just-- that-- that's like...
I don't understand how that could even happen.
[Jeremy] I-- I-- I-- I got-- I'm just sorry.
Did you have my phone number?
[Jeremy] I probably didn't.
Could you have gotten my phone number?
-[Jeremy] I could have. -Okay.
And was I a member of The Notic?
-[Jeremy] Yes. -Okay.
So I should have gotten a phone call.
-There's no excuses. -[Jeremy] Yeah.
And-- and 'cause you-- 'cause you feel like
you were exploited and-- and maybe--
[Fresh] Exploited and left out at this point, right?
[Jeremy] Yeah. Yeah, I mean we just--
Which is pretty shitty,
it's a pretty shitty feeling, right?
So that's kind of why I've had a bad taste
in my mouth when it comes to the two of you, right?
So, when thinking about it and when Joey is telling me
like, "Yo, like, we're selling crazy mix tapes."
Well, how come we're not seeing any money?
[Kirk] Don't even [indistinct] to say that.
[Jeremy] Look how pissed he is.
Something's not right here, you know?
[Kirk] You knew that Jer and I were selling tapes.
Did any of that ever get-- get into your head about like--
Yeah, I think in the-- in the sense of like, I--
we knew you guys were selling tapes
and you know, we'll get things in our ears like,
"Yo, are these white boys making money off of you?
Like, how come you guys aren't making money?
You guys are known around the world,
like what's going on?"
You know what I mean?
I know that some of the other guys felt
that like due to the success of The Notic 2,
that there should have been some sort of
monetary compensation.
If we were, like, getting exposure like that
it would've been sick to, like, have capitalized, you know?
But...
Just became difficult
in the sense of just survival, right?
-[man] You should? -[man] Yeah, I think you should.
[Kirk] Everyone's wondering where you guys have been.
There's been all these clips, but no-- no John and Dave.
And like I said, for me and David,
we're immigrants, man.
Check out them rims, check out them rims,
check out them rims out there.
I mean, I hate being broke, man.
And so for me, I just started going down my own path
and started getting to the money, you know?
I feel that lack of transparency
was probably the reason why,
uh, The Notic 3 never got finished.
-[man] Is that the last game? -Yeah, it's over man.
That's it, that was a championship game, right?
That's it. Last game?
-[man] Yeah. -There's no more.
-Final. Done.
We always had it in mind that it was gonna be a trilogy
and we were gonna make The Notic 3.
[Jeremy] But right before we finished it,
the crew broke up
and The Notic 3 got abandoned.
Not completing The Notic 3 for me was a let down
because we had so much there.
You know, juggernaut pieces were prepared.
Because I think that was the finale in all of our heads.
But also,
I didn't wanna be a streetballer
all my life.
[Johnny] Yeah, you're let down, right?
You-- you're kinda defeated
'cause you just want to see the footage, honestly.
You know, I wanted to see what moves we created,
how it looked like.
I know the whole world was waiting for it.
[crowd cheering]
I always felt as though we let King down.
I felt as though I let King down
'cause I didn't keep playing basketball.
Yeah, I kept doing it because...
'cause I love it, man.
[crowd cheering]
[Rory] I think Joey was trying to find his way
in basketball, right?
And-- and-- and shake that stigma that--
that he-- that he faced.
I can't shoot. People, I can't shoot.
I can't shoot!
[Joey] And I started doing a lot of streetball, man.
I was with the streetball team
out in Oakland, California with them for a year.
Uh, played in the AND1 tour.
I was basically, you know what, man, I was running--
I was basically solo, man.
[Rory] The amount of time I spent in the gym
and following these different players around
kept me outta trouble.
Um, until it didn't--
When I didn't have it anymore, right?
I, like, felt that I still had to prove myself
and like, the only way that I knew how
was to be like, "I better have a pocket full of money."
You know?
So I-- I chased other things that would give me that--
that recognition.
There's a point that I could tell you straight up
Rory was-- I could tell he was lost.
Home life was hard.
He was trying to figure himself out.
[Rory] Really, we're gonna go into this stuff?
[Kirk] If you're cool with it. You don't have to.
[Rory] So I left home when I was 17...
and, uh, the first thing that I tried to do to--
to make money was being, like, a drug courier, right?
Selling crack and heroin.
The cops know you on a first name basis, right?
Like, every time I'm getting pulled over,
I'm swallowing a container of dope.
Once they've like, ransacked the car
and I'm pulling over to a gas station,
yak all the dope up, right, then I'm back to work.
And my life was like that for years.
And then I had my first son, his name's Declan,
but you know, you reap what you sow, right?
And, uh, you know, I started to use,
develop an addiction.
-[man, indistinct] -[man] You're a star, man.
You're a star, man.
He's a star.
[Johnny] I got a call to play for Open Run out in California.
And I was with my wife,
during that time with my girlfriend.
She's like, "Listen, you need to make a decision.
'Cause streetball, there's no money in that."
So during that time I got a-- a scholarship
to play for St. Mary's University.
I wanna be a professional basketball player,
make it to the NBA.
So I had to do what I had to do, right?
And play, you know,
more of a structured type of basketball.
My first year, I remember The Basketball Jones blog.
They said, "Oh, Joey Haywood King Handles
is going to St. Mary's University.
He can't play.
That streetball stuff is not gonna work here."
Come on.
[commentator] Joey Haywood of the St. Mary's Huskies scored
575 points in 20 games this season.
That's an average of 28.8 points per game.
[Joey] And I'd be one of the top players in CIS,
uh, leading scorer in the nation,
two time all-Canadian.
Breaking records here and there.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator, indistinct], Haywood!
[Rory] Then I had my younger son, Nolan.
But I was struggling at that point
with, you know, an addiction to pills, to oxys.
Things just got worse, man.
And, uh, you know, I went and, like, stabbed a guy up.
I found myself in jail.
I couldn't, like,
responsibly take care of my son anymore.
You know what I mean?
[machine beeps in the background]
[emotional music playing]
[Joey] When my son was being born,
it actually changed a lot.
It's not me anymore. It's him.
We saw Joey the day after his first son was born.
When he was like, at a crossroads of basketball.
[Joey] So everything I do now has gotta be--
be ten times harder, the--
the school, basketball,
you know, I gotta work harder in the gym, you know?
Because I want to make, you know,
make some good money, so I can support him.
It's crazy to look back and be like, "He-- he did that."
[Joey] I train like, two times a day,
sometimes three times a day, man.
Eight hours, like, in the wind, in the cold.
I think I worked really hard try to make the NBA.
[commentator, indistinct], Anthony [indistinct].
[indistinct].
[woman] Hey! Hey!
[commentator] ...from Massachusetts.
D League draft, I did really well in the combine,
you know, out of so many 500 players
I got picked to be in the draft pool.
If you see Joey's name, it's gonna be with no audio.
[commentator, indistinct], fourth round,
[indistinct] select Andrew Gonzalez.
The second pick of the seventh round,
the Austin [indistinct] select Dan [indistinct].
For the 16th pick of the eighth round,
[indistinct] select [indistinct].
Didn't get drafted that year, man.
That there, man, that-- that hurt, man.
I'm like, "Dude,
like how-- What-- what more could I do?"
And this is just I-- In the story of King Handles,
like, another time when he should have made it.
All that hard work.
You know, getting up early in the morning,
training, it's...
it's frustrating, man.
Like why? What's the reason why? Like what-- what'd I do wrong?
I mean, I'm disappointed that shit didn't go through.
I think there's more to me than just basketball.
I believe that.
But I've-- It's like a-- it's like a drug.
I'm addicted because I know
what I could do with that basketball.
When you go in that system,
people are telling you that you--
you can't do something.
When you're in the classroom and going to school
there's other people telling you,
"Oh, you're dumb, you do this."
But that basketball,
that basketball's not telling you,
you can't do it.
The only time it talks is when you bounce.
You hear the ball bounce, you hear a good rhythm.
Ah, that means I'm doing something right.
So that's why I-- I stayed.
That's why I-- I think I--
And it's so funny I'm saying that now.
I never thought about that.
So many people understand,
"Oh, why you like basketball so much?
I don't understand."
It's because
playing a game of basketball, um...
Yeah.
Hmm. I didn't feel dumb.
[sniffling]
That's why-- that's why I love the game.
And I put a lot of work
'cause I feel like
I could become-- be something great.
I feel like if I stop...
I'm back to the old me.
-Oh, man. What's good? -What's up?
-How you doing? Good? -Epic, uh, entrance.
[laughs]
Look at these things, man. And it says Notic 3.
I ain't never seen this picture right here.
Can you just watch some clips first
and then we'll watch some of that?
[Johnny] Show me everything, man.
[Kirk] Okay.
Yo, I'm trying to see The Notic 3 right now.
[man, indistinct]. Oh!
Oh! Oh! [laughs]
Y'all are tripping right now, man, y'all are--
Where do you guys get all this stuff?
Notic 3. Like this-- this is crazy.
Gets y'all emotional, man.
We talk about The Notic and like,
this is something I made with my best friend
and something I'm real proud of
and with a bunch of people that I love.
But when we think back on it,
the transparency is something I super regret.
We didn't really know what was being generated
or what was, uh, what kind of money was being made.
But we knew that our footage was for sale.
[man] How does it sell?
We're not really making money, but we're making enough
to fund the first one.
The tapes we sell, pay for the next tapes.
There was no money.
And, you know, I think maybe
that's where the communication was lacking.
'Cause maybe if you did tell us on our end,
we could have done something to help.
We had something
that could have become something so much bigger
if things were done properly.
Could have changed the course of all of our lives.
[Jeremy] John, you talked about you thinking,
"Oh, they're white guys.
They can go into a boardroom and pitch The Notic
and help us all make money."
That's something that we would've never thought of.
'Cause I see what my brother goes through
when he works with his own-- his own charity
and he struggles, man, just 'cause of his skin color
to get in the door.
But as soon as he sees, like, a person, you know...
like you guys, it's a lot easier.
[Jeremy] What could have happened.
And so much of that, I feel
personally could have done better.
And it's just like, you know, part of making this documentary
is trying to kinda be at peace with it.
We totally looked up to all you guys,
even though we were a bit older and we--
we had so much fun being around you and--
and we always had--
We always tried to have your best interest in mind.
Yeah.
And we completely failed in the business part of things
and, uh, transparency part of things.
And we-- we didn't take the brand
to where it could have been,
but we always had your best interest in mind.
And I don't know-- I don't know if there is gonna be
full closure after 20 years.
I-- I just felt the need to say that.
Thank you. No, that means a lot.
And, uh, I do think that, uh,
me and some of the other guys will be able to, you know,
feel some closure in that chapter of--
of our lives.
What we had then was something really different
and we got a-- an incredible childhood out of it.
Money can't-- money can't do no--
I-- I don't care what we-- what happened, what we made.
That don't mean shit, man.
We had such joy.
We had such fun. We had such hope.
[all cheering]
[Jeremy] The night after Joey didn't get drafted
for the G League,
I got this text from him in the middle of the night
saying he signed a deal, and he was at the airport.
[Joey] I didn't let me not being drafted,
make me stop playing the game.
I put my head down, stopped doing any type
of streetball stuff,
worked really hard, and ended up playing pro ball
for six years.
And I had to shut up a lot of people, man.
A lot of people that didn't believe in me.
Right, and that's what I did.
[commentating in other language]
[Joey] In Denmark averaging like 30 points a game.
Taking the team from having, you know,
nobody in the stands to having a sold-out crowd every time.
I just wanted to prove to like, everyone
that I could definitely do this.
I could definitely dominate.
[whistle blows]
[commentating in other language]
[Joey] It was a good six years, but also a stressful six years.
I'm flying out different places.
I'm waiting for contracts.
It's just going to these places, you know,
not seeing my family.
It's tough. It's tough.
Coming back home, working, training hard in the summer.
It was a crazy waiting game
because in summertime you're not sure what's going on.
Where you gonna play next.
[soft piano instrumental playing]
[indistinct shouting]
[Joey] No matter what, in the organized world
for basketball, you don't have full control
because it is more of a business.
People really trying to make money, you know?
We didn't match up their, uh-- Their intensity today.
They-- they-- they bullied us a little bit.
I proved to everyone back home that I could--
I could play pro basketball.
I proved to myself that I could play pro basketball.
But there's something that was kinda missing,
but I kinda didn't know what it really was, really.
[siren wailing]
[Rory] How you've you been?
[David] Oh, my goodness, man. It's so good to see you, man.
[Rory] Fingaz. Yeah. [laughs]
Johnny Blaze in the house, baby.
-Yeah? -[Rory] Yeah, [indistinct].
[Johnny] Woo!
Pa! Pa!
Yeah, man, what's up, man?
-Good to see you, man. -Disaster, man.
-Boom! -Shit, boy.
-Goosebumps! -[indistinct]. Fuck.
[Rory] [indistinct] legend.
-You getting taller than me. -[Mohammed] I'm not.
[both laughing]
[Joey] Dude, I haven't seen you since 1888.
[all laughing]
♪
-[Mohammed] D, man. -We gonna be playing.
Yeah, he's playing, I'm not playing. [laughs]
[Fresh] It's the first time all of us
have been in the same place, and--
Since we were teenagers.
[laughing]
-[Rory] How you doing, big man? -[Fresh] Good, man.
-[Rory] It's good to see you. -Yeah.
What? What?
[David] We knew that we were gonna meet at the court.
I thought we were just gonna be there to talk,
to do a little bit of filming there,
you know what I mean?
So to have like, SLAM magazine
come back, and be there again,
that's crazy, man.
[Jeremy] Being able to surprise the rest of the crew,
but especially Jermaine with a SLAM shoot
that he's gonna be a part of, he's in the photos,
he's in the interview.
It feels like we're getting a second chance.
[Fresh] We were all really collectively like one,
you know what I mean?
And, um, obviously, it was, uh--
It was a bummer, missing it for the first time around.
But you know what, uh, this definitely makes up for it
because you know, it's the full circle.
Oh, man, it is-- Honestly,
those are some of the best years of my life.
You know, it's, uh, better late than never,
but I think it adds a cool dynamic
that a lot of time has passed by, and you just--
You really get to see how, uh, we've all progressed as humans.
With the Notic, and being streetballers
and basketball players, we created a high level
of standard for ourselves.
So once that level was hit, you are always climbing either
back there or you're trying to go out over top.
You can't turn back.
I still love basketball, but, I mean,
my knees can't take the asphalt, so I'm not out there playing
streetball anymore, it's just what it is, man.
Um, but, uh, I- I went on to different things in life.
That's where it all started right here, man.
I've been a professional DJ now for 18 years.
I found something that gave me
the same kind of passion that basketball did.
I wasn't liking where I was headed, you know?
My dad lives out here, so when I came out here we connected
on a spiritual level and faith level.
And so I just gradually started to pray.
[David] I do jujitsu a lot now.
It's the same process of struggling,
and figuring stuff out that I did in the Notic.
People will break your ankles for real.
[Andrew] I started this company seven years ago.
I'd say we're like, easily top-- top-tier now.
Everything is custom.
So in my head it's freestyle, you know.
Like streetball, it's freestyle, right?
You got-- That's all we do, right?
Like it never-- It never leaves, right?
Like, once a shooter always a shooter, right?
[Johnny] June 11th, 2009, someone saved my life.
I had my daughter McKenna.
I know God gave her to me for a reason.
She's my angel.
And now that I work with youth, right,
I see immigrant kids and their struggle,
and that's what I try and do today
to help others, to give back.
And me and David are still best friends.
I don't know what I'd do without him, you know.
[Mohammed] It allowed me to pull myself up and say,
"Okay, focus up. Get your-- Get your life back."
So this is it, this is the lab.
Okay.
[vocal music playing]
I'm making music where-- Almost zero instruments,
and just more voice and melodic stuff.
I'm adding my faith into my thing.
♪ But family ties, yeah? ♪
♪♪ This is the family ties, yeah ♪
Just, uh, getting ready to pick up my son.
Looking forward to it, man.
At the end of it all,
I had lost access to both of my sons.
So I-- I started working a 12-step program.
I guess, that chip on my shoulder,
you know, I unburdened myself of that.
It took me 456 days
to get my older son back in my life.
And my younger son, Nolan,
his grandparents took him into their care
until, you know-- That I could get
-like, back on my feet. -[knocking on door]
I never had a dad growing up,
and up until this point,
I think that like, I failed my kids.
But like, now I wanna make sure that both of my kids
growing up knowing that I'm here.
[indistinct] travel.
So they don't have to go through what I did growing up.
[laughs] This is the gift of recovery.
Being able to be a dad,
and like, a good example to my son, right?
Okay, let's go.
-You miss me? -Yeah, I'm trying like, go.
-How much? -So much.
-Why so much? -Because I love you.
Okay, buddy. Let's go to the park.
I guess, I gotta go to the park now after that, you know.
[kid laughing]
[Rory] Let's go.
[man speaking Japanese]
[Joey] I got invited out to Japan
for an all-star game.
[overlapping chatter]
When I went out there, I see these guys,
Japanese players with like, baggy pants
and like, do-rags and-- And they could handle.
And I found that amazing, like, man, like,
there's a whole another world out there.
[indistinct announcement]
[crowd cheering]
[Joey] But when I played my first game there,
I was pulling out moves left, right and center, man.
♪
All the streetball tricks coming out the bag.
[cheering]
The crowd's going nuts, man.
This is crazy.
These people still remember the Notic.
They still remember like, King Handles.
They still remember me.
[indistinct announcement]
[Joey] I fell in love with streetball again.
I literally fell in love, like, I don't wanna even play
organized anymore.
[crowd cheering]
[Joey] This is who I am.
-[announcer] [indistinct]! -[crowd] [indistinct]!
-[announcer] [indistinct]. -[crowd] [indistinct]!
Streetball is who I am.
One day King calls me up, he's like, "Yo,
I'm taking you to Japan, you gotta see this."
I'm like, "I gotta see what?"
[indistinct announcement]
[cheering]
[Joey] I brought Johnny Blaze to Japan
'cause I want him to see, I want him to see the love.
It's like the cult following.
He didn't understand until he got there.
Like, "Holy shit. People still know me?"
I'm like, "Yo, King, King, where are we right now?"
"Yo we famous, man."
[Joey] Yeah, because this is what you did, man.
You deserve it.
[Johnny] I have never ever heard
anything like this in my whole entire life.
[cheering]
"They love you, man."
And he's like, "I told you, John,
they love us here."
[crowd cheering]
[Johnny] I didn't know how big the Notic was in Asia.
[Joey] The Notic actually had a lot of influence
on the all-- On all the ball handlers
out in Japan and China.
I see John, I see myself,
I see David, I see Jermaine.
[commentator] Come on, come on.
We must have done something...
to impact these people.
And like, "If they could do it,
these kids from Vancouver could do it,
I think we could do it too."
Thank you so much, you guys.
What up? I'm Chris from Hamburg, Germany.
My name is Jefferson Mariano, I'm from Brazil.
I'm from Gleb Beirn from Russia.
You guys inspired a lot of people,
a lot of ballers from all around the world.
They changed my life, they put me in the driveway
every day practicing.
So I think we gave a lot of people hope as well.
They made it seem like anybody do it.
You know, like it's not exclusive.
I think the Notic really just set the paradigm
for what basketball freestyle videos were supposed to be.
Johnny Blaze he low dribbles so fast.
[man 1] Goosebumps, King Handles.
[man 2] Disaster.
I was inspired by them.
I just wanted to be like you, really.
The guys show the real streetball, man.
Absolutely explosive, amazing to watch.
You can show the world such tricks,
it lights the soul.
It made people like myself feel like they can
still be represented, they can still play.
-Shout out to my guys Notic. -Shout out Notic.
Changed my life.
If a player loves basketball,
and doesn't make it to the NBA,
to me, there's no disappointment.
The determination of a successful ball player is...
how much did you cultivate your love for this game?
Joey Haywood,
who's spent now, like, two decades
becoming globally known, playing in Asia,
you know, doing clinics, teaching kids.
To me, he is a supreme success.
Love the game.
[overlapping chatter]
Yo, my brother,
thanks for keeping the game going, man.
Oh, man, all good, man.
-All love, man. -Yeah, thank you.
-Love you, bro. -Thanks for the spark.
Thanks for the love, man. Real talk.
Always, always, always, always keep it going, man.
-Yeah. -I love you, bro.
Appreciate it. You too, man, love you guys.
We all love you. We all love you.
Thank you guys so much, man.
You know, if it wasn't for you guys,
like, show me the love and just give me the confidence--
If it wasn't for the Notic,
I don't know where I would be, man.
Don't know. Don't know.
It was really tough for me like, growing up here and--
and you guys, you know, embrace me and love me.
So I just wanna say thank you, guys.
I'm so proud of him, man,
He never gave up even when people hated on him.
Even when people thought he wasn't gonna make it,
he kept going.
Everywhere I went to play ball,
I always brought you guys with me.
Every one of you guys.
[team applauding]
I'm like, "Yo, King, why you reppin' so hard, man?
Like you are King Handles. It's you man.
Why aren't you repping yourself man?"
He's like, "Man, you guys are me."
♪
Hey, let's go!
[all cheering]
And I hope that legacy of the Notic just lives on,
I hope it echoes in the streets.
[laughing]
It was more than just basketball.
It was a community, it was friendship.
[David] I think the collective group was something special.
I think part of it though, is struggle, right?
When you struggle, you appreciate things.
[Mohammed] It was just a complete brotherhood.
And I think it came out on tape.
It's hope, man, it's hope.
["Family Ties" by Mo from OTE playing]
♪ We stay together, uh-huh ♪
♪ No matter the distance, no matter ♪
♪ [indistinct] in the tank whatever, don't matter ♪
♪ Hamburger with the bread ♪
♪ Like fish with the tart, okay ♪
♪ We go together ♪
♪ And I heard you having a daughter ♪
♪ [indistinct lyrics] ♪
♪ [indistinct] to mama ♪
♪ [indistinct] when I'm lost, when I'm lost ♪
♪ [indistinct], uh-huh ♪
♪ [indistinct lyrics] ♪
♪ I bring it back, I bring [indistinct] for doughs ♪
♪ [indistinct lyrics] ♪
♪ Never hang up [indistinct] when I was a baby ♪
♪ They changed me, [indistinct] change you ♪
♪ [indistinct lyrics] ♪
♪ Let's talk about y'all, man ♪
♪ Got along, money [indistinct] ♪
♪ But family decides, yeah ♪
♪ This is family ties, yeah ♪
♪ Family ties, yeah ♪
♪ This is family ties ♪
[crowd cheering]
That's some sick shit!
♪
♪ It's OTE ♪
♪ Yeah, we slidin' ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ This is family ties, yeah ♪