New exhibit at city museum will showcase New York City’s deep history in basketball

A new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York will showcase the history of street and playground basketball with the narratives of the players, coaches, and moments that have made the city’s high school, college, and professional game legendary.

“City/Game: Basketball in New York” will feature original objects, memorabilia, along with photography, historic audio, and video highlighting New York’s unique history with basketball, including New York’s three professional teams—the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, and New York Liberty—and their predecessors, as well as high school and college teams with rivalries and players with ties to the city. From early roots in immigrant communities to renowned celebrity players, the basketball exhibit will also be a reflection of the city’s cultural, social, and economic history.

The exhibit will arrive at the Museum of the City of New York on Feb. 14 and will be on display until Jan. 3, 2021.

“Basketball’s history and development is inextricably tied to New York,” says Whitney Donhauser and Ronay Menschel, Director and President of the Museum of the City of New York. “City/Game captures the excitement and evolution of this quintessentially urban game and the energy of the diverse New Yorkers who play it and love it.”

“City/Game” will be broken up into three main parts: “A Lineage of Coaches, Players & Places,” “Proving Grounds” and “Cultures of Basketball.” “A Lineage of Coaches, Players & Places” will highlight key moments in basketball history in New York City and how they reflect the changing physical and social makeup of the city.

The “Proving Grounds” section of the exhibit will showcase the city’s basketball courts, both inside and out, as well as how New York City yielded greats such as Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, WNBA trailblazer Nancy Lieberman, and Las Vegas Aces guard Epiphanny Prince. The “Cultures of Basketball” section will show how basketball has evolved over the years through fashion, footwear, music, art and so much more.

Admission to the exhibit is free with the cost of a Museum of the City of New York ticket. For more information about the exhibit, visit www.mcny.org/exhibition/citygame.