Rebirth: I Want to Surf

Walking through the heavy night in Harlem, turning right from 153rd Street into 155th Street, you can easily see an asphalt basketball court painted with red and green paint.

This is a sacred place in New York, Rucker Park.

In 1946, Holcombe Locke, a New York Parks Department employee, was determined to have some fun for those idle children on sweltering summer nights, so he founded a street basketball league.

But what caused a headache for the park was that the nets in Locke Park always fell into pieces within two days, and in the end the nets were not replaced at all, so to this day, the bare hoops are still an eye-catching symbol here.

Almost all streetball superstars have played here.

Many NBA stars have also come to challenge or watch games, including Kobe, Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Carter, etc.

"Today's winner is a baby tyrannosaurus!"

"OH! OH!"

At the end of the one-on-one competition, the host raised the hand of a small black man and said his nickname loudly. The onlookers cheered and applauded, and some held speakers to play music.

Empty beer bottles and brown paper bags were scattered around the court.

This is different from the NBA. The streets, the bottom, and chaos are the world of black people.

"His performance was not as good as mine, but his luck was much better than mine. I felt like I had stepped on a piece of dog poop since I was born, and my whole body was full of stench!"

"Two days ago, a record company wanted to sign me, but I just looked at that bitch a few more times and actually canceled my contract. I knew white bitches looked down on black people!"

"I will definitely become a superstar!"

After the game, the audience began to leave one after another. Tony was drinking beer while chattering to his companions.

He is a 20-year-old black guy who grew up in a slum. He has no idea who his father is. His mother has been in jail all the time. He has never read anything. He is a standard fit for a superstar.

It's a pity that he didn't have the life of a superstar, and now he is hanging around in a gang.

But there is also a vision that if black people at the bottom want to get ahead, they should either engage in sports or rap - many black rappers in the United States were gang members in the past.

And when someone gets ahead and makes money, those poor guys will come swarming to eat and use his food, and he has to entertain them with a smile.

This is a unique culture.

"Stop nagging. You always say you are good at it, but in fact you are not good at anything. Tell me what do you know?"

The companion said impatiently.

"I know a lot, I can play basketball, I know music, I can rap..."

Um?

Tony scratched his head, why did he look so similar to a trainee in China who had been training for 2 and a half years?

"Forget it, if you were really good, you would have been signed away long ago."

"I'm great, of course I'm great...but speaking of which, what is that thing? When was it hung up?"

Tony muttered, raised his head, and pointed.

There is an old apartment building next to the stadium. I don’t know when an advertisement was posted. People at the stadium can see it as long as they look up.

"TikTok? What the hell is that?"

"It seems to be a short video product..."

The companion, who was a little more educated, said: "Play games, draw prizes and so on."

"Lottery? My favorite, I want to download one, I want to try my shitty luck!"

Tony said downloading but didn't move. He continued drinking and drank all the beer before going home with his companions.

Of course the two of them live together, how can they have a house?

When his companion fell asleep for half the night, he was woken up by Tony, "Hey! Wake up, what was the name of that thing just now?"

"Is this why you woke me up at 2 o'clock?"

The companion had no choice but to tell him: "TikTok! I hope your broken phone can be carried."

"Of course I can!"

Tony ran back to his bed and started tinkering, successfully downloading one.

"What the hell, where's the lottery?"

He was not interested in the video, so he quickly scrolled through the video and finally saw it.

It was taken by NBA star Durant on the training ground. He casually scored a goal and then talked about charity or something. There was a challenge entry in the upper left corner of the video.

"ha!"

He immediately clicked on it and found that it was a shooting game.

Get the specified score within the time limit, otherwise you lose.

The first level is very easy, ten out of ten, 2-point system, I got 20 points. The speed of the second level is accelerated, eight out of ten, 2-point system, six out of ten in the third level, three-point system... By the fifth level, he was eliminated, and he only got a few dozen points in total.

Tony clicked to check the ranking list. He was not on the list, but the guy in first place actually had more than 500 points!

"FUCK!"

"He must be cheating!"

Tony was indignant and wanted to try again, but found that he had to watch ten short videos before he could do it. But he drew the lottery first, and as the big wheel stopped spinning, he drew an official NBA souvenir.

"Haha! I'm really lucky!"

Then he scrolled through the video, and after this scroll, he actually took it in, and was especially interested in one kind of video.

"Pay attention! This little girl has a chip implanted in her brain by her mother, and her mother only monitors her all the time..."

Tony has no money.

You have to buy tickets to go to the cinema, and sign up for a membership to watch online. How have you ever seen such a good thing about free prostitution?

Although the translation was a bit stiff, it suited his illiterate appetite. Although a movie was condensed into five minutes, he just didn't have the patience.

Again unconsciously.

Just like domestic users using MiDou, Americans quickly fell into the arms of Yao Yuan, which has much richer content than those on the market.

Tony browsed for a long time and experienced the rare pleasure of the Internet before going back to continue shooting.

This time I got 9 more points, but I didn’t win the prize. If I still want to play, I have to invite three friends. He didn't care about day or night, and immediately harassed everyone.

Keep brushing.

"Shit! Shit!"

He suddenly jumped out of bed.

Because he came across a video of a black man rapping about his own age. It should be an original work. It was uploaded to TikTok and received hundreds of comments, all of which were complimentary.

"Man, you are very talented and I am optimistic about your future!"

"Can I make a video using your song? I like this beat so much!"

"Wow, a future rap star is here!"

Tony became angry again:

"Original is nothing, I can also be original!"

"I'm better than him...that's right!"

He hit his head and came up with a brilliant idea. I can also upload my works and let more and more people see them. Maybe I will become famous.

"Ha ha!"

"Wake up! Wake up!"

He started shaking his little friend again, as if becoming a superstar was just around the corner.

Unlike Andrew, the young master of a Texas farmer's family, Tony belongs to those poor, marginalized groups in the United States who are marginalized by the Internet and do not have the ability to pay.

There are at least 40 million people in this group.

(No more...)