I-630 job a timeout for basketballers
Gritty games to halt for work in ’17
“I remember Kanis Park very well. That’s where I played growing up. I went there when I was a teenager, and you were playing against grown men. You had to be tough.” JOE JOHNSON, All-SEC at Arkansas and seven-time NBA All-Star
For nearly 30 years, basketball players have toughened up below the rumble of Interstate 630 in Little Rock.
The two basketball courts of Kanis Park sit directly underneath the six lanes of I-630, and the click-clack of traffic on the bridge overhead never fades. Adding to the roaring din is the staccato grind of traffic passing through the nearby traffic light at South Rodney Parham Road and South Mississippi Street.
The cardinal-colored paint on the courts has faded and is rubbed to bare concrete under the basketball goals, testimony to many elbow-and-hip battles beneath the rims.
The atmosphere demands resiliency in its players but
so does the competition of play, as most of the best basketball players in the area have struggled and soared below the interstate overpass since the courts first opened in 1987.
“I remember Kanis Park very well,” said Joe Johnson, an All-SEC Arkansas basketball player and seven- time NBA All-Star. “That’s where I played growing up. I went there when I was a teenager, and you were playing against grown men. You had to be tough.”
But with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department widening I-630 from six lanes to eight between Baptist Health Medical Center and South University Avenue, basketball will cease at the Kanis Park courts sometime in 2017, the expected start date of the project that includes replacing the bridge over the park’s courts.
Whether the courts return when the construction is completed — the project is expected to take two to 2½ years and cost between $30 million and $35 million — is still unknown.
“We have been having conversations with the Highway Department, and what they have told us — of course, they are in the business of building highways, and we’re in the business of parks — is that even though the courts will go away temporarily, there still may be a chance that we can reimplement them once they are done,” said Truman Tolefree, director of the Little Rock Parks and Recreation Department.
“We’ll put in a request, that if all possible, those courts can be reimplemented.”
According to Danny Straessle, a spokesman for the Highway Department, the Kanis Park courts currently exist by a permit that allows the city use of the state right of way underneath the bridge.
“The city of Little Rock, at one time, filed and received a permit to construct those basketball courts that are under the overpass there,” he said. “Like we do with utilities, we let them locate there for free, so to speak, with the understanding that if we ever do anything, widen the highway or whatever, they would have to locate them elsewhere. We would tear them out, but we would not incur the cost to build them back.”
Tolefree said his department and the Highway Department are having “very open” conversations about the project and he would “absolutely love to see the courts return once the construction is finished.”
“They are very highly used,” Tolefree said. “It’s a very good use of the space. It’s a good location with a lot of visibility. It’s kind of centrally located.”
Other Kanis Park amenities, including the baseball field, are not expected to be affected by the widening of I-630, Tolefree said. A paved trail through the park on the south side of the interstate will be “slightly affected,” he said, but his department thinks it can “work out the details there.”
Once interstate construction starts and the basketball courts are closed, the city is considering temporary basketball courts at Kanis Park, but no decisions have been made.
The city plans to keep the public informed, Tolefree said, but his department also has to “wait and see what the Highway Department does.”
With the interstate-widening project in its preliminary design stages, it’s too early to know what the newly designed bridge at Kanis Park will look like and whether the bridge’s substructure and column layout will accommodate basketball courts, Straessle said.
“The Highway Department is a good neighbor, but each situation is different,” he said. “Safety is paramount. You don’t want anything to impede the function of the highway system.
“The bridge will not be designed to specifically accommodate anything but the flood plain that it crosses over. That is the primary function of the bridge design. And to carry the necessary traffic.”
After the construction, if the Highway Department and city agree that basketball courts can fit under the newly built overpass, the city is welcomed to file a permit for new courts, Straessle said.
“We would review it and it would go from there,” he said.
What is certain is that once construction starts at some point in 2017, the “whole corridor will be an active construction zone,” Straessle said.
“It’s safe to say that those basketball courts will go away for two or 2½ years,” he said.
During that time, the only remnant of the Kanis Park courts will be memories that include feats of some of the area’s greatest basketball players.
“I think every great player who’s ever come through this city has played at Kanis Park,” said Bill Ingram, chairman of the Arkansas Hawks, an Amateur Athletic Union boys basketball team, and founder of Real Deal in the Rock, an AAU tournament.
“Everybody still loves playing on blacktop,” he said. “You are outside, in the air and you’re under the bridge. It’s kind of got a New York feel to it.”
Today, the Kanis Park basketball courts are worn, evidence of their popularity. The rims, which are bolted into the backboards, are rusted, and the nets brown with dust and dirt. Some wear is expected, though, because these are, after all, basketball courts beneath an interstate carrying more than 100,000 vehicles a day. The grounds and courts are clean of graffiti and trash, though.
The support columns of the interstate bridge near the courts are adorned with murals of greats such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Maya Angelou. Maybe not the biggest basketball fans, but their images and inspirational quotes are about more than basketball.
“All great achievements require time” is Angelou’s quote, and it’s open to interpretation: Is it about road construction or the practice needed to become a great basketball player?
The stark surroundings of the courts mean the focus is on the game and getting better, and Charles Ripley, athletic director and men’s basketball coach at Arkansas Baptist College, has seen many players sharpen their skills on the Kanis Park courts.
While the widening of the interstate is “much-needed,” the legendary coach — who won five state basketball championships at Little Rock Parkview and coached such players as University of Arkansas at Little Rock star and current New York Knicks head coach Derek Fisher — said the Kanis Park courts also are necessary.
“Back 25 or 30 years ago, gyms didn’t open in the summertime, so the kids played outside,” Ripley said. “Now, gyms are open all the time so kids migrate inside, which is better for them, although outdoor ball made them tougher and made them a little more hard-nosed. If you play outdoors, you’re going to toughen up. There ain’t no question. You’re going to get those knees skinned up a little bit, which is what kids need.”
Whoever thought of the Kanis Park courts was “brilliant,” Ripley said.
“Somebody came up with those courts so somebody should come up with some other idea like it,” he said. “Anything accessible like that to these kids nowadays is much needed. We don’t need to be cutting stuff out.
“I understand about progress, and that’s a little decision with what they are trying to do, but they at least need to make arrangements for something else.”
Ingram said that once the interstate widening is completed, the courts should not only return but also be improved, with bleachers added.
Calling the Kanis Park basketball courts a landmark, Ingram likened them to the famed courts at Rucker Park in New York City, where basketball greats such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julius “Dr. J” Erving and Chris Mullin honed their games.
If the courts don’t return, “it’s going to limit kids having a place to play,” Ingram said.
“Even to this day, if you go out there in the spring or summer, there’s someone out there playing,” he said. “All the time. Where will they go play? That’s the city’s only truly blacktop, playground basketball court. It’s still very popular.”
Now a member of the Brooklyn Nets, Johnson’s basketball career has taken him around the globe, from the parquet floors of Boston to the brand-new arena of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. But the former Little Rock Central star still has a bit of that Kanis Park grit in his basketball blood. That’s something he doesn’t want to lose.
“It would be tough if there was no Kanis,” Johnson said. “I have a lot of memories from playing on those courts.”
“I think every great player who’s ever come through this city has played at Kanis Park. Everybody still loves playing on blacktop. You are outside, in the air and you’re under the bridge. It’s kind of got a New York feel to it.” Bill Ingram, chairman of the Arkansas Hawks and founder of Real Deal in the Rock