September 2021 | 15m

In 2011, the NBA's Lockout ended league operations for over 5 months...but it's what happened during the hiatus that lives on in the memories of basketball fans. This is the story of how the shutdown of basketball's biggest distributor, led to a once in a lifetime summer of "free hoops" where the game's biggest stars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Kobe Bryant were free to play pick up games in front of packed crowds across the country. From the birth of popularity for many of the game's most prominent summer pro-am scenes like the Drew League to legendary moments on infamous streetball courts like Rucker Park, the 2011 NBA Lockout birthed a new generation of unrestricted hoops...and provided the world with basketball in its purest form.