EBC Champions 1st Year August 1982
story written by Greg Marius
It was a late summer Saturday night around 2 AM at WHBI Radio on 80th street and West End Ave; Mr. Magic, the first Hip Hop radio announcer was spinning records setting up for an interview with The Crash Crew. On the phones were Greg Marius of the Disco Four and Jalil Hutchinson of Whodini who were helping Mr. Magic out by answering the phones for his request line. Into the studio strolls The Crash Crew and as they head into the booth with Mr Magic for their interview, the entourage walks through the room where the request lines phones are stationed. A part of the entourage was Ronnie Dee, member of the Disco Four, and he states that they just came from Harlem World a club located on 116th street and Lenox Avenue where many of the top raps group would perform, and once the location for the infamous battle between Kool Moe Dee and Busy Bee.
After their interview with Mr. Magic, the Crash Crew goes back into debating with Ronnie Dee about how great their crew is in basketball and suggested that they could beat The Disco Four on the court anytime! I chuckled and continued doing what I was doing, until I couldn’t listen to the nonsense anymore and I decided to take the Crash Crew up on their offer of playing a game of basketball. Mr. Magic overheard the challenge and says, “The Disco Four will be playing the Crash Crew tomorrow at 2pm at Mount Morris Park, Be There or Be Square” which was one of Mr. Magic’s famous sayings. After that announcement, The Disco 4 left the studio together and jumped into my car while the Crash Crew jumped in a cab heading back uptown. When I got home I told the crew to meet at Drew Hamilton Projects, our stomping grounds, in the morning so we can head down to play the game. 
The next morning we drove down to Mount Morris Park and parked a block away. As we approached the park we noticed a large crowd of at least 1000 people who heard Mr. Magic announce the game on his show the night before. This crowd came to witness the first Hip Hop Celebrity Basketball game and the start of The Entertainers Basketball Classic. Not only were there fans at the park, most of the Hip Hop groups who had records on air were there to witness the game between the Crash Crew and the Disco Four. The Crash Crew Team consisted of members DJ Daryll C (RIP), G. Man, La Shubee, Barry Bistro, Michael EK Shahid ( Ek Mike C ), Reggie Reg, DJ Mike and Dave.
The Disco Four Team consisted of Greg G, Ronnie Dee, Country, Cool Gee, Ronnie Dee and Al B. Both teams were allowed to have a few players on the bench who were part of the crew but could not be ringers such as college or NBA players. After all of the hype the game the game ended up as a blowout with The Disco Four winning by 59 points and proving that we were the better team by a wide margin. After the game all the other groups wanted to participate in the challenge to see who the best Hip Hop ballers were and I sat down with Sal from the Disco Fever to create the Entertainers Basketball Classic that summer. 1982 marked the beginning of a history that would change basketball in NYC as you knew it forever.
The following Crews participated:
Disco Four
Disco Fever
Magnificent 5
Cold Crush Brothers
Sugarhill Records
Treacherous 3
Fantastic 4
Grandmaster and the Furious 5
The Champions for the 1st Year were the Disco Four.
