When ESPN Named American Backcourts One of the Best Photo Stories of 2017
Fifteen years ago, I stopped to photograph a basketball hoop.
At the time, I had no idea that a single photograph would eventually turn into a long-term documentary project spanning thousands of miles, hundreds of towns, and countless back roads across America.
I certainly never imagined the work would be featured by ESPN, NBA TV, SLAM Magazine, Sports Illustrated, galleries, museums, and books about basketball culture.
But that is the strange thing about long-term projects. They rarely begin with a grand plan. More often, they start with curiosity.
The project that would eventually become American Backcourts began with a simple observation: basketball is everywhere!
Not just on organized courts or in cities known for basketball, but in places where you least expect them.
Beside barns.
Behind gas stations.
In alleyways.
At the edge of small towns.
In deserts.
Along fishing harbors.
On ranches.
In forgotten corners of America where a basketball hoop feels both completely out of place and perfectly at home.
Looking Back on Fifteen Years of American Backcourts
Over the years, the project has taken me through nearly every corner of the country.
I've photographed hoops in major cities and tiny farming communities. I've found them attached to garages, mounted on telephone poles, hanging from trees, and built from scrap materials. Some courts were full of life. Others looked like they hadn't seen a basketball in decades.
What fascinated me was never the hoop itself.
It was what the hoop revealed about the people and places around it.
Every basketball hoop tells a story.
Sometimes it speaks about community.
Sometimes it speaks about isolation.
Sometimes it speaks about childhood memories, long summer evenings, or the passage of time.
The longer I worked on the project, the less it felt like a series about basketball and the more it felt like a portrait of America.
A basketball hoop stands on a red desert court with a folding chair nearby, showing how the game appears in unexpected places across America.
Why Basketball Hoops?
People occasionally ask why I have spent so many years photographing basketball hoops. The answer has changed over time. In the beginning, I was drawn to the visual qualities of the structures themselves and the stories they told. The shapes, colors, weathering, and the way they interacted with the surrounding landscape.As the project grew, I became interested in something deeper.
Basketball hoops are one of the few objects that appear across nearly every social, economic, and geographic boundary in America. You can find them in wealthiest suburbs and most struggling ghettos. Basketball is everywhere and loved by all people.
The game requires very little. A hoop, a ball, and a place to play.
Because of that simplicity, basketball has become woven into the American landscape in a way few other sports have.
Beneath a wooden utility pole and dark clouds, a weathered hoop reflects the roadside structures documented throughout American Backcourts.
When ESPN Took Notice
In 2017, ESPN included American Backcourts among its selections for the Best Photo Stories of the Year.
Seeing the project featured alongside work from some of the most respected photographers and storytellers in sports media was both surprising and humbling.
What meant the most was not the recognition itself. It was the realization that a project focused on old basketball hoops in overlooked places had connected with people beyond the photography world. The editors at ESPN understood something I had been discovering for years. These photographs were never really about basketball equipment.
They were about culture.
Memory.
Geography.
Identity.
They were about the relationship between a game and the places where people play it.
At the time, ESPN also featured the project through a short video presentation narrated by Jalen Rose that introduced the work to an even broader audience
Looking back now, that moment feels less like a destination and more like one chapter in a much longer story.
Set against an open desert landscape, this basketball hoop shows how the game appears far beyond traditional courts.
Caught in the reflection of standing water, the hoop becomes part of the quiet backcourt details photographed for American Backcourts.
What the Project Has Become
Since that feature, American Backcourts has continued to grow.
The photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums, featured by NBA TV and SLAM Magazine, and included in fine art books documenting basketball culture around the world.
The project has expanded beyond America as well, with photographs made in places such as Vietnam and Europe.
Yet the heart of the work remains unchanged.
I am still searching for the same thing I was searching for fifteen years ago.
A basketball hoop that tells a story.
A place that most people would drive past without noticing.
A reminder that basketball exists far beyond arenas, television broadcasts, and professional sports.
A small basketball hoop sits on the side of a snow-covered barn, showing the quiet rural places photographed for American Backcourts.
The Hoops I Remember Most
When people see a large collection of photographs, they often assume the most memorable images are the famous ones.
The truth is usually the opposite.
The photographs I remember most are often tied to places rather than pictures.
A lonely hoop at sunset on a back road in the Southwest.
A weathered backboard standing against a winter storm.
A handmade rim attached to a building in an alley.
A court where no one was playing, but where you could still feel the presence of the people who once did.
Those moments are why I continue to photograph the project.
Not because I expect to find the perfect hoop.
But because each one offers a small glimpse into a larger story.
Against a large American flag, the hoop becomes part of the broader visual language of basketball in America.
Fifteen Years and Counting
The longer I work on American Backcourts, the more I realize the project is not really about finishing.
There will always be another town, another road, another hoop waiting somewhere ahead.
What began as a simple idea has become one of the longest-running projects of my career, and it continues to evolve with every mile traveled.
Looking back at the ESPN feature now, I am grateful for the recognition. More importantly, I am grateful that the project continues to resonate with basketball fans, collectors, designers, and people who see something of themselves in these photographs.
Fifteen years later, I still stop for basketball hoops.
And I suspect I always will.
American Backcourts Prints and Photography
Many of the photographs from American Backcourts are available as fine art prints for collectors, basketball enthusiasts, designers, and anyone who appreciates the intersection of sport, culture, and the American landscape.
To learn more about available basketball hoop photography prints, exhibitions, or licensing opportunities, please visit the American Backcourts gallery or get in touch through the contact page.
A rusted basketball hoop is photographed from below against a moving sky, emphasizing the weathered structures found throughout American Backcourts.