[6-Feb/NewYork]: Pick Up Basketball is considered a well-known game in many countries but Craig Raucher and his ardent passion for sports have taken it to a different level altogether. He has arranged games and players have continued to play the basketball of Staten Island twice a week in a basketball court. Here the sports are played on the wooden floor and wooden board which appears as a gym and helps the participants to conduct games while they are relaxing. These games are well managed by a coach that is experienced. Players are helped a lot so that they can win the event.

The league got originated as collaboration in Brooklyn among large groups of a playground, high school, and former college players. These players since then connected on a very personal level and wanted to move this game off the playgrounds as well as into an indoor venue. They also wanted to continue the gameplay for longer time periods thus as an outcome league began being played on well-lit clean gymnasiums and for almost three hours at one single time during the year. Despite these Basketball Pickup Games, may not be any traditional league but players get to meet each Saturday morning and Wednesday night for a competitive and rousing set of games.

In a recent press meet up when the founder Craig Raucher was met up with and asked about the popularity of the game, he replied “I being the Director of Staten Island League and more than thirty years of involvement have seen the rise in the game’s popularity. Players come from every walk of life, nationalities and different religions, all with same desire for winning and stay on the court. It is only the mere love for the sport that has bound them together.”
Each player gets to play a minimum of eight games in a block.

About the league
The renowned Basketball League of Staten Island was founded in 1980 by Crag Raucher and since then has been the oldest as well as a longest running group in the NY city school’s history.