In a north-Edmonton park, Radwan Mohamed tries to dribble the basketball on dead grass and do a layup into the netless, rusted rim.
“It’s another example of how basketball is considered a third-rate sport in the city of Edmonton,” said Mohamed, a former youth volunteer with Basketball Alberta.
While Mohamed said he can afford a gym membership to play on indoor basketball courts, not all Edmontonians can.
Several outdoor nets installed in grassy parks are poorly maintained and virtually unplayable, says Radwan Mohamed. (Ariel Fournier/CBC)
‘It makes no sense at all’
“There is a lot of investment in indoor basketball courts but not everybody can afford that,” said Mohamed, an avid recreational player who spent years coaching underprivileged athletes in the sport.
Mohamed began surveying the city’s basketball courts after he became frustrated with the state of the court his neighbourhood, Kitchener Park in Oliver.
Kitchener Park has a grassy field with hills and two basketball nets, without a court.
“Why does it exist?” Mohamed asked. “It makes no sense at all. If you’re going to have a basketball court, paving is the second thing you need outside of rims.”
It is the weirdest place I have ever seen a basketball court.– Radwan Mohamed
Another site he finds irksome is tucked away in a park near the Royal Alexandra Hospital, where a rusting net sits on rakish angle directly over a dirt footpath, surrounded by overgrown trees.
“I guess you could consider it a basketball rim,” he said. “It’s falling apart. It’s a danger, because there is only one side that’s holding onto the metal parts.
“It is the weirdest place I have ever seen a basketball court.”
‘The beauty of basketball’
The pavement-free court is one of several poorly maintained and badly designed basketball courts across the city, Mohamed said.
There are several city nets without courts and many of the paved sites have fallen into disrepair, with missing mesh, cracked pavement and crumbling cement.
“They’re not the oddities that you would think,” he said. “Edmonton is the only place I’ve seen this. I grew up in Montreal. I grew up in Ottawa and I’ve never seen something like this.”
CBC News asked the city for comment on this story but did not receive a response.
This outdoor basketball court in north Edmonton was installed directly over a hilly footpath. (Ariel Fournier/CBC)
Before he moved to Edmonton, Mohamed played outdoor basketball almost every day throughout the summer, and well into the winter months. But the local courts are such a mess he has moved his game indoors.
Mohamed fell in love with basketball while growing up in Montreal and fears other children are missing out on the sport that defined his childhood.
The broken-down basketball courts across Edmonton represent a missed opportunity, he said.
With a little capital funding, the city could invest in young athletes and community recreation, he said.
“It’s a low investment sport,” he said “All you need is a basketball and a pair of shoes. That’s the beauty of basketball.
“When I was a kid, you would show up at the basketball court and it didn’t matter who you were, what language you spoke or the colour of your skin. If you could play, you could play.”