The Hands Behind New York City’s Hoop Dreams

“The circle doesn’t just form itself — we form it, […] is there a machine that can probably make it? I mean, yeah … But this is just the way it’s been done.”

Inside a red, metal-lined shack hidden from plain sight along the Flushing Meadows Corona Park rim, a large welding table anchors the workshop where Romano and three other Parks blacksmiths fabricate basketball hoops for city parks the old-fashioned way.

[…] “It feels good thinking and knowing that they’re in the park, and kids are using it,” Valenti said of the handmade rims. “A lot of great basketball players that came out of New York played on these hoops, so that’s pretty cool.”