Streetball or street basketball is a variation of basketball typically played on outdoor courts, featuring significantly less formal structure and enforcement of the game's rules. As such, its format is more conducive to allowing players to publicly showcase their own individual skills. Streetball is often regarded as another element of the Hip Hop culture. Streetball may also refer to other urban sports played on asphalt.It is particularly big in New York City.
Some places and cities in the United States have organized streetball programs, operated similarly to midnight basketball programs. Many cities also host their own weekend-long streetball tournaments, with Hoop-It-Up and the Houston Rockets' Blacktop Battle being two of the most popular. Since the mid-2000s, streetball has seen an increase in media exposure through television shows such as ESPN's "Street basketball" and "City Slam", as well as traveling exhibitions such as the AND1 Mixtape Tour, YPA, and Ball4Real.