Basketball pillar Rucker Park will forever have a long legacy through NBA stars

Marvin “Hammer” Stevens surveys the court at Rucker Park from the shade of a tent by the baseline, shaking his head at the game of streetball before him.

A player misses a layup, then grabs his own rebound and misses again. The bleachers are about half full on this warm summer evening.

“When we played, this was all different,” Stevens says, looking around. “This is nothing compared to our games. No comparison.”

That’s not exactly a groundbreaking declaration. These days, Rucker mostly hosts summer youth leagues and local streetball tournaments. Fifty years ago, when Stevens played there, it was the summertime center of the basketball universe.

The legendary venue at 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard shaped the way basketball is played as we know it, according to many of the icons who passed through — including Julius “Dr. J” Erving, one of the greatest to ever grace the Rucker courts.

“I would think Rucker had a great influence on the NBA,” Erving, 75, told The Post. “Up-tempo style. Even defensively, there were isolations that you had to step up. You had to man up, or get booed. It was action-reaction, which is a fun style for fans.”