Dime Q&A: Streetball Legend AO Dishes On The Best Philly Talent

Since AND1 Mixtape Vol. 3, Aaron Owens aka AO will forever be known as one of the best streetball players of all time. It is fair to say throwing the ball off someone’s head became fashionable because AO mainstreamed the move. Throughout his lustrous basketball career, the high school teammate of Rasheed Wallace and Aaron McKie has always repped his North Philadelphia roots. Dime caught up with AO before the Boston Ball Up game and talked about Philly and the players that come out of the city of brotherly love.

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Dime: Since you are from Philly, how is basketball played there compared to the rest of the country?
AO: It is hard nose, and rough man. If you see how I compete and how I play that’s basically how everyone in the city plays. Just look at anyone from Philly; Rasheed, Kyle Lowry, Tyreke (Evans), Jameer (Nelson), they all play hard man.

Dime: As a streetball veteran, what has the whole experience been like?
AO: I probably could have had a long career playing overseas but I would never take this experience back. It has been twelve great years.

I gotta tell you though that Kyle (Lowry) will be the first to defend me in an argument with someone about “Oh streetball is fake.” Kyle grew up under me. We are from the same block so we are family.

Dime: That’s great to hear, I know he is doing big things in Philly, especially with his FamJuice drink line. You ever have any?
AO: I saw him at our Houston game and he was like, “Did you get your shipment?” I laughed and told him to keep that shit to himself (laughs).

Dime: (Laughs) Kyle is coming off a great season and now has a new team, what is his ceiling as a player?
AO: This year was his year. This was his All-Star year but you know he got hurt. The funny thing is, it’s not like he got drastically better, because he has been playing this way since he was a rookie. It’s just that he got more of an opportunity, and got more minutes. He could definitely help Toronto make a playoff push. I mean D.Rose is going to be hurt for a good part of the year, you got Rondo, Kyrie Irving and Deron Williams, Kyle can compete with all of them so he could be an All-Star this year. His ceiling is very high and he hasn’t come close to reaching it yet. I mean he plays so hard. I have never seen anyone out-play him in the summertime in Philly. He just plays so hard that it makes his teammates play hard as well.

Dime: Yeah, the term pit bull is often used to describe his game.
AO: Indeed. He will stick LeBron. I’m not saying he will lock LeBron up but he won’t shy away from the challenge and will just go all out in trying to prevent him. He has so much confidence, you gotta love it. He’s from North Philly, so he’s got that North Philly mindset. I mean like I said before that’s how all Philly guys play like.

Look at my man Dionte (Christmas) killing it in summer league and now has a contract with the Celtics, that’s what Philly ballers do, just play hard. With Ray Allen gone, he should be sticking around with them for a bit since he’s like 6-5, is a good shooter and just plays hard. I can see him coming off the bench for like 5-10 minutes a game and just go off on little scoring bursts.

Dime: Celtics fans would love for that to happen. Who’s the next up-and-comer from Philly?
AO: Savon Goodman is going to be a freshman at UNLV. I will give him like two or three years there and then he should be ready to make the jump into the league. He’s going to be real solid.

Dion Waiters just got into the league. If they get Bynum with Kyrie Irving that’s a good team. If he works hard his ceiling is a D-Wade. I mean at Syracuse he came off the bench but his handle and game is a lot better than you think it is. I think he is going to have a great year.

I think Lavoy Allen is going to turn a lot of heads next season. I mean he got a lot of experience from playing with KG in the playoffs, that’s also where he kind of made a name for himself but he is going to get a lot better.