Everyone who plays at Rucker Park has a nickname. But from the looks of things, Omar Cook's not liking his.

"Omar SHOOK! Omar SHOOK!" The crowd's jeers rain down on O after the former St. John's point guard and NBA second-round pick got a little, er, turned around on defense. (It's been a bad week for Cook -- the Nuggets got him from Orlando on draft day, but now they're stacked at point guard and may not even offer him a contract.)

Cook fires a scowling one-finger salute to the crowd. The response: more volume. And we're only 10 minutes into the game.

It's the semifinals of the Entertainer's Basketball Classic -- the marquee summer event on this hallowed Harlem blacktop -- and Cook is filling in on P. Diddy's Bad Boy Records squad against defending champion Motown. The Rucker fans are treating Cook, an NYC product who bolted St. John's after his freshman year, as if he were an out-of-towner.

"Yo, O, do something with the ball!"

"Dang, how did you get drafted with those handles?"

But the crowd isn't making Omar look half as bad as Motown's Bevon Robin is. Robin, who was last year's EBC MVP and seems a lock again, is another NYC kid who just used up his eligibility at Fordham. I did a story on Robin for The Magazine back in January, after he hit the game-winner against Cook and St. John's. (The Rams took a nosedive after that.)

Whether it's Cook or former Arkansas star Kareem Reid, none of Bad Boy's guards can stay with Robin. He drops 40, including the game-winner -- after every bucket, he crosses both arms above his head, making an 'X' to rep his home borough of The Bronx.

Afterwards, I catch up with Robin on 155th Street, amazed that he slipped through the labyrinth of post-draft free agent signings. He tells me he's leaving this weekend to go play professionally in Greece. "I've gotta take what I can get for now," he says wearily.

He then nods respectfully toward his buddy Cook, who walks a few steps ahead and stares dejectedly at the sidewalk. "I may have gotten the best of him today, but he's gonna be in the League. And that's where I'm trying to get to, you know?"

E-mail Andy Latack at andrew.latack@espnmag.com.