Because We’re Full of Hoopers, Sneakerheads, and Die-Hards

Rip City is a basketball lover’s dream.

Back to the Basket Reasons to Love (Courtesy of Jalen Thomas)
By Gabriel Granillo

In Portland, ball is life. Just don’t say that out loud unless you want to get a cease-and-desist letter. Back to the Basket, a vintage basketball shop on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, formerly Ball Was Life, knows this firsthand.

After receiving a threatening letter in 2022 from Ballislife, a basketball-focused media company, Back to the Basket, which sells everything from sneakers to memorabilia, rebounded with a rebrand. Years later, it’s just one of many basketball-centered shops, such as Deadstock Coffee (a sneaker-themed cafe in Old Town Chinatown, which recently announced a coffee/merch collab with the Trail Blazers) and Plantsketball (an apparel shop that sells planters made from refurbished basketballs).

Basketball is so synonymous with Portland we’ve even got our own nickname, “Rip City,” something longtime Blazers announcer Bill Schonely blurted out in 1970 after guard Jim Barnett threw up a wild 3-pointer (which he made!) in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers (but we don’t talk about that). More than 50 years later, from historic pickup runs at Irving Park, to Nike and Adidas, to the Blazers and a potential WNBA team in 2026 (fingers crossed), Rip City is a hooper’s dream.

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