On a Sunday afternoon, basketball players took to the Barclays Center court for a shrunken version of an NBA game – a mostly empty arena watching unknown players whose paychecks were a couple of zeros shy of what NBA superstars earn.

About an hour before tip-off of last night’s matchup between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Brooklyn Nets, former teammates, Vince Carter and Brook Lopez, took a break from warming up to sit on the sidelines and catch up. Both players, who are now veterans on opposing teams, shared laughs as they looked on to the court. In 2008-2009, these two were teammates for the New Jersey Nets. Lopez was a first-round draft pick out of Stanford University, and Carter was the team’s captain, a mentor to Lopez and an athlete in his prime. For Carter, it was his fifth season with the Nets, and eleventh season in the NBA.

A black sneaker popped out in a crowd, peaking above walking heads. The high-top shoe was midnight black: everything from the rubber sole to the suede upper. A 13-year-old held the high-top sneaker above his head and waited for the crowd to notice. It wasn’t just any shoe, but a new, unworn Adidas Yeezy Boost 750, a $1,000 shoe, and he had more than one pair. By the end of the day, he intended to sell every pair, for cash.