Photo courtesy of Dave’s Joint.
By David Cordova
There’s nothing like summer basketball in New York City, especially after the school year has ended and there’s a lot of action happening on the asphalt and in the gyms, whether it’s pickup run or tournament basketball. There’s always something to see in the Big Apple.
On Sunday, June 19th, NYC Prospects, an entity that serves to promote youth basketball players around the city, put together an event called, “Gary Sims Day,” at Edmonds Playground in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, which was an event to pay homage to the life of the late Gary Sims, a mentor to many of the youth in the basketball community in the borough of Brooklyn, who passed away in 2015.
For those who may not remember, he also had a cameo role in the 1997 film, “Soul in the Hole,” which featured the Kenny Kings basketball squad who ran roughshod amongst streetball tournaments in the summer of 1993, and were documented through one last summer before they went on to college. In the film, Sims was interviewed alongside one of his mentees, Javone “Bam” Moore, who at the time was a recent graduate of the now-defunct Bishop Ford High School and then went on to play four years of collegiate basketball on the Division I level at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.
Sims is still remembered today for his warm nature and the ability to help the youth.
With this event, NYC Prospects had three games, the seventh-grade game for players in the Class of 2028 (who are now rising eighth-graders), the eighth-grade game for players in the Class of 2027 (players who will be entering high school in September) and lastly, the ninth-grade game for the Class of 2026 (players who will be entering their sophomore year of high school this fall).
The latter game had many of the city’s premier standouts, many of whom have already played a year of varsity basketball.
On the court that day were plenty of players from the CHSAA, such as P.J. Singleton (Bishop Loughlin), Dylan Perry (Archbishop Stepinac), Dior Anderson (Monsignor Scanlan), Oesoemana Sacko (St. Francis Prep), Jahzir Crawford (Holy Cross) and Kamari Whyte (St. Raymond), all of whom payed varsity as freshmen last season.
And there are other gems from the Catholic League who have yet to play on varsity, such as Joel Barnaby-Alexander (Monsignor McClancy), Caleb Oriogu (Monsignor McClancy), Richard Jackson (Bishop Loughlin), Johansel Cruz (Monsignor Scanlan), A.J. Moody (Nazareth) and Justin Delgado (Nazareth).
And then there were also players from the PSAL (Public Schools Athletic League), such as Jah’da Swann (South Shore) and Alonzo Archbold (Curtis). And there was Preston Merrick, who plays at the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, which is a part of the New England Prep Schools Athletic Conference, which is one of the most powerful high school leagues in the nation, which has players from boarding schools throughout the New England area.
The game had plenty of dunks, crossovers and a lot of great, competitive play. Many of these players play for some of the best AAU programs in the city, including New Heights Lightning, which a few of the players played on this summer. Because many of the teams are playing in either the Nike EYBL, Adidas’ 3 Stripes Select Basketball circuit, the Under Armour Association, or independent leagues such as the Hoop Group Showcase League, they don’t normally get a chance to compete against each other. But on this date, this was a great way for the players to matchup against each other, without circuits and without programs. It was just mano-a-mano, just like you would expect the City Game to be all about, and for a great cause.
If Gary Sims were alive today, he would love to see this generation of youth doing well in school, but also playing hard on the court. As mentioned earlier, that’s what the city game is all about.
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