By Tom Rohrer
Like many other sports, basketball has an amazing ability to bring people from all walks of life together in competition.
Played by those from urban and rural areas, whether it be woman, man or child, the game has developed a gigantic following across the state of Washington, with dozens of male and female athletes going on to play at the collegiate and professional levels each year.
That passion for basketball was in full force from Saturday, June 30, through Sunday, July 1, as Spokane was the host for the 23rd annual Hoopfest three on three basketball tournament, which featured around 30,000 contestants from across the country playing on the hundreds of makeshift courts on the blacktop streets of Spokane. To accommodate the influx of players, Spokane closes busy streets and erects around 500 hoops, each with their own 16 team bracket.
The world’s largest basketball tournament, Hoopfest attracted some of the sports elite yet again, including South Sound natives Isaiah Thomas, a University of Washington graduate now with the Sacramento Kings in the NBA, and Jamal Crawford, a free agent in the NBA who led Rainier Beach High School of Seattle to the 1998 3A state title over the Olympia Bears and their own star Mark Bigelow in the now destructed King Dome.
Along with the accomplished superstars in attendance, including NBA stars John Wall, Brandon Roy and Klay Thompson (who all played in Crawford’s Pro-Am event on Saturday night), the event yet again attracted some of Thurston County’s most talented and most passionate hoopers.
One of those players is Olympia’s Tim Smith, a veteran of the tournament who’s 2012 campaign was his 12th year of making the trek over the Cascade’s to the promised land of Washington basketball. After playing in the event for over a decade straight with a group of friends, Smith had the opportunity to play with his three children in one of the tournament’s family divisions. Upon first traveling to Hoopfest, Smith couldn’t believe what he got himself into.
“Friends of ours played, and told us about it, and we decided to play,” Smith said. “And we got here and we’re blown away by just basketball forever. The whole family is (basketball) junkies so it was perfect for us.”
Smith was joined on his family team by daughter Emma, a student at Western Washington University, and sons Christopher and Scott. All three Smith children attended Olympia High School, where Emma played volleyball and tennis and the brothers put focused their efforts on the hardwood for the Bear’s basketball team. Tim’s wife Connie was in attendance to cheer on her family in their first time playing as a team.
“It’s fun to watch them play together,” Connie Smith said. “It’s a change from the past, but very cool.”
Tim Smith concurred with his wife.
“It’s been great, and really it was a surprise,” Tim Smith said. “They gave me the registration for Father’s Day.”
It may have been a fun series of games for the Smith family, but it was also a lot of work for the lone female on the team.
“I don’t play basketball, it’s a bit of a challenge, being the only girl, I have to play the whole time, and as you can see, I’m exhausted,” Emma Smith said following a game on Saturday, June 30. “But its fun and I never thought we could actually do it, usually it’s just me and my friends. It’s more of a challenge but just hanging out with the family is awesome.”
While some attend the tournament to be with family, others use it as an opportunity to connect with old friends and teammates.
This writer participated for the fifth time with longtime friends Andy Beagle and Reid Haefer, who, along with myself, were teammates at Capital High School in the mid 2000s. Fellow CHS basketball alum Mike Fey, a star for the Cougars in the late 1990s and early 2000s, was scheduled to play in this year’s event, but a far more pressing opportunity came about. Fey, a seven foot center who went on to play for the UCLA Bruins, is in the midst of training with the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA, and couldn’t make the trek to Spokane. Fey would’ve been teamed up with former Gonzaga basketball great Blake Stepp had he played in the gigantic tournament.
While less accomplished than Fey’s team, a group of former Olympia High School players participated in the tournament. Eric Phillips, along with brother Daniel, and fellow OHS alumni Lenell Washington and Eric Vaniman, teamed up on the hot Spokane streets for a hoop reunion.
“It’s just always fun to play with your buddies and get together again,” Phillips said. “The whole experience is fun.”
It may be fun for some, but Hoopfest is till about competition.
“This is the greatest,” said Tim Smith, who also played with longtime team Oly Groovin. “We played city league and stuff, but when you advance in age, you figure out you can only play so many times per week. It’s hard to play an organized game that means something. For a lot of us, running is not it. We’re in it for the competition and keeping score. It’s a great outlet.”
As the thousands of participants saw the Palouse in their rear-view mirror on the Sunday trip home from Spokane, surely thoughts of next year’s tournament appropriately jumped and passed through their mind in anticipation of one of basketball’s greatest events.
