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On the northwest corner of Court No. 2 is a huge fan, blowing the steamy, and by the end of the night, smelly air throughout the complex. Cool air is about as present as good team defense.
The snack bar, behind the south basket on Court No. 1 and protected by a wall with windows, isn't getting much business early in the night, but by the time games 3 and 4 are finishing up and games 5 and 6 are about to begin, players and fans are providing a bustling business, eager to grab a Gatorade, a soft pretzel, some nachos or a couple of hot dogs.
This scene plays out Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays at the Tri-State Sports Complex in Aston, Pa., just off I-95 and Route 322 for those traveling from the city, and not far from the Commodore-Barry Bridge for those commuting from South Jersey.
It is the Delaware County Pro-Am Basketball League sponsored by Fidonce, formerly known as the Media Summer League. If the facilities at the Tri-State Complex don't impress you (and consider yourself a snob if they don't) the level of play certainly will.
Oh, it's still sprinkled with the normal problems all summer leagues endure, such as the stifling heat, shorthanded teams and, well, some players who keep playing despite some gain around the midsection and some hair loss above the eyebrows. But it is still summer-league hoops at its finest. In the city that just might have the richest tradition of basketball in the country. This league, along with the John Rankin League at Drexel University, showcases some of the many pro players who are currently playing overseas or in the NBA.It's common to see former and current pros like Alvin Williams, Hakim Warrick, Kyle Lowry, Mardy Collins, Dajuan Wagner and others not only keeping their games sharp, but playing with a passion that helped get them to the NBA. A passion that was formed against each other on the playgrounds in and around Philly.
"I don't think most guys around Philly realize how special it is to have competition like this because they go through it every summer," said former Temple star Lynn Greer, who, at 28, has 1 year left on a lucrative 2-year contract he signed with team Olympiakos (Greece) in the Euroleague after a 41-game run with the Milwaukee Bucks during the 2006-07 season. "There's really nowhere else in the world where you can find it, getting players from all levels playing in one league."
"It's a lot of fun, being in the city and competing against each other," said Collins, a Simon Gratz and Temple alum who is entering his third year with the Knicks. "You're always playing against guys you've known, so if you come out here and lose a game you get embarrassed and you know you're going to hear it around the city. It makes you want to play even harder to beat each other."
Collins had just led his team, Trad Jazz, to a win in the steamy confines of the Tri-State gym. His game long over, Collins milled around, shaking hands with friends while throwing out and receiving verbal jabs. He was treated not as an NBA player with a big contract, but as a Philly baller who had just fought his way to a win over a slew of players he has played against for a long time, including Greer, Warrick and Kyle Myrick, who led Division III in scoring two seasons ago for Lincoln University.
"This is a great experience," said Larry Loughery, of St. Joe's Prep and Academy of the New Church, who will play at Penn next season and is a teammate of Collins' on Trad Jazz. "You're out there playing with NBA players, some of the best players in the world. It's fun. Everyone's out there playing to get better and it can't get any better than that. I'm out there playing with Mardy Collins!"
And, partly due to Collins, Loughery didn't look out of place at all, pulling down a ton of rebounds and finishing with 12 points, two coming on a perfect fastbreak run by him and Collins.
"He's going to have a real nice career at Penn," said Quaker alum Russ Miller, a regular at the gym. "I think he could be similar to [former Penn player] Mark Zoller."
As if on cue, Zoller entered the complex to compete in the night's third game. His teammates are former Penn stars Brian Grandieri, Geoff Owens and Jeff Schiffner, as well as Chris Clark, a key reserve for Temple last season.
Due to a miscommunication with the NCAA concerning insurance, the Delco league is not sanctioned by the NCAA this summer. It is a glitch that has already been resolved by director Kevin Towns, but it can't be rectified until the end of next month, when the league will already be over. No Division I or II players are allowed to participate.
"It was just a miscommunication about health insurance that caused this to happen," said Towns. "We'll be all clear by the end of August."
Towns, 35, is still the all-time leading scorer at Strath Haven High School and had a stellar career at Millersville. It has always been his dream to run a league in the city where he learned to play, and he's looking to make his league bigger and better throughout the years.
"We have the great players, which make for great games," he said from his midcourt seat during a recent night of games. "My goal is to make this an event for the whole family. You can see we get really good crowds here now, but I want to make it even better. I want this to be a league that has a family atmosphere, where wives and kids can enjoy."
The John Rankin League was founded by former Drexel star Michael Anderson in honor of his former teammate and friend who died of leukemia. The league, now in its seventh year, is directed by Dave "Dr. Foot" Scheiner.
After the shirts were distributed on the league's opening night at Drexel's Daskalakis Center, Anderson's team, which included former Drexel player Jeff Myers and summer league legend Joe Parham, routed a team from Community College of Philadelphia. Although their legs may have had more energy than the vets who made up Anderson's team, CCP was thoroughly thumped.
It was a lesson taught to a bunch of junior-college players by guys who had mastered the game on the Philly streets.
"That's what this league is all about," said Anderson after the mismatch. "It doesn't matter that we won by 30 or so, what matters is that those kids learned a lesson. They learned how much harder they'll have to practice to become as good as the guys they played against."
At 42, Anderson still has the smarts that made him one of the city's best college players. Sure, the midsection has grown and the quickness and speed have diminished. But he still showed signs of brilliance.
In the gym that carries a banner of his retired No. 10, Anderson popped in a few long-range jumpers and made all the nice passes through narrow openings for easy baskets. And once, as CCP players raced down the floor on a two-on-one with Anderson being the one, he coaxed a bad pass, picked it off and started a fastbreak the other way, leading to an easy layup.
The premier game that night featured one team with a backcourt of former Villanova and Toronto Raptors guard Alvin Williams alongside current Memphis Grizzlie and former 'Nova star Kyle Lowry. The other team featured former Saint Joseph's greats Arthur "Yah" Davis and Rashid Bey. Watching Bey, who is now 32 and has just finished a pro career in Poland, and Lowry battle would be worth the price of admission at any arena. But at the Daskalakis Center during the summer, this entertainment comes free of charge.
"This is definitely good for the city," said Bey, who still wears that boyish grin on the court and chatters as much as a talk-show host while playing. "It's good for young guys who are learning how to play Philly ball. You get a lot of different kinds of levels players in the city. There's not many places around the world you could go and find such good players from the same place."
On this night, Bey is joined on his team again by Davis, and also former La Salle and Coppin State player Terquin Mott.
They are coached by Donnie Carr, who was inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame this year after a stellar career at La Salle. He is off his chair, drawing plays on his clipboard and wiping his head with a towel draped over his shoulder.
It may be summer league, but like all games he's played in the city, Carr wants to beat his friends on the other side of the court.
It's the Philly way.
"The whole idea of getting pro players into a summer league here was created by Sonny Hill, who is the best, in his old Baker League," said Scheiner.
"Sonny is the pioneer of summer league basketball in Philly. We all learned from him. The players want to come back and play because of what he started so many years ago."
Hill still oversees the league he founded, which is now divided into three divisions: the Bill Cosby Future Division, the Wilt Chamberlain High School Division and the Hank Gathers College Division.
In April, Hill was named as a finalist for the Mannie Jackson Basketball Human Spirit Award, presented by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The award goes to those "who have incorporated basketball into their efforts to contribute to the greater good of society." Former NBA players Alonzo Mourning and David Robinson are the other finalists.
The winner will be announced in September at the Hall's enshrinement ceremonies.
"None of this is would be possible without Sonny," Scheiner shouted over the large fan behind the scorer's table at the Dak.
While he spoke, sounds of shirts shredding could be heard in the distance.
The new uniforms (colored T-shirts) had to be customized, meaning sleeves had to be shortened and neck lines altered due to the heat. All part of summer basketball.
"It's always been competitive like this, guys coming out with the Philadelphia attitude," said Williams.
"Having the pro talent in these leagues, combined with the Philly-style of basketball, it doesn't get any better." *
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