Writer’s note: This story originally appeared 10 years on a site that has since unpublished it. I am resharing here on CadChica Sports to preserve the history of the event known as Spokane Hoopfest. At the time of publishing, it was the most in-depth look at Spokane Hoopfest – the world’s largest street 3-on-3 basketball tournament – from a variety of perspectives.
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It’s a melting pot.
Those are the words of Spokane Hoopfest’s Executive Director, Matt Santangelo. If America is considered “The Melting Pot” of the world, then the last weekend of June in Spokane, WA is a prime example. For that’s when tens of thousands of people from all different races and ethnicities, multiple states and countries, descend upon the second-largest city in Washington state. They gather for Spokane Hoopfest.
2015 marks the 26th edition of the world’s largest 3-on-3 street basketball tournament. What started out as two separate ideas, hoops and fundraising for Special Olympics, has blossomed into the biggest multi-cultural event of the year in Spokane.
That is no overstatement. Over 7,000 teams will hit the downtown pavement of Spokane. That’s equates to nearly 28,000 players and well over 200,000 people of all ages watching, all gathered together in the name of basketball. The numbers are staggering in and of themselves. But, there’s more to the numbers that most people don’t even give a second thought to. Perhaps that’s a good thing. But, it’s something that is worth highlighting, especially in a city like Spokane.
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THE SPOKANE DEMOGRAPHIC
In 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population of Spokane to be over 210,000. In the most recent census (2010 population was over 209,000), 86.7% was estimated to be White/Caucasian (84%, non-Hispanic or Latino). For 363 days of the year, Spokane is predominantly Caucasian. Walk around the downtown streets on those 363 days and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone of African-American, Hispanic or Native American descent.
That is something takes some getting used to if you’re new to the area. Longtime Spokane-based and award-winning sports writer John Blanchette tells the story that demonstrates the culture shock. “Years ago at the Spokesman-Review we had a young African-American kid from Denver who came to work as an intern in the sports department. His first Hoopfest, he walked out to the streets, looked around and said, ‘Where did all the brothers come from?’” It’s that type of reaction that many minorities who live here have when they attend their first Hoopfest. “He hadn’t seen them at all,” Blanchette added. “Just little pockets here and there.”
Located on the western side of Washington, Seattle is about a 4-4/12 hour drive from Spokane. As the state’s most populous city, Seattle, with its strong Asian influence as well as being a hoops hotbed, comes across as very culturally diverse. Walking in Seattle, you’ll see a variety of facial hues on a daily basis.
Seattle has produced many an NBA player. Jamal Crawford, Jason Terry and Nate Robinson all made their way through the rugged hoops action of Seattle. There’s a mixture of everything, culturally, on and off the courts of Seattle.
While Spokane cannot compare, diversity-wise, with Seattle on a daily basis, it has carved out its niche for one weekend a year as both a hoops hotbed and cultural melting pot. But, come Hoopfest weekend one can see that Spokane is no longer one tone. Players from many races (Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian) and cultures (American, Latinos, Slavic, Filipino, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern and more) join together and form a single mind. A mind set on basketball.
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THE EARLY DAYS
There wasn’t anything else quite like Hoopfest in bringing together the races and cultures in Spokane before 1989. Bringing diversity to Spokane wasn’t a goal of organizers in the beginning. The goal was simply to play 3-on-3 basketball. But, even that was a challenge. Blanchette, who wrote the 25th anniversary book “Hoopfest” last year, reflected on Hoopfest’s initial struggle, “I think that first one, if I recall, was such a strange thing because they got most of their entries at the last minute. It didn’t catch on.”
(Then) downtown business owner and one of the event’s first sponsors, Debbie from Lookin’ Good Hair Salon, had a firsthand view of Spokand Hoopfest’s early days, “It was really tough that first year, I thought, to get people involved.” She added, “At first it was kind of hard. What is 3-on-3 basketball? and What are we going to do about this?. The people downtown where I worked, when I’d go to ask if I could put signs up in their place, it was Why would I want to do that? or What’s that all about?”.
The struggle had nothing to do with the people who would be playing. The struggle was more about adjusting the downtown lifestyle – which involved shutting off vehicle access by closing streets and creating courts on them instead. “Once it started getting popular,” Debbie says, “(it was) Well, we don’t want this happening because it blocks all of our parking”. Concerns aside, downtown businesses slowly came around realizing that it could actually be a positive for their business.
Positive for business. And, positive for the growth of Spokane’s basketball education by bringing in players who perhaps weren’t as well known as they should have been. One such player was, whom Blanchette called, “the greatest street ball player in Spokane history”, Bobby Jack Sumler. “Bobby Jack and I were friends because he played on my (Spokane County rec league) team (top bracket) that I sponsored (and sometimes coached) for 6 or 7 years,” says Debbie. “Because of Bobby Jack, I had kind of won him over when he realized I did know what I was talking about with basketball, the rest of the guys said it was alright that we have a lady as a coach and sponsor. Therefore, when Hoopfest came up and they talked about getting Hoopfest going, I knew a lot of basketball players. Bobby Jack was one of them that I went to and all of my team – I told the guys they all had to get their own teams (12 guys). And, they did. They all played in Hoopfest.”
Being heavily involved in Hoopfest as a volunteer and sponsor, Debbie saw the racial blend early on. For Blanchette, it took a bit longer. “I kind of hoped that it would,” says Blanchette. “I don’t think you really saw it in that first one or maybe even those first few, so much as you did later on. Little by little you could see that it was going to cross cultural lines.”
Seattle Supersonics legend, Slick Watts was at that very first Hoopfest and has seen its change and growth. “The people just love this place. I think what it does, not only is it basketball, but it gives people an outlet to come with their kids, whether they can play or not. You see all kinds, big, short, fat skinny – you get them all together and for the love of the game and for the companionship. #verybody’s walking the streets. Everybody’s laughing. Everybody’s eating. Everybody’s talking. To me, there’s just so much love,” says New Orleans resident Watts.
It’s a basketball kind of love.
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Basketball Demographic
The love of basketball is what brings the people to Spokane. People from all walks of life. It also brings them face-to-face with people they might not otherwise ever encounter. With the majority of players hailing from Spokane, Hoopfest is a major introduction into players of other races and ethnicities.
Gyasi Ross is an author and speaker who is of Blackfeet (Montana) and Suquamish (Western Washington) tribal descent. He also has written for the likes of the Huffington Post and Deadspin. Ross has been playing in Hoopfest off and on for the past 10 years. “With Spokane, you’re always going to have a decent white population here. At some level, it really doesn’t matter,” says Ross. “If you can play ball, you can play ball.”
Ross is part of the demographic that has a strong presence at Hoopfest. The Native American communities have a long tradition here. Says Ross, “I think part of it is that there really is a place for everyone, culturally.” John Blanchette agrees, “(Basketball) is a game that has managed to cross a lot of cultural divides. It’s an urban game, but it’s also a real country game – the old Hoosiers ethic. Around here, it’s the reservation game. It’s very much the game that Native Americans have adopted and identify with.”
In Spokane, there is the namesake, Spokane Tribe. Other prominent tribes in the local area include the Colville Confederated, the Kalispel and the Coeur d’Alene. But, Hoopfest not only brings in players from these tribes but those from other regions of Washington, as well as other states, including Idaho, Oregon and Montana. One such player is JR Camel from Montana.
Camel and his team, Desert Horse Elite, were the first Native American team to win at the Elite level of Hoopfest. They won the 6’0” & Under Men’s Division in 2014. For as popular as basketball is with Native Americans, it seems surprising that it took so long for a team to win at the Elite level. It takes a lot to reach and win at this level, no matter where you come from. Camel and his team have, what Ross calls “a formalized program”. It’s what many non-Natives would identify as structured programs along the lines of AAU programs, where there is a push to “extract that talent” as Ross refers to it. “That’s what Desert Horse has done,” says Ross.
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Learning on the Court
Winning is also what Desert Horse has done again this year. Repeating as Hoopfest Elite champs is no easy task. Especially on a weekend with temperatures in Spokane soaring above the century mark. It would have been easy for tempers to flare from anyone on the courts this weekend. But, it doesn’t happen often. Clearly, Hoopfest is about the game.
“Spokane is at an interesting crossroads.We’re not necessarily urban, although there’s a growing African-American population here. We’re pretty country,” says Blanchette. “We’re quasi-urban. We’re very close to reservations. We’re close to the Hispanic community, especially from Central Washington, that has also adopted the game well. There’s some real grass-roots basketball within a 2-3 hour drive to this place that has kind of stocked this Hoopfest.”
Racism is a learned trait. It’s taught and handed down from generation to generation almost like a precious heirloom. “Stocking” Hoopfest with players numbering in the thousands, who are so racially and culturally diverse would seem to be a breeding ground for chaos. But, that doesn’t seem to be the case at Hoopfest. “For the most part, the majority, the younger people don’t see that,” says early volunteer Debbie. “If you have a problem, (the players) they just want to play. The majority of people could care less who they were going to play. At least, that’s what I thought.” From the Elite-level courts down to the elementary-age youth, it’s not uncommon to see players from opposing teams pick each other up after a fall or a hand slap after a good play. There’s a camraderie and a respect that is part of the very fabric of Spokane Hoopfest.
It’s not always that way, though, with the fans (families). Debbie tells the story of being a court monitor in those early Hoopfest days. “I had 9 and 10 year-olds (on my court) and the parents would complain, Isn’t he too old? or Isn’t he too big?. The kids didn’t care. They just wanted to play. They wanted to win. There’s always that small group – for the most part, there were athletes from all over that just wanted to play and have a good time.”
If any racial incidents happened and Ross saw it, he’d have no hesitation in talking about it. “I’m very sensitive to that,” says Ross. “I was trained in that. I’m a lawyer by trade and I’ve done racial disparity work my whole life. I’ve never ever seen anything here. That’s amazing.”
It’s not to say that minor skirmishes don’t happen. They probably do. After all, it is a competition and players want to win. But, with an event the size of Spokane, it is rare to hear of any incidents taking place, racial or otherwise.
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After the Hoopla-fest
As the post-Hoopfest sun rises on Monday morning in Spokane, the courts will be gone and the streets of downtown Spokane will be open for drivers again. Out-of-town players and visitors will be heading home, if they’re not there already. Spokane returns to normal. Or, a new normal.
Spokane changes after each Hoopfest. It also changes the people that were part of the event too. Says Debbie, “I think it’s (Hoopfest) opened a few people’s eyes in Spokane that maybe had never been around any other race. To walk through downtown Spokane on Hoopfest weekend, especially on Saturday, I mean where do you go to see that cross-racial grouping?” The answer is there is nowhere else and at no other time in Spokane.
“I hope it fosters a little more understanding,” says Blanchette.
An understanding for both Spokane residents and visitors that our racial differences don’t have to prohibit dialogue. Basketball, through the eyes and streets of Hoopfest, is a language that needs no translation. Anyone can speak it.
Anyone can play it.
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