The Drew: No Excuse, Just Produce

How did a summer rec basketball league from a middle school gym in South Central Los Angeles evolve into a phenomenon that attracts the best players in the world? The South Central neighborhood came together in the 1970s in the wake of the Watts riots. UCLA and the Lakers were dominating the NCAA and NBA, respectively, so basketball had peoples' attention. The Drew League offered father figures and a family atmosphere to impoverished kids who badly needed both. The area featured a hotbed of talent, and the play was intense and entertaining. The gym became "a no-fly zone for that gang stuff," where Crips and Bloods could play on the same team. The Drew League had begun to flounder a bit by 2011 but caught a huge break when the NBA locked out its players, and the likes of Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, and Lebron James began dropping in to keep their games sharp.