Source: Under Armour Is Encouraging Basketball, Health & Diversity In Urbana (MD), The Scrubs
In Memphis, we don’t have as many places to hoop as we used to. As the city has grown and suburban sprawl has taken shape, city and county government aren’t running the community centers in the same way they once did. The buildings sit mostly empty with skeleton crews. There aren’t leagues or open gym runs the way there was in the past. Most people resort to visiting their old high schools and relying on their high school coaches to open the gym. This isn’t consistent as there are liabilities in opening the gym. When I lived in San Diego, there were multiple outdoor courts in Southeast San Diego. We could go from Clay Park to Colina to find a run, or go to Mission Beach and wait for a down. In Memphis, if you don’t know a coach or attend a church, hooping takes place in driveways in the suburbs. At one point everyone could go to Halle Stadium in Memphis where the Grizzlies refurbished four courts, but Covid-19 forced the city to remove the rims taking away a prime streetball venue.
In Baltimore, Tayib Salami, founder of Housakicks.com, says that there a lot of options. He talks about his crew of characters who participate in games. The ages range from their teens to their 50s, but what is interesting is the racial makeup of the players. The 18 plus people in the crew also includes women hoopers who play at colleges in the area (they aren’t pictured in his post since school has started again). The players have given themselves a nickname:
S is for Soberness, C is for Character, R is for Respect, U is for Unity. The first 4 letters define the foundation of the group and the remaining letters B for Build and S for Societies define the function of the group. So basically SCRUBS means Soberness, Character, Respect and Unity Build Societies.
Here is where things get interesting. Under Armour is based in Baltimore. The Global Director of Basketball caught tale of the ragtag crew of hoopers. He saw a picture of the guys and noticed that the crew was diverse in their racial makeup and age. These are guys from countries like the Philippines, Ghana, Togo and India. Under Armour has been adamant about helping The Focused Performer and improving health and wellness. They’ve implemented a host of videos for training and in-app benefits for the everyday athlete. UA saw that the team was balling in some questionable sneaker options, so they decided to lace The SCRUBS with kicks.
As the NBA deals with vaccination issues, players signed to 200 million dollar contracts who won’t attend camp, and the WNBA has to deal with fights at Chicken Tender Food Trucks in the middle of the playoffs, Under Armour went out of their way to support grassroots basketball at a level that no one will ever read or hear about. There aren’t any high school superstars out there. There aren’t any old pros on the court. There are everyday athletes looking to recapture moments of greatness. The vast array of cultures represents how basketball doesn’t have boundaries and how basketball can bring together people of different backgrounds. There aren’t any big contracts or sneaker deals; it’s the game in its essence. You won’t see this story on the big sneaker blogs or on the NBA websites, but to me it shows that Under Armour understands the power of sport and I salute them.