City of Basketball Love

Daniel Hughes (@dan1el_sun)
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Maalik Wayns keeps finding his way back to Philadelphia.

And he doesn’t have a problem with that at all.

“It’s good to play in my hometown,” Wayns said. “You get to play in front of your old fans.”

The 6-foot-2 Roman Catholic graduate and Villanova product helped lead Team FOE to a 102-94 win over Team Maryland this Sunday at The Basketball Tournament.

“We played against a great team,” Wayns said. “It was nice to get the win and move on to the next round.”

Team FOE was organized by twin NBA stars Markieff and Marcus Morris, who were also born and raised in Philadelphia. Besides Wayns, the team features other former local standouts such as Tyshawn Taylor, Dionte Christmas and Scott Rodgers.

Many of these players have known each other since childhood.

“Me and my friends, we all play in different places during the year,” Wayns said. “During the summertime we can all get together and play, it’s big.”

The fact that the first two rounds were held so close to home also played a huge part in Team FOE’s win, as the crowd cheered on its hometown favorites against the traveling Team Maryland.

“We’ve got a nice following so people will support us and our fans keep supporting us,” Wayns said. “I think it’s going to help us the whole way through.”

Wayns starred at Roman, where he was a two-time Catholic League MVP. In his senior year for the Cahillites, he earned McDonald’s All-American honors.

He next went on to play for the Villanova Wildcats under head coach Jay Wright, where he made an immediate impact. In a game against Penn his freshman year, he scored 16 points in 18 minutes. In his career for Nova, Wayns averaged 12.5 points and 3.4 assists per game.

After three years at Villanova, Wayns went undrafted in the 2012 NBA draft. For the next three years, injuries prevented him from making a solid run at securing a roster spot. He split time with the Los Angeles Clippers and his hometown 76ers, before signing to play overseas in Italy.

“My first year really playing a full season was this year and I was in Italy,” Wayns said. “And I had a good year, so I don’t know what’s going on yet next year.”

Even in Italy, Wayns did not forget who he was or where he came from, as he cheered on his Villanova Wildcats from Milan as they won the National Championship this past spring.

“I stayed up till like 6 in the morning to watch the game,” Wayns said. “I love Villanova. I’ve been committed since I was 14 years old, so it’s like family to me now.”

Team FOE next will face City of Gods on July 22nd again at Philly U. That team is the number 1 seed in the Northeast region and features former Drexel star Chris Wright, who played in Italy with Wayns last season.

“It’s a great event,” Wayns said of TBT. “It’s really the best event in the summertime I’ve probably ever been to.”

“And its for 2 million dollars!” he added.