City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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A year after making its full return, the Danny Rumph Classic is back again this week Thursday to Monday at the recently renovated Philadelphia Community College.

Described as Philadelphia’s “basketball barbecue,” the Rumph Classic is a semi-pro charity tournament that brings high-level hoops to the city and the entire Philadelphia basketball ecosystem together and brings attention to a good cause.

“We’re just trying to put something together that’s really fun for the city and a platform that guys want to bring friends and players into,” Event Director Mike Morak said. “There’s so many different layers to how we do this and it’s just trying to make sure the city is proud every year.”

The event is part of the Daniel E. Rumph II Foundation’s mission to bring awareness to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and to provide screening for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the leading cause for SCA. Rumph was a former Philadelphia basketball standout who died of a heart condition.

Morak hopes people take away things like who Danny Rumph was and the purpose of the foundation. Encouraging people to take a CPR class, to know where the automated external defibrillator is when they walk into the gym or to take their young athlete for heart screening are things that could potentially save lives.

“The basketball is the basketball. It’s fun. It’s enjoyable, but the important part for us is the several lives that we saved just doing a lot of our programming over the years and that’s what makes it all worth it,” Morak said.

The tournament has four games on Thursday, four more on Friday and two apiece on Saturday and Sunday followed by Monday’s championship game. Rumph Center vs. Basketball Finders (5:45 p.m.), 8EYE vs. LOE (6:45 p.m.), Rex 6 vs. CheckRock (7:45 p.m.) and Blue Magic vs. For The Culture x Lids (8:45 p.m.) make up the schedule for opening night.

You never quite know who is going to be in the gym when you walk in on a given night at the Danny Rumph Classic. Last summer, former Villanova All-American and now New York Knick star Jalen Brunson came and dropped 28 points on the first night of the tournament. Former Prep Charter stars and longtime NBA veterans Markieff and Marcus Morris recruited Philadelphia 76ers Tyerese Maxey and Isaiah Joe for the championship game.

“I think the coolest thing about the Tyrese Maxey thing,” Morak said, “aside from him physically playing, how he interacted with the kids and how he embraced the city was I think how the city really embraced him coming out and really embraced him coming and being a part of something that is ours from the city of Philadelphia side.”

The event is also a great chance for young guys — like Fatts Russell and Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree last year — to play in the city before beginning their pro careers or other endeavors; and others having successful professional careers like D.J. Newbill and Scootie Randall to show out in front of the city they grew up playing in.

“It’s not just about the Tyrese Maxey’s and the Morris twins,” Morak said. “It’s also about a lot of the other guys … the guys that people don’t get a chance to see during the year and see how good they really are at basketball. I think it’s always important to get a really good crowd, so people can see these guys who make a living from the game, play at a super high level. … It’s important for the city to support those guys.”

There will be a girls and boys middle school showcase before Monday’s championship game, and while it is still TBD potentially a women’s pro showcase on Sunday. Morak said the event brings together the entire Philly basketball ecosystem from the players and their families to the coaches and trainers to the media … and even the hecklers.

“Every year the biggest thing for me is seeing everybody, whether guys are playing, whether they’re in the crowd, whether it’s old coaches, whoever it might be,” Morak said. “I think that the fun for a lot of us is being able to spend that much time together.”