City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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PHILADELPHIA — Archie Goodwin was a little torn. He had heard great things about Philly’s Danny Rumph Classic. The 6-foot-5 Little Rock, Arkansas native had some misgivings if he could fit the five-day tournament within his busy schedule between spending time with his two sons and preparing to play in Taiwan.

Goodwin, the former 2013 first round draft pick of the Oklahoma City Thunder out of Kentucky, is happy he made the time. The four-year NBA veteran with three different teams showed a vintage version of himself, dropping a game-high 27 points, 21 in the second half, in Blue Magic’s entertaining 93-89 victory over TBB in the championship of the 20th Annual Rumph Classic before roughly 1,500 fans at Drexel’s Dak Center.

Goodwin was named MVP of the tournament, on a Blue Magic team that featured local stars like St. Joe’s Jordan Hall, who dropped 52 in a game, Temple hoop alums Scootie Randall and Wayne Marshall, former St. Joe’s Prep and La Salle’s Ed Croswell, and Olney’s Tyrone Williams.     

The game was so in demand that a line had formed around the Dak almost two hours before the scheduled 8 p.m. championship tipoff.

Goodwin, for one, was happy he made the trip to Philadelphia and came away really pleased that he was able to play in the Rumph for the first time—and come away with a championship and MVP.

“This was amazing,” said Goodwin, who was pulled in a hundred different directions after the game, posing for selfies with fans, autographing shirts and balls, while walking and doing interviews. “I’ve heard about the Rumph before, and I’ve seen how the basketball community comes together here, especially the Philly basketball community, but I have never been a part of it before. I got to be a part of it this time and I saw how the fans loved this, and to saw how much respect people and players treat this event. It’s an amazing feeling. I’m so happy I decided to do it, because like I said at first, I was skeptical about finding the time. I’m glad I did.”

So was Marshall, who finished with 17 points and has been playing in the Rumph off and on for the last 20 years. At 39, he was finally on a championship team. The 6-11 center out Martin Luther King, then at Temple, was a factor early, scoring 11 of his 17 in the first half. He was a factor late, hitting a crucial bucket inside with 4:36 to play, which helped stave off a late TBB rally.

With an ice pack wrapped around his left knee, a weary Marshall happily sat down afterward to take it all in. He’s been going and playing in the Rumph for a while. He finally got a chance to hold up the championship trophy.

“That meant something,” he said. “This is my first championship and this for a good cause, and I’m happy I get a chance to come out and support. The older you get, the tougher it gets, but I will always support this. I’ve been to three or four finals, but this is the first time I ever won. I know I’ll be sore tomorrow (laughs).

“This does feel good right now. I’m 39 and I’m going to give (playing professionally in) Japan one more go. The atmosphere at the Rumph is always great. Especially in this game, where we had a big lead, and they chopped it down, making the game more exciting and getting the fans more involved.

“I’m glad we won.”

Marshall is looking to play one more year professionally, he said, and then come home and possibly coach, with his 12-year-old son coming up.

The game was very entertaining. Blue Magic got out to a 7-0 start, only be answered by TBB’s 13-0 run, fueled by St. Joe’s Taylor Funk, who finished with a team-high 24 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. Then TBB, comprised of Funk, Perkiomen Valley and Lafayette’s Justin Jaworski, Methacton and Delaware’s Erik Timko, who did not play in the championship game, Mastery Charter and East Stroudsburg’s Lakeem McAliley, Boys Latin and Creighton’s Mo Watson, who lit up the second half, and former Lower Merion and St. Joe’s star Jack Forrest, went cold, unable to hit anything for four- and five-minute spans.

Up 56-37 with 17:01 to play, after a Croswell layup, it seemed Blue Magic was the verge of running away and hiding from hot-and-cold TBB.

“But it’s the Rumph, you never know,” said Funk, who is playing in the G League for the Capital City Go-Go, the G League affiliate of the Washington Wizards. “This is my third Rumph and my first time in the finals. It did get pretty cool there in the end there. We were down a lot, and it was a game of runs. We knew the (cold streaks) would happen. It’s a long tournament, playing every day. Sometimes you make shots, and sometimes you don’t. We had to find ways to score outside of three-pointers.    

“Once we did that, getting inside the paint a little bit, and getting to the free throw line, shots started falling. We made it a game. This is a fun thing to do in the summer. I always get a lot of memories from this.”

TBB got within 90-87 with :37 to play on a Funk jumper but could not get any closer. Blue Magic, which received 14 points each from Hall and Croswell, hung on. Jaworski finished with 20 for TBB, followed by McAliley’s 16, and Watson’s 14, 12 coming in the second half.

As the final buzzer sounded, both teams embraced one another, and Hall made sure to seek out his former St. Joe’s teammate Funk. The two hugged and spoke to each other for a minute, then peeled off to gather with their respective teams.

“It’s really what the Rumph is all about, creating memories with a great bunch of guys coming together to do something good,” Funk said. “And seeing some great basketball.”

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on BlueSky here.