By Kris Koivisto
Over the weekend, the Trail Blazers hosted their annual 3-on-3 tournament on the sizzling blacktops surrounding the Rose Garden. Benefiting Special Olympics, the ‘StreetJam’ doubles as a festival for athletes and onlookers alike, with over 447 teams on hand.
The event kicked off with an all-day ‘Corporate Challenge’ on Friday, followed by the two-day open-entry tournament on Saturday and Sunday.
The Corporate Challenge featured 50 teams in three divisions representing their respective local companies. From KPMG to Comcast, teams from all over the area unleashed their competitive juices on the court, a rewarding alternative to another Friday in the office.
Personally, I took part in the Corporate Challenge for the first time, and was fortunate enough to win our division. Our team, appropriately named “Trail Blazers 2,” played a total of six games from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. We played roughly one game every hour with the exception of a Qdoba-sponsored lunch break (oddly enough, Qdoba had a team in the tournament, and a few of its players dished up food before returning to the courts). Our championship game was held on the outdoor-placed hardwood court of the Memorial Coliseum, which rewarded players for the beating their knees and backs suffered from playing on concrete all day.
The Saturday & Sunday portion of StreetJam appeared a popular destination on a perfect, sunny weekend. There were free clinics for kids ages 7-13, a 3-point contest for all ages, intense rematches from tournaments in years prior, laughs and interaction with honorary chairman Martell Webster, a ball-handling exhibition by “Superhandles” Jon Hildebrandt and dunk contest with a collection of aspiring dunkers who were constantly teased by television analyst Mike Rice while DJ OG1 scratched records on the turntables. The event was hitting on all cylinders.
My team, the Flint Tropics (sans Will Ferrell), was looking to defend our title from last year. Thinking we were in the driver’s seat with about 10 minutes left to play, our opponents thought they found a successful strategy. We were in the double bonus, which means we were awarded two free throws every time we were fouled (which proves pretty valuable considering a field goal is only worth one point). However, with a heavy wind, an unofficial free throw line and a slanted court (we were playing atop the Garden Garage), those free throws aren’t such a sure thing. We lost by two.
We brushed off our second place finish and wandered around the vendors, which included XBOX 360 games, a spot-shot contest, karaoke, free ice cream and Cliff Bars and ‘Dew Pong,’ among others.
The whole weekend was put in perspective when I fell into a conversation with an employee of Special Olympics. Neither of us knew that I would be writing this at the time, and he had no clue that I worked for the Blazers.
Towards the end of the conversation, he said, “It’s all about these guys,” as he proudly pointed to a nearby court where a co-ed contest between Special Olympians was underway. “That’s why we do this tournament, to support them.”
