La Liga Del Barrio Tips Off Fourth Season

La Liga del Barrio Finishes Another Successful Season

Approximately 75 kids filled the court at Philadelphia’s Edison High School on Wednesday, Dec. 10, as the 76ers tipped-off the fourth season of La Liga Del Barrio, the city’s first Latino youth basketball league. Sixers Samuel Dalembert and Amal McCaskill, along with Assistant Coach Alex English, joined Philadelphia City Councilman At-Large Angel Ortiz for the opening ceremony.

Samuel Dalembert will again serve as La Liga Del Barrio's honorary commisioner. Jesse D Garrabrant NBAE/Getty Images.

La Liga Del Barrio, sponsored by Old Navy and Verizon Wireless, is for boys and girls ages 6 to 16 and consists of 28 teams with 10 players per team. Participants receive an official La Liga Del Barrio T-shirt, and select participants have the opportunity to play on the 76ers home court prior to a game.

Ortiz praised La Liga as a unique opportunity for the city’s Latino youth.

“I think its an incredible achievement what we have accomplished with the Sixers. We have close to 400 kids [ages] 6 to 16 in a program that I don’t think is like anything else in the country,” said Ortiz.

Wednesday’s event featured a hands-on skills clinic led by 76ers Ambassador of Basketball World B. Free. Assisted by Dalembert, McCaskill, and English, as well as 76ers Broadcaster Marc Zumoff and former 76ers player Ollie Johnson, Free led the kids through a series of shooting, dribbling, and conditioning drills.

Dalembert returns for his second season as the Honorary Commissioner of La Liga and appreciates the importance to the children.

“I know how it feels to be in a minority and have an opportunity to have a professional basketball player come in here and have fun and really be excited with your family. I wish I had had an opportunity like this as a child,” said Dalembert, who was born and raised in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.

Assistant Coach Alex English (left) and Amal McCaskill (right) participate in the tip-off event. Jesse D Garrabrant NBAE/Getty Images.

La Liga’s fundamental purpose is to promote educational achievement and discipline, as well as to create spiritual awareness, peer group socialization, and collaboration. More overtly, it seeks to help in the development of basketball skills, the physical and mental preparation the sport demands, and the basic enjoyment of a great sport.

“When a major league team can unite with people in the community and the school system and organizations of faith,” said Ortiz, “I think you have a situation that can create a lot of good, and this has.”

2002-03 Tip-off

2001-02 Tip-Off