On Independence Day, basketballs bounced on the Carrollton Park blacktop at the 3rd annual DaCzar Designs 3v3 Tournament.
The event went very well, a lot of people showed up to play and support, everyone did their part to help out.
– Jayden Valentine
Jayden Valentine, founder of the tournament, wanted to give back to his community with a common love: basketball.
I started this tournament back in 2020 because of no one able to play AAU during the summer because of COVID. It was a great way for players to play even during hard times like the pandemic. My second reason was because of a lot of people in my community are not celebrating July 4th and celebrating Juneteenth instead; this gave people something to do instead of celebrating a holiday they don’t support. The third reason is to promote my clothing and music, but most importantly just to bring the community together with something we all love which is basketball.
The winners of the tournament were Jayden Valentine himself, Malik Witherspoon, James Quinn, and Marcus King. Jayden plans to make the tournament an annual event with expansions each year.
Every year I will have one on July 4th and keep having them to give the next generation of hoopers a platform to show off their talents and a way to make money off their talents. – Jayden Valentine
Photography: Sophia Parkins