Los Angeles Times - 06.04.2020

L ATIMES.COM MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2020B

Every summer weekend
of Casper Ware Jr.’s child-
hood was spent sitting on
the baseline at Charles Drew
Middle School.
It was there, along Comp-
ton Avenue, that Ware
watched his father play in
the Drew League so often he
could predict the high-scor-
ing guard’s moves. He saw
NBA players drop by the
pro-am tournament during
their offseason. He imag-
ined his own transition from
spectator to player. He ar-
rived on Saturday mornings.
He was there until Sunday
evenings.
When the league moved
to Washington Park, Ware
was on the court in 2011 when
Kobe Bryant sank a game-
winning, buzzer-beating
jumper. In an even larger
gym five years later, buoyed
by the league’s surging
popularity, it was Ware mak-
ing the big shots — explod-
ing for 27 points in the third
quarter of the league’s
championship game to beat
a team featuring the NBA’s
Nick Young and JaVale Mc-
Gee.
If basketball was Ware’s
first love, the Drew League
became his second home.
Ware, now 30, was practically
raised by the Watts summer
league, said Bill Crawford,
who announced games there
for 23 years, beginning with
its founding in 1973.
“That’s what the Drew
is,” Ware said. “It’s just fam-
ily. I’m kind of closer to some
of them people than my
blood family.”
But for the first time in
his life, Ware can no longer
count on a summertime
Drew League reunion.
Though Dino Smiley, the
league’s longtime commis-
sioner, remains optimistic
that a 47th consecutive sea-
son can start on time
May 30, he acknowledged
that the novel coronavirus
and physical-distancing
guidelines put in place to
slow its spread had led him
to consider a once-unthink-
able possibility. The Drew
League — which has trans-
formed, with financial back-
ing from Nike, from a mom-
and-pop operation into one
with an international follow-
ingas well as an Instagram
following of 418,000 — could
be canceled for the summer
if games cannot be played by
June 14.
Other summertime
basketball staples across
the country also find them-
selves in limbo. With New
York among the cities hard-
est hit by the coronavirus,
the 70th season of Harlem’s
Holcombe Rucker Summer
Leagueis in jeopardy.
“It’s tough for me to even
think about a basketball
tournament right now,” said
Alan White, the Holcombe

Rucker league’s executive

director.

Though the prospect of a

summer without basketball

pained officials, participa-

nts and workers in both

leagues, their greater con-

cern is the void that would

be created should games

stop. Drew’s and Rucker’s

longevity has turned these

tournaments into cultural

institutions, summertime

staples in communities

often fractured by violence

and poverty.

Smiley sees success sto-

ries in figures such as Ware,

whose experience prepared

him for college stardom at

Long Beach State and a pro-

fessional career spent large-

ly abroad, and Courtney

Watson, the South L.A.-

raised head athletic trainer

for the WNBA’s Sparks.

“It’s bigger than just

basketball because what

happens is it brings families

together,” said Smiley, who

played in the Drew’s first

season while in middle

schooland began coaching

in it at 15. “Drew does a lot.

It’s going to be a sad summer

if we’re not operating.”

Kevin Cutler, a 10-year

NBA referee, manages offici-

ating for the Drew League.

He sees the difference it

makes.

“You can get people from

different cliques, different

gang sets, and it’s almost like

atruce,” he said. “It’s not

about what territory, what

turf, you’re from. It’s about

we’re trying to find a place to

get in here and find a good

run.

“The Eastside of Los An-

geles desperately needs it.

We’ve had tons of leagues

that have tried to copy it and

just can’t. They don’t have

the same flavor.”

Last year, 10 students

from the league’s surround-

ing neighborhoods received

scholarships worth $2,

each from the league’s foun-

dation. This year’s schol-

arship gala is scheduled for

July 25, but Smiley concedes

it’s now unlikely to take

place. Scholarship checks

could decrease to $1,000.

In Harlem, the Rucker’s

summer youth league — a

separate entity from the

famed pro-am tournament

played at nearby Rucker

Park — serves nearly 1,

kids, ages 7 to 18, each sum-

mer. They have access to

Amateur Athletic Union

teams and college prepara-

tory programs run, in part,

by college-age students

hired for the summer.

White had hoped to add

programs for financial liter-

acy, as well as free cardiac

and concussion screenings,

but needed sponsorship dol-

lars to do it. The economic

crash that has followed the

COVID-19 pandemic has put

such plans on hold.

“We can’t get out there

and provide the way we want

to provide because of this

new invisible enemy,” he

said.

The realization stung for

White, who called himself liv-

ing proof of using “basket-

ball as a tool to open up dif-

ferent doors.” Raised by a

single mother, with six

brothers and a sister, he

played in the same youth

league before going to col-

lege. He worked in banking

before returning to the non-

profit Holcombe Rucker

Community League in 2002.

A decade later, he became its

director.

“Basketball,” White said,

“saved my life.”

A canceled season

wouldn’t create an exist-

ential threat for the Drew

League, which has received

free uniforms and financial

backing from Nike for seven

years. The shoe deal is a re-

flection of its reputation as

the epicenter of high-level

summer basketball and a

haven for NBA players such

as James Harden and De-

Mar DeRozan, who have

kept returning long after

Bryant, LeBron James and

Kevin Durant played during

the 2011 NBA lockout.

“I’ve had NBA players

talk to me during free

throws,” Cutler said, “and

say, ‘Am I going to see you at

Drew this year?’ ”

Local fans, Crawford

said, “can’t afford to pay

$200 to see them at the Sta-

ples Center. We try to bring

the NBA to them.”

Its hidden value, long-

time participants say, is how

it has become a training

ground for far more than

elite players looking to stay

sharp.

Ware’s debut, while in

high school, earned him a

spot on an AAU team, and

his performances in the sub-

sequent 12 years have

helped “build my brand,” he

said. Others have secured

overseas contracts. Cutler is

among about 10 NBA offi-

cials who have worked the

event. Alums include Violet

Palmer, the first female NBA

official, and Crystal Hogan,

one of the few female officials

to work at the NCAA level.

Through free workshops,

Cutler invites aspiring offi-

cials to watch and learn.

“If you can referee in that

hostile environment, to be

quite honest, 15,000 [fans]

feels very different,” he said.

“Because 15,000, they’re

pushed away from you; 1,500,

they’re on top of you [at

Drew].”

Watson said her work

helping the league’s injured

players was critical to mov-

ing up from her job as

Westchester High’s athletic

trainer to the WNBA. It was

Cutler, she said, who recom-

mended her for the Sparks

job. She has sought to pay it

forward, running an ath-

letic-training internship

that since 2005 has created

nearly 30 positions annually

to young people entering the

profession.

The Drew League has

“given kids a platform to get

off the street and really find

something that they love

and see others on the pro lev-

el from our community who

can make it,” she said.

For now, those opportu-

nities are on hold. The Drew

League was expecting to

move into its largest arena

yet in May at El Camino Col-

lege.

But guidelines banning

large events in Los Angeles

could stymie that. Smiley,

who has run the league with

his daughter for the last

three years, is hoping to

know more by mid-May.

“We haven’t said it’s not

going to happen,” Smiley

said. “We’re just working

along expecting it to happen

but preparing if it doesn’t.”

Since returning from

Australia, where he played

this season for the Sydney

Kings, Ware has heard from

friends who tell him they’re

continuing to train under

the assumption the Drew

will play as usual.

He wants to believe that

will be the case.

“A summer without the

Drew League would be very

strange for me,” Ware said.

“Honestly, I can’t imagine.”

Pandemic puts Drew League in jeopardy

Canceling popular,

star-studded L.A.

summer basketball

tournament would

have ripple effect.

By Andrew Greif

JAMES HARDEN, representing LAUNFD, drives toward Tim Hardaway Jr. of Hometown Favors during a Drew League game.

Patrick T. Fallon For The Times

KEVIN CUTLER,who has been an NBA referee for

10 years, manages officiating for the Drew League.

Doug PensingerGetty Images

‘It’s bigger than

just basketball

because what

happens is it

brings families

together. It’s going

to be a sad

summer if we’re

not operating.’

—Dino Smiley,

Drew League’s longtime

commissioner

T

om Dempsey,
who held the
NFL record for
longest field goal
for more than
40 years, died late Saturday
in New Orleans of complica-
tions from the novel co-
ronavirus, his daughter said.
He was 73.
The Times-Picayune/
New Orleans Advocate said
Dempsey contracted the
virus in March during an
outbreak at the Lambeth
House retirement home in
Uptown New Orleans, where
he lived for several years af-
ter being diagnosed with de-
mentia. He is one of at least
15 residents there to die after
being stricken with the dis-
ease.
Dempsey, who was born
Jan. 12, 1947, in Milwaukee
with half a right foot and just
a thumb and pinkie on his
right hand, is remembered
for one monster kick.
On Nov. 8, 1970, at Tulane
Stadium in New Orleans, he
kicked an NFL-record 63-
yard field goal on the final
play to give the Saints a 19-
win over the Detroit Lions.
“Tell Stumpy
[Dempsey’s nickname] to
get ready to kick a long one,”

Saints special-teams coach

Don Heinrich said at the

time, according to media re-

ports.

The 23-year-old

Dempsey, who kicked

straight on with a flat-front

shoe, had no idea “long” was

63 yards — seven yards far-

ther than the NFL record at

the time.

“I thought I could handle

the distance, whatever it

was,” Dempsey, who already

had kicked three field goals

in the game, told the North

County Times in 2012. “I was

more concerned with kick-

ing it straight.”

The ball sneaked over the

crossbar, setting off a wild

celebration with Dempsey

being carried off the field by

his teammates.

Dempsey’s kick stood as

an NFL record for 43 years

until the Broncos’ Matt

Prater broke it with a 64-

yarder in Denver in 2013.

Three other NFL players

have kicked a 63-yarder out-

side of Denver, where the

mile-high altitude helps

carry the ball farther.

“Tom’s life spoke directly

to the power of the human

spirit and exemplified his

resolute determination to

not allow setbacks to im-

pede following his dreams

and aspirations,” Saints

owner Gayle Benson said in

astatement. “He exempli-

fied the same fight and forti-

tude in recent years as he

battled valiantly against ill-

nesses but never wavered

and kept his trademark

sense of humor.”

Dempsey — who played

11 seasons in the NFL — was

a multisport athlete at San

Dieguito High in San Diego

and Palomar Community

College in San Marcos. He

was a two-way starter for Pa-

lomar and an all-conference

defensive tackle. He was also

an outstanding wrestler and

shot putter.

In August 2012, he was

honored along with 14 others

in Palomar’s inaugural Ath-

letic Hall of Fame.

“Tom was one hell of an

athlete,” former Palomar

teammate Junior Morton

said then. “He was a great

lineman — both on offense

and defense. He wrestled,

and he threw the shot. He

never let the hand or foot

stop him.”

And while he gained fame

as a kicker, he had never

kicked before attending Pa-

lomar.

“We had a pretty good

kicker, but he had trouble on

kickoffs,” Dempsey said.

“One day, a bunch of us were

standing around and a

coach said, ‘Which one of you

[guys] can kick?’ I took off

my shoe and kicked one out

of the end zone. He asked me

to do it again, and I did.”

Those kicks earned

Dempsey the job, and a star

was born.

Dempsey played two sea-

sons with the Saints, four

with Philadelphia, two with

the Rams, one with Houston

and two with Buffalo. He was

first-team All-NFL in 1969

and finished his career mak-

ing 159 of 258 field-goal tries.

Dempsey said he had six

concussions in his 11-year ca-

reer. Until his illness, he

worked with concussion pa-

tients at Tulane University.

“I had a good, long career

and had a lot of fun,”

Dempsey said.

He is survived by his wife,

Carlene; three children; a

sister and three grandchil-

dren.

Maffei writes for the San

Diego Union-Tribune. The

Associated Press

contributed to this report.

T OM DEMPSEY, 1947-

Record-setting NFL kicker dies of coronavirus effects

By John Maffei

Associated Press

AHISTORIC BOOT

Tom Dempsey, born with half a right foot, kicks a 63-yard field goal to give

the Saints a win in 1970. The field goal was the NFL’s longest for 43 years.