Skid row hoops in L.A.

OG, one of our congregant leaders at Love LA, has for sometime been organizing on a grassroots level- a skid row basketball league...and it finally made news...


When Union Rescue Mission and Midnight Mission play their big matchup, no one talks about the home advantage, but most appreciate a little escape from everyday life
by Kurt Streeter
LA Times
October 14, 2007

You are a power forward and a crack addict. A point guard and a meth head. A center, but you can't stay away from booze and weed and women.

You spend most of your time in a crowded downtown homeless shelter on a shadowy stretch of hard streets and hard times. If you're lucky, you live in the shelter. Every day is the same: classes, work, therapy, rules.

How do you get some happiness? How do you forget your troubles and reach back to the way you used to be, if only for an hour and a half? By playing on a team of transients in a league of last chances -- L.A.'s skid row basketball conference.

Read the full article over here.

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And from Blogtown site--



Manuel Compito (aka OG Man) writes:

SKIDROW 3on3 STREETBALL LEAGUE has been a miracle from it's "very inception" (March of 2007). We are in our second season (in one year)..that's amazing.Most of the missions say that they have "basketball teams" (which are unaccessible to the hundreds of men that do not want to go into a program "just to play basketball"). If there has been a 'league or a conference"...it never had a name prior to the creation of the Skidrow 3on3 Streetball League. The community simply called it "the no-name league".

We know that missions have connections and "millions of dollars" and can afford to pay for the type of press that can come out in the sports page about a "single" match-up. And for the need to "divert their donors or future "donors" from the efforts and growth of the Skidrow 3on3 Streetball League that type of press coverage is necessary.

But there is "room" in America and certainly on Skidrow for as many Leagues or Conferences that it will take to get the attention of men, women and children to encourage them to "find methods by which to make their lives better".

The Skidrow 3on3 Streetball League was not created "to get a little happiness or forget your problems for an hour and a half" but rather to motive the men (the fans) to believe in themselves. The prove to themselves that "this community" can create something of their own.

One must understand that the Skidrow 3on3 Streetball League belongs to the "community" not some "particular" service provider. There's nothing wrong with playing on the mission's teams...nothing at all. (Some of our league members play on missions teams..that's probably why they win), but again Skidrow 3on3 Streetball League is 'MORE THAN JUST A GAME"! It's about (1) gang intervention (2)recovery (3)life skills development (4)mentorship (5) community development (6)employment and business venture development (7)self-help (8)partnership.

Skidrow 3on3 Streetball League builds character, empowers the men and women of the league. It creates a "winning attitude" towards life. We simply use the game of basketball to do all this.

OG Man (Commissioner)

Check out the blogtown entry over here.