The pits league started from open gyms. We used to have late night open gyms from 9 p.m. to about 11:30 p.m. which was big for guys who came from college and it got too popular, too crowded. We started with about 15 people and then guys would start bringing their own fives each session to the point it was about 100 to 150 people in the gym. Everybody literally brought their own team, and if you lost you were leaving because you were not getting back on to play. This went on for like 5 weeks; I felt with the level of competition we had. We can start a league. We had guys playing in college, over-seas, the NBA. It was some the best competition in DMV. Instead of having them call petty fouls & little dumb stuff, we added refs.

So, the first year I started it as a high school alumni league. We had eight teams that represented different high schools sort of like the Legend Coalition with the year range from 2000 to 2007. The next year, we didn’t get that many alumni schools so we just opened it up to everybody and we had about twelve teams.

2011 (lockout year) – We had about eighteen teams. Everybody played in it and it got the buzz out there that “The Pits” was the place to be. Before guys headed to the club, it was let’s go hoop in “The Pits” then go to the club.

2012 (after the lockout) – We still had the NBA buzz so guys from the league still came to play and enjoyed it and then the wave kind of died down in our fifth and sixth years. We still had college guys play but it was hit or miss with the rules being what they are. So for them it went from “Hey, you guys can play but we can’t post anything to social media.” to eventually “Nah you guys can’t play because I don’t need that drama around for you to get caught up in your college season.” It started to be no safe haven for college and NBA players. That’s when they started implementing the rules that NBA players had to be sanctioned by the NBA or you had to reach out to your respective teams, ownership or front office to let them know where you’re playing. Gradually it’s grown, especially for this upcoming tenth season it’s amazing to see what was created to be something for college and pros to expand to a tenth year as a league.

Our first location was and where it’s currently held at now Largo High School which is my alma mater. It’s located in Prince Georges County, Maryland which is one of the originals hoop spots for our Sunday open gyms. Men’s leagues and just a central area to all basketball in the area. It’s not too far from DC, it’s not too far from Balti-more it’s not too far from the Virginia border. So having it at Largo is an ideal spot because it’s central to everything. The first players to play would definitely be my streetballers, Lonnie “Prime Objective” Harrell, Hugh “Baby Shaq Jones, Patrick “Pat The Roc” Robinson, Randy “White Chocolate” Gill, Andrew “Spongebob” Washington, you know guys that have a good following from the damage they do in the streetball leagues. They just came out to play, and I’m definitely grateful to them for wanting to come out and be a part of the league of a guy that they use to play against or a guy that use to look up to them.

In returned, they gave me props for being the young guy who created a platform for them and other players to come and stay in shape, perfect their craft just to be able to cater to the integrity of the league. Like keeping all of the politics out, lessening the favoritism of more known guys, I understand refs have bad days as well but we try to eliminate that as much as possible. So there you have it, the league was formed to take politics out of it, you know, the slogan reads “Bring your A game, not your name, you may have a name in other leagues but in here, you have to keep it, no one cares who you are guys are going to come at your neck. I remember when KD and Mike Beasley came and guys said “Nah, they beat us in high school and AAU, were going at them.”

I remember the infamous Twitter rant between KD and a Pits League regular, Nate Flowers, and they were discussing Kobe’s 81 points. KD made a reference saying “The NBA is the NBA, it’s not the Pits League or Watts, and the Lakers ended up putting it on their website. I said wow, for him to name drop two local leagues like that, it was amazing for him to show he had respect for us like that because he didn’t have to mention it and for him to bring the league up on his platform definitely helped the notoriety. So social media through overseas guys who were playing along with Kevin Durant speaking about the league and young Quinn Cook, can’t forget about him, helped get the Pits name out there. Quinn stayed in a gym. He was basically an intern. Interviewing players after the games which was hilarious, he would do concession stands, work the clock for me.

I remember one time I was out of town and I got a call saying “Victor Oladipo is running your concession stand, I was like huh? So I come back the next day, I come in the gym and Vic is running the concession stand, collecting money for us, talking to the people. People were coming up saying aren’t you Victor Oladipo? Why are you working the concession stand? It just shows that people respect and appreciate what’s going on. Those guys don’t have to come into the gym 10, 11 o’clock at night and work the clock or work the concession stand it just goes a long the way the respect my peers have for the league and myself.