Carver Foundation pickup games draw in city’s basketball talent
By Justin Papp SEE the article here
NORWALK — Friday nights in the Carver Foundation gym, DJ Juelz is both emcee and official.
Stationed with his laptop and speakers in a corner of the small gym the night of July 20, he blasted hip-hop music, pausing to use his mic to yell “cookies” — basketball slang — when one of the roughly 20 players at Mo’s Summer Run had the ball stolen.
After one particularly contentious game ended with a next-basket-wins overtime and the losing team was slow to cede the court, Juelz intervened.
“You want to play again, sign up on ‘the board,’” Juelz barked to the losing team, who eventually shuffled off the court.
At Mo’s Summer Run, an all-summer open gym for local basketball players at Carver begun in 2009, Friday nights are alumni night. Players who honed their skills at Carver and then went on to high school, collegiate and, in some cases, professional careers, show up to flaunt their talents or settle decades-old scores on the court with rivals from the area.
And to these players “the board” is a critical document....
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