Anthony GharibUSA TODAY
Dino Smiley still remembers the details of the 2011 phone call.
Then commissioner of the Drew League, Los Angeles’ top pro-am basketball league, Smiley had seen his fair share of NBA professionals play during the league’s 38-year history.
With the NBA in a lockout and facilities closed, basketball stars had flocked to pro-ams across the country to stay in shape. Kevin Durant and LeBron James had already stopped by the Drew League that summer, putting on memorable performances.
James’ sheer size shocked a local kid so much, Smiley said, the kid asked the King: “Wow, what's your mom feed you? Oatmeal and steroids?”
But this time it was different. Two of the top players in the world left their mark at the Drew League, and naturally fans began to wonder when Kobe Bryant would stop by.
Three days after James dropped 33 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists, Smiley got a call from Bryant’s agent – the Lakers star wanted to play.
“I said, ‘well, the season is pretty much over. We're about to head to DC to play against the Goodman League and Kevin Durant. We're taking a team out there,’” Smiley recalled. “And he said, well, he just wants to play on the same floor that Kevin Durant and LeBron played though.”
The Drew League had organized an All-Star game against the Goodman League from Washington D.C. for that week. The team held practice on Tuesday, so Smiley decided to hold an All-Star Game with the Drew League’s top players on the same day.
Bryant’s team faced a squad that included James Harden and DeMar DeRozan, then among the NBA’s brightest young stars. As Smiley walked into the opposing team’s locker room for the day, he had a simple request to share from Bryant.
“While I'm in there I say, ‘Hey, look, Kobe's coming, but he doesn't want to play no little touchy, touchy All-Star type game. He want(s) somebody to go at it, who's gonna go at him?’” Smiley said. “James Harden raised his hand and said, 'I got his ass.' And that's when all the stuff started.”
Harden lived up to the moment, trash talking and defending Bryant the entire game. Bryant got the last laugh, nailing a game-winning fadeaway over Harden to end the game, sending the Drew League crowd to rush the court and wrap their arms around the 6-foot-6 guards waist. He finished with 45 points.
Arguably the Drew League’s most iconic moment almost never happened, though. A police sergeant told Smiley that with two minutes left in the game, he’d be taking Bryant out of the game so he could go back to the locker room and change.
Smiley told the sergeant that if the game was close, Bryant wouldn’t be coming out.
However, Smiley couldn’t have predicted how close the game would be. As he heard the roaring outside the gym, he told himself he needed to get back inside. Once he took a step inside, all he saw was Bryant dribbling up the court to set up his final shot as fans chanted Bryant's name.
“I said 'this cannot happen. This is a dream. There's no way,' ” Smiley said. “He gets to the corner of the free throw line, jab-steps pull up, shoots it. And I'm like, I know that's not going in. Nothing but net… It was magical.”
Bryant’s game-winner still lives on in the minds of everyone that’s been around the Drew League.
Crystal Hogan, who’s been officiating at the Drew League since 2005, was one of the referees for Bryant’s game. She called that moment an all-time favorite of hers but what stood out the most was Bryant’s willingness to play hard for the people who squeezed into the tiny gym at Washington Park in the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles.
“The biggest thing I think I got from that is the fact that he came to Washington Park,” Hogan said. “He came to a small park in LA and put on a show for our kids in the community for free.”
Chaniel Smiley, the daughter of Dino and now Drew League Commissioner, echoed a similar sentiment. Bryant didn’t want to just play to play, but instead give everybody there a treat.
She said that when security tried to get Bryant out of the game early, he told them no. Bryant wanted to play until the end and finish the game.
“That’s why we love Kobe forever,” Chaniel Smiley said.
Bryant’s viral performance, combined with Durant and James bringing added attention, helped the Drew League reach new heights.
“They needed somewhere to play and the Drew was one of the locations,” Chaniel Smiley said. “And so that's when we had battles between LA and Washington D.C. The whole situation was pretty much those that are into hoops, they wanted to make sure that they was able to still embrace that and enjoy the entertainment. So, we kept basketball alive for the summer.”
The Drew League-Goodman League game included NBA players Durant, Harden, DeRozan, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Brandon Jennings and JaVale McGee. That type of star power aided pro-ams.
What happened in return was a shift in the Drew League’s popularity, saving the league. Dino Smiley told Yahoo Sports in 2016 that he had planned on the 2011 season being the last. The responsibilities as commissioner had begun to take a toll on him.
Without the sudden boon of involvement from the game's top players and Bryant’s iconic moment, who knows if the Drew League would have survived to see 50 years.
“We were good and consistent all those years,” Dino Smiley said. “But that lockout just kind of finally made the NBA players understand that they have a league here, that they can have NBA referees, the DJ, the PA announcer, everything.”
