Drew League has come a long way in 50 years

When walking into the gymnasium at King/drew Magnet High, the number 50 sticks out like a sore thumb.

It’s on the green and gold banners hanging throughout the walls of the gym. It’s written in green cursive letters at center court. It’s on every piece of Adidas-sponsored merchandise that is worn by the players on the court.

The Drew League, a staple summer basketball league in Los Angeles, celebrated its 50th anniversary on Saturday afternoon. Opening weekend games included the likes of former and current NBA players Nick Young, Darren Collison and Montrez Harrell.

It was a sentimental weekend for not just the fans, but the people who have been working behind the scenes to keep the league running since 1973.

“I’m proud of this,” said Butch Smiley, a former Drew League player and league organizer. “The atmosphere here is a great melting pot for Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, everybody really. I just love it, man. I’m proud.”

The Drew League was first founded in 1973. It started off as a place for members of the Compton and South Central community to come and get their hoops fix for the summer.

For the league’s first 22 years of existence, it played at Charles Drew Junior High, a small and hot gym located on the corner of Manchester and Compton avenues.

“That gym had wooden backboards, no padding on the walls and no breakaway rims,” said Dino Smiley,

Butch’s brother and one of the original founders. “Before there were (NBA) players, we used to have people line the walls of this small little gym just to see some of the neighborhood guys play.”

As the league continued to grow throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, so did its reputation as one of the most competitive summer leagues in the country.

It started with the local college and pro players coming back to play during the summer to work on their game, but grew to be a place where NBA greats such as Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard came to play in front of a packed gym filled with hoops fans.

Dino Smiley said he believes that slowly, but surely, the Drew League has become the mecca of basketball, which has led to more and more NBA talent dropping in on games.

“So many players have come out of this area from Baron Davis to Demar Derozan to the Ball brothers,” he said. “There’s just so much NBA talent here and they have always been able to come back and play for our league.”

The league’s impact goes further than the product fans see on the court. The Drew League has helped atrisk youth in Los Angeles through the Drew League Foundation, providing positive pathways through education and basketball.

“The league is huge in the community. When you think about it, it’s the only thing we really have,” said longtime play-by-play announcer George Preciado. “You have to go to the west side (of Los Angeles) to go to the bowling alleys, malls and stuff like that. This is all we have right here. Watts, South Central and Compton.”

Preciado first got into play-by-play for the Drew League in 1996 as he was struggling looking for work in Los Angeles. A long-time fan of the Drew League, Preciado was approached by Dino Smiley to work as a play-by-play announcer and has held the position for 27 consecutive summers.

For the fans who have watched the league from the beginning, Saturday’s 50th anniversary was a reminder for how far the league has come.

For former Drew League player and longtime time fan Ken Baxter, watching the action on Saturday was sentimental. Both of his sons Chris and Jonathan Baxter were also Drew League alumni, but were killed in a car crash in 2017.

The league has honored them by naming an award for community work after the Baxter brothers.

“It’s a tight-knit community here,” Baxter said. “We all treat each other like family.”

The Smileys have been involved with the Drew League since its inception and have kept the business within the family ever since. Today, Dino Smiley’s daughter, Chaniel Smiley, runs the league’s operations.

Dino Smiley said he’s happy that the league has improved since playing shirts vs skins in a small middle school gym.

“We’ve come a long way since when we used to use markers to put numbers on shirts and getting sponsored by a plumbing company to get reversible jerseys,” he said. “... It’s been wonderful.”