Teenage basketball players from as far away as Boynton Beach, Florida, and Toronto, Canada, spent last week running drills alongside NYPD officers at a Crown Heights recreation center, part of a tournament that memorializes two young detectives killed in the line of duty. The Hoops Summit, held on August 6 at the Major R. Owens Health & Wellness Community Center, served as a warmup for the fifth annual Det. Jason Rivera & Detective Wilbert Mora Basketball Classic, a tournament that has ballooned from eight teams to 48 since its 2022 launch.
The event, first reported by Brooklyn Paper, drew roughly 600 players from the United States and Canada to a schedule that culminated the next day, August 7, with the main tournament at Basketball City in Lower Manhattan. NYPD Blue Chips and Foot Locker hosted the Hoops Summit alongside the NYPD Community Affairs Youth Strategy Division, giving young athletes and police officers a chance to build connections before facing off in games and scrimmages.
A Tournament Born From Tragedy
The classic honors Detectives Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora, who were ambushed and killed while responding to a domestic violence call in Harlem on January 21, 2022. Rivera, 22, was killed in the initial shooting, while Mora, 27, was critically wounded and died four days later, on January 25, 2022, after his organs were donated, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. Both officers served in the 32nd Precinct and were posthumously promoted to Detective First Grade.
What began as an eight-team event featuring NYPD Blue Chips squads representing New York City's eight patrol boroughs has since grown into a national and international showcase. NYPD Blue Chips itself is a citywide, year-round youth mentoring and sports program that, per the Riverdale Press, pairs two officers from each of the city's 77 precincts with local youth ages 12 to 18 in leagues covering basketball, flag football, volleyball, and softball. According to Brooklyn Paper, this year's classic pulled in youth delegations and police athletic leagues from cities including Newark, Camden, Atlantic City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Tampa, Houston, and Bridgeport, per a Goya Foods video posted to Facebook describing the company's role funding youth teams and college scholarships for children of fallen officers.
Boynton Beach's Long-Running Brooklyn Connection
Among the visiting delegations was a 14-player, five-coach contingent from Boynton Beach, Florida's Police Athletic League. It was not the group's first trip to Brooklyn — the Boynton Beach PAL high school team traveled to compete at St. Edmund Preparatory High School in April 2023, and the Brooklyn Paper reports the team won a scrimmage against St. Edmunds during this year's visit as well. Andrew Mack, deputy city manager of Boynton Beach, accompanied the delegation, the outlet reported.
Boynton Beach Police Chief Joseph DeGiulio, a former NYPD officer who began his law enforcement career with the department in 1998 before moving to Florida in 2001, leads a department with its own deep roots in youth athletic policing. Bill Tome, director of Boynton Beach's Police Athletic League, worked at the NYPD's 6th Precinct in Manhattan from 1985 to 1987 and has spent 40 years in law enforcement, according to Brooklyn Paper. Among the Boynton Beach athletes was 17-year-old Quentin Smith, who grew up in the Far Rockaways in Queens before moving to Florida seven years ago, per the outlet's reporting.
Toronto Delegation Makes First U.S. Trip for Many
The Toronto Community Housing Corporation sent 14 young athletes to the tournament as part of its effort to use basketball to foster positive relationships between police and young people. The organization's Midnight Basketball League, launched in 2013, serves youth living in Toronto Community Housing and, according to the Ontario Justice Education Network, expanded through a partnership with the Toronto Raptors and MLSE Foundation to offer Friday-night sports, meals, and life-skills workshops on topics like human rights, financial literacy, and conflict resolution for youth ages 14 to 18.
Breonna Francis, a program coordinator with Toronto Community Housing, told Brooklyn Paper that the New York trip marked the first U.S. visit for many of the Toronto athletes. Beyond the courts, the group visited the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Brooklyn Bridge, and had lunch in Soho. Austin Knights, a member of the Toronto Police Service, said the program helped keep young people off the streets, according to the outlet. Seventeen-year-old Zechariah, one of the Toronto athletes, said he planned to play against teams from across the country.
A Bronx Program Built on NYPD Ties
Also competing was Davis Athletics Development, a Bronx-based free year-round training and educational program for student-athletes founded by David Davis, which has participated in the basketball classic for several years and works closely with NYPD Blue Chips. The NYPD serves as a pivotal sponsor of the program, and Brooklyn Paper reported that Davis Athletics Development athletes look up to the young police officers they train alongside. Team Foot Locker also played a scrimmage against police officers during the tournament weekend.
The Major R. Owens Health & Wellness Community Center, where the Hoops Summit took place, opened in late 2021 inside the renovated, 60,000-square-foot historic Bedford Union Armory, according to the NYC Economic Development Corporation. Named for the late Brooklyn Congressman Major Owens, the facility replaced a vacant military armory with recreational space, swimming pools, and non-profit services for the Crown Heights neighborhood. The following day's main tournament unfolded at Basketball City at Pier 36, a Lower Manhattan venue that donates more than 7,000 court hours annually to local schools and hosts the memorial tournament at no cost to organizers, per Basketball City NYC.
For the young athletes who traveled from Florida, Ontario, and beyond, the Police Athletic League program offered more than a chance to compete — it gave them the opportunity to travel and build relationships with officers who serve their own communities. That mission, organizers say, is exactly what Rivera and Mora's memory is meant to inspire: young people and police finding common ground on the court, four years after an ambush in a Harlem hallway ended two young officers' lives.
