A basketball league co-founded by a former NC State standout and two-time NBA champion is rolling into Raleigh this Sunday, bringing a professional 3-on-3 tournament and a youth skills camp to the historic J.D. Lewis Center on Garner Road. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for the main event, following a Top 40 high school player skills camp running from 4 to 5 p.m. led by regional trainers.
The event marks a homecoming of sorts for Josh Powell, who founded Crown3 as what he describes as an athlete's ecosystem designed to promote community building, mental resilience, and generational wealth, according to CBS17. Powell played two seasons at NC State from 2001 to 2003, averaging 9.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game across 65 contests and earning ACC All-Rookie honors in 2002, per NC State University Athletics records. He went on to play eight NBA seasons across 316 regular-season games for seven franchises, winning back-to-back championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010 alongside Kobe Bryant, according to stats from RealGM.
A Full-Court Twist on 3-on-3
Crown3 bills itself as a professional 3-on-3 league, but with a twist: it operates on a full-court format rather than the half-court setups used by established properties like FIBA or BIG3, according to Pack Pride's On3 coverage. The league is designed to recruit players with NBA, G-League, and international experience, while also offering post-career brand management and wellness support, the outlet reports. Sunday's stop is presented in partnership with Adidas as a major sponsor, helping fund the tour's expansion.
The Raleigh date is one leg of a four-city proof-of-concept tour that has already stopped in Atlanta, Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, and will conclude in Baltimore, Maryland, per the same account. It remains an open question how Crown3 plans to move from this summer's regional tour into a permanent league schedule, and how it will compete for talent against established 3-on-3 outfits.
Community and Personal Growth, On and Off the Court
Powell has framed the tour around more than competition. According to CBS17, he emphasized the transformative power of sports and said the Raleigh event focuses on community outreach, personal growth, and the idea that winning extends beyond the scoreboard. That framing lines up with Crown3's broader mission, which the league describes as an ecosystem built around mental resilience and generational wealth as much as athletic performance.
Powell's own path off the court backs up that pitch. He also won a EuroLeague title with Olympiacos in 2013 during an 11-year global professional career, and beyond running basketball leagues, he has published the books What I Wish I Knew and Failed Fatherhood while speaking with local middle school students about mental health and life transitions, according to Pack Pride and Crown3 updates. He recently met with students at Heritage Middle School during tour stops. The inclusion of high school skill clinics at Crown3 stops was inspired by his own sophomore son, Josh Powell Jr., who plays high school basketball for Marietta High School in Georgia and travel ball for Game Elite; Powell engaged area trainers to coach Raleigh-area prospects ahead of Sunday's tournament.
A Fitting Home in Southeast Raleigh
The choice of venue carries its own local weight. The J.D. Lewis Multipurpose Center, located on Garner Road in Southeast Raleigh, serves as the home base for the Garner Road Basketball Club, an AAU program founded in 1990 that has sent more than 200 players to college scholarships and over 20 to professional ranks, according to Garner Road Basketball Club records. Notable alumni of the program include former NBA All-Star David West.
The center itself is named for J.D. Lewis Jr., a pioneering WRAL-TV broadcaster in Raleigh and one of the first Black members of the U.S. Marine Corps, according to historical legislative summaries shared on Facebook. Landing a professional tour stop at a facility with that kind of grassroots basketball pedigree and civic history gives Sunday's event added resonance for longtime Triangle basketball fans. Event details and ticket information are available through the Crown3 league website.
