by TWINSBURG, Ohio– The Kenny Anderson Showcase is not your typical summer basketball event. It’s a showcase that is 100 percent free to be a part of and it’s been paying dividends for a slew of high school and junior college athletes trying to take their game a step further.
Ian Cunningham is the founder of the showcase and this year was the fifth consecutive year that it’s been put on to highlight some under-the-radar student-athletes trying to get in the spotlight.
It takes a lot of work, connections, phone calls, and sleepless nights for Cunningham, but he’s just trying to provide an opportunity and make everyone around him a better person.
“To think that (the student-athletes) value a free basketball showcase means a lot to me,” Cuningham said. “These kids know that it’s a beneficial place and it comes from the heart….if I can do something to help these kids that actually have a passion to try and still make it and do something in life, I’m going to go all in.”
In years past, Cunningham was able to connect with and bring in kids from all across the United States, including Canada. This year, however, he leveled up.
Athletes from Great Britain, New Zealand, Spain and Brazil all came to Twinsburg, Ohio on June 10th for the fifth annual Kenny Anderson Showcase and that is something even Cunningham never even imagined.
“We have kids coming from all over the world and to say all over the world is pretty cool I think,” he said.
“I truly never thought I’d have kids all over the country. From day one, I wanted to help the minority in Northeast Ohio,” Cunningham continued. “So I said I’m a Christian, let me help people that just want to be helped so I didn’t just keep it for minority youth, I opened it up for any kid that wants to be a part of this and be a branch and help them.”
Tanner Rizan is an upcoming senior who traveled from Louisiana to attend the showcase. He found out about it on Twitter, where we got in contact with Cunningham. Rizan just wants to showcase what he can bring to the next level and he was able to provide that by testing his outside shot throughout the day.
He explained that he takes pride in his shooting ability and is still trying to find the right opportunity heading into his last year of high school.
“I really want to try and get a scholarship,” he said with a smile on his face.
Cunningham is providing that opportunity with more college coaches tuning into the live stream on Youtube and coming in-person than ever before. He’s done so by building connections.
Building connections with media members, family, friends, high school coaches, parents and athletes all across the country throughout the various levels of the game of basketball.
That has helped him evolve this showcase into something greater than basketball.
“Connections are everything. You can do so much if you just come together and help each other,” Cunningham explained. “If you help what’s around you, what’s in front of you, that’s all you can do but if you do that and other people take that mindset, you can make a better world so why not help out as many people as you can and these connections carry over into life.”
At the end of the showcase, a slew of awards were presented. There were co-MVPs, as they were given to Phillip Unagst, a 6-foot-6 upcoming senior from Hillsborough High School in Hillsborough, New Jersey and Jake Sullivan, a 2022 graduate of Brooklyn High School in Ohio.
The Mr. Hustle Award winner was Clinton Thomas III. The Defensive Stopper Award winner was David Brown, a Hocking College prospect along with the two-man shooting challenge winners DeMilian Walker and Jarius Winters Jr.
It takes a lot of time, effort and patience to be able to put together a free basketball showcase like Cunningham manages to put on each year. It’s all worth it in the end. It brings joy to him and the people around him and that’s what this showcase exemplifies.
“A lot of late nights,” Cunningham said with a smile on his face when asked what it takes to set up and run a showcase for free every year. “When it’s free, a lot of kids don’t put it as a priority, so you just do the best with what you got and help the kids that want to be here.”
I can’t thank you enough Michael for being a voice for the basketball showcase to let the world know what goes on in Northeast Ohio when you connect good people volunteering their time to help impact young men.