by Jordan Barham and Malcolm Walters have always stayed true to the city of Cleveland. The game of basketball has taken them all throughout the world, to countries they’ve never imagined traveling to.
Barham–a 2012 graduate at University School– and Walters–a 2014 graduate at St. Edward– have been playing professional basketball overseas the past couple of years, but have always had a vision of coming back to Cleveland to make a difference.
This summer, the two of them recently formed Best In The City, a basketball organization designed to provide an opportunity to play alongside some of Cleveland’s best basketball players.
“We want it to be a basketball organization where we showcase the elite hoops players in Cleveland while trying to put these runs together two or three times a week,” Barham said. “It’s grown and expanded a lot quicker than we expected but we’re excited about the future.”
This has always been an idea Walters and Barham planned on doing ever since last summer, prior to them returning overseas to continue their professional playing careers. It all began at Lutheran West High School, where the open gyms first started during the wintertime.
As time went on, Andrews Osborne Academy became available to host their open gyms, where more local players started to take notice. Eventually, the thought of transforming the open gyms into an organization hosting the area’s best players started to take off.
Then August hit and students began heading back to school at Andrews Osborne, leaving the two of them scrambling to find a place to host their pickup games.
That’s when Barham discovered HoopTech on Instagram—a 24,000-square foot basketball facility that opened Aug. 1 in North Ridgeville. Barham told Walters about it and from there, he was able to reach out and set up a meeting with Dan McNamara, the owner of the facility.
In the end, McNamara gave the two of them the opportunity to partner with HoopTech, finally creating a new home to host their open gyms.
“It’s been a really good consistent relationship with them so far,” Barham said. “We’ve had this world-class facility that we’ve been able to use to get these guys runs along with the fact that we’re bringing clientele into them and exposure into their facility as well. It’s been applicable for both sides so far.”
The basketball organization has been evolving since, as open gyms are currently held twice a week at the HoopTech facility in North Ridgeville. Walters and Barham usually get around 15 players per night, consisting of three teams. Games are played on one court for now and the first team to nine points wins.
Since partnering with HoopTech, the two of them have been able to reach out and play with some prominent names from Northeast Ohio. Some notable players to play in the open runs include: Andre Drummond, DaVonte Harris, Kipper Nichols, Alonzo Gaffney, Francisco Santiago, Jalen Hudson, Mark Williams, Isaiah Walton, Dererk Pardon, Brendan Paul, Trey Lewis and Malik Billingsley.
“We try our best to bring different faces into the gym as much as we can because the demand is so high,” Walters said. “We just like guys that compete because that makes the open gyms way better.
“Instead of it kind of just being an open gym just to get guys in shape, now, it’s kind of becoming a brand,” he continued. “We’re making sure we bring the best talent in the city into one gym.”
Through this entire process, both players have also been getting ready for another season playing overseas as well. Walters is set to play in Portugal and Barham is still weighing his options with teams in Europe.
As the summer winds down, they’ll continue to work with McNamara in trying to put together fall leagues along with many showcases for the youth and high school athletes, eventually hopeful of leading up to a summer league by next year. Walters and Barham want to highlight Cleveland’s top talent year-round.
What started out as open gyms to stay in shape has manifested into an organization featuring Cleveland’s premier athletes. The two of them are elated about creating more opportunities for local athletes moving forward.
“We both love basketball but also love the city of Cleveland,” Barham said. “It’s been our home and people here have been so good to us. To have this organization where we can give back and give kids a place to play is really important to us.
“It has been hectic but it’s been nice to be able to do all this stuff and get this thing off the ground and running,” he continued. “By next summer, we really want to be something that gets the entire city involved and gets everyone in the gym at once.”
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