The 2024 Hoopsfix All-Star Classic celebrated its tenth year anniversary with yet another 1700 person sell out as the top under-19 talent from across the country took to the floor.

Taking place on Sunday May 26th at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre for the third straight year, an Under-19 Women and Under-19 Men’s game, along with 3-point shoot out, dunk contest, was supplemented by the new addition of a basketball development conference, that featured sessions on coaching, facilities, content and membership growth.

To celebrate ten years, a special court design was presented that featured the name of every player to have played in the event over the past decade.

The event was sponsored by Jordan as presenting partner, Sportserve, Molten and 5or6.

U12 Youth Clinic

On Saturday morning, Hoopsfix worked with local club Bromley Fury, to run a youth clinic for under-12s, led by GB international and Hoopsfix All-Star Classic alumnus, Rob Gilchrist. At the end of the session he did a Q&A with the players to answer any questions they had.

Basketball Development Conference

The usual Hoopsfix All-Star Classic coaching conference expanded into a Basketball Development Conference, including not just coaching, but also classroom sessions on building facilities, growing membership and content production.

Working with the Basketball Coaches Association (BCA) once again on the coaching aspect, the offering for coaches was led by Alex Sarama – founder of Transforming Basketball and an assistant with the Portland Trailblazers G-League team, Rip City Remix, along with supporting the London Lions, Miguel Ortega, the 2023 WBBL Coach of the Year and 7-time Spanish title winner, of the Caledonia Gladiators, City of London Academy’s Jay Williams – former BBL Head Coach and reigning EABL South Coach of the Year, along with Barking Abbey coach and professional skills trainer, Rikki Broadmore.

For the content creators, the Chicago Bulls’ Joe Pinchin reflected on his time in the UK and showed how to produce content with limited budget and resource, while renowned photographer Carol Moir spoke on getting a club’s photography right.

On the facilities side, Kevin Routledge talked on the process to getting the now 5-court, 2000+ seat Mattioli Arena off the ground, while Jordane Edwards-Maddock and Adam Maddock from the Stamford Knights went through their innovative warehouse space that has transformed basketball for their club.

Finally, for club growth, Pete Taylor spoke on how the Milton Keynes Breakers have grown to over 1000 members in a very short period of time, with Newcastle Eagles’ Ian MacLeod talked on the Eagles’ huge participation base that now sees over 2,500 kids play in their CVLs every month.

The conference was well received, with plans to expand it in 2025.

3-Point Shoot Out

Grace Strickland became the first female winner of the Hoopsfix All-Star Classic 3-Point Shootout to kickstart the 2024 edition.

The Bella Vista prep school guard beat last year’s champion William Issekya on the buzzer in the final round to finish with a winning score of 12.

Issekya only just advanced to the final itself, also on the buzzer, as his score of 13 was enough for second place in the first round in front of Liv Forster’s 12 and behind Strickland’s 14.

Six contestants tried to claim the sharpshooter title in the mixed gender event with Alix McIntosh, Liv Forster, Khyle Capanzana and Joe Buchanan missing out in the first round.

Under-19 Women’s Game

Team White prevailed in a close fought battle in the Under-19 Women’s game with a 72-65 success over Team Black.

Yazmin Edwards claimed the MVP award with 14 points, six rebounds and three steals in the win at Crystal Palace with Esther Kursite providing valuable support with 14 points and eight boards.

Dunk Contest

Remy Udeh claimed the Dunk Contest title at the 2024 Hoopsfix All-Star Classic in comfortable fashion.

Udeh – from London Lions’ academy – cruised past the first round with a score of 62 over two dunks, compared to other competitors Ben Csernak and Edward Onyia who both scored 52.

This led to a tie-break between the two for a spot in the final alongside Udeh, which Onyia won by the deciding factor of crowd noise with a reverse slam.

In the final, Udeh received 9s across the board for his second dunk, bringing out last year’s men’s MVP Nedas Cholevinskas to assist him off the side of the backboard.

His total score in the final, again over two dunks, came to 70, winning over Oniya’s 41, after the Loughbrough Rider failed to convert a dunk in the final including attempting to dunk over 6’11” Tim Oboh.

Under-19 Men’s Game

An MVP performance from Tyrese Lacey led Team Black to an overtime win over Team White 101-90 in the Hoopsfix All-Star Classic 2024.

The 5’8″ guard clutched up at the end of regulation time, scoring a buzzer-beating three to tie the ball game and send it to overtime.

The fourth Myerscough product to win men’s MVP, Lacey registered 20 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals and was helped by strong performances from teammates Joe Buchanan, Tim Oboh, Devontae Dacosta and Oscar Curran – who came up big in overtime.

Leading Team White with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists was Cholevinskas, who could’ve been on for back-to-back MVPs if he saw out the win. Dunk contest winner Remy Udeh also had 14 points and 8 rebounds.

For more information or to discuss sponsorship opportunities around the 2025 edition, please email sam[@]hoopsfix.com (removing the brackets!).