Monday, March 13, 2023

Max's All Stars win 2023 Full Court Charity Challenge Corporate Division Championship

On Saturday, March 11, 2023 - Max's All Stars won the Full Court Charity Challenge Corporate Division Championship for the fourth consecutive time. It was not an easy path for us. Max's All Stars had to play seven games total, winning six of them to become champions. We got off to a slow start in the first two games of the day and suffered a surprisingly sloppy defeat in the third game during pool play. However, after a lunch break, we came out much stronger in the fourth and final pool play game and carried that intensity into the single-elimination rounds where we won three straight games to become champions once again. Our roster featured two new players making their Max's All Stars debuts - Fred Bertrand and Gerrel Irvin. They joined veterans Jason Lewis, John Simmons, Kaheem Davis, Marvin Billups Jr, Nikola Djurdjevic, Patrick James, Shereef Taylor, Spencer Smith (MVP), and William Davis. Everyone made valuable contributions throughout the tournament that helped Max's All Stars claim victory and bring home another trophy! These guys battled through injuries, cramps, and fatigue. Even after losing the third game of the day, the confidence of our players was unshaken. They knew we would emerge victorious no matter what! Everyone locked in from that moment. Their focus and determination carried us. As always, Bob Forlenza put together a tremendous tournament. It was so much fun! Max's All Stars and ARTEMIS are proud to support Nashoba Learning Group and MGH Lurie Center for Autism. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to take part in this tournament. Thank you to everyone who attended - especially the family members of our players. We truly felt all the love and support. Also, thank you to ARTEMIS for sponsoring our team as well.

From left to right - William and Liam Davis, Marvin Billups Jr, Gerrel Irvin, Kaheem/KJ/Luka Davis, Max Margulis, Nikola Djurdjevic, Fred Bertrand, Jason Lewis, Spencer and Summer Smith (MVP), John Simmons, Patrick James, Shereef Taylor

Here are the tournament results:
Pool Play:
Cooney Health (W, 40-29)
Comella's (W, 52-41)
BrickHouse (L, 26-23)
Boston Retirement (W, 47-37)
Playoffs:
Cross Insurance (W, 32-24) (Quarterfinals)
BrickHouse (W, 30-20) (Semifinals)
Boston Retirement (W, 42-29) (Championship Game)
Tournament MVP: Spencer Smith

From left to right - Jason Lewis, John Simmons, Patrick James, Gerrel Irvin, Marvin Billups Jr, Max Margulis, Nikola Djurdjevic, Bob Forlenza, Kaheem Davis, Fred Bertrand, Spencer and Summer Smith (MVP), Shereef Taylor, William and Liam Davis

Sunday, November 13, 2022

Max's All Stars Family Day 2022

Last Saturday, November 5th, 2022 - we hosted Max's All Stars Family Day and it was a blast! Thank you to everyone who attended! Special thanks to Kaheem and Sandra Davis for bringing food/snacks/drinks; to Shereef Taylor for taking such awesome photos, to Ren Hsieh and The Dynasty League for providing the gym rental; to Plush In A Rush for the super cute teddy bears; and to DC4L Custom Tees for creating our beautiful Boston Three Party t-shirts! Looking forward to hosting more events like this in the future!


Saturday, August 6, 2022

4th Annual Max's All Stars Hall of Fame Game

On Saturday, July 30, 2022 - Max's All Stars hosted it's 4th Annual Hall of Fame Game. Words cannot adequately describe how amazing it was. You could feel the love and excitement. Seeing all our family and friends, the kids running around and playing together - it was just beautiful. This is what it's all about. The game itself was a nail-biter. Both teams left it all on the court. It could have gone either way, but Team Kaheem prevailed over Team Branden by a final score of 114-113. Both teams wanted to claim victory so badly (primarily for the bragging rights of course). Their desire and will to win was on full display. Thank you to all our participants - Branden Gibson, Doug Herring, Jason Lewis, Justin Cardenas, Kaheem Davis, Kevin Major, Kevin Pegram, Marvin Billups Jr, Nikola Djurdjevic, Patrick James, Shaun Diaz, Shereef Taylor, Spencer Smith (MVP), and William Davis along with all the family and friends who joined as well (Mandy Billups, Sadia Smith, Janiris De Jesus, Sandra Davis, Elizabeth Gibson, Sarah Straub, Carl Gibson) Special shoutout to Shayla Diaz (Shayz Dayz), Ren Hsieh, The Dynasty League, Lifestyles Sports / Robinhood, Crown Awards, Athletic Awards Company, and Custom Ink. Click here to watch the 4th Annual Max's All Stars Hall of Fame Game Mini-Movie.

From left to right - Jason Lewis, Doug Herring, William Davis, Justin Cardenas, Kaheem Davis, Kevin Pegram, Max Margulis, Shaun Diaz, Branden Gibson, Nikola Djurdjevic, Spencer Smith (MVP), Marvin Billups Jr, Patrick James, Kevin Major, Shereef Taylor

Team Branden:
Name - PTS/REB/AST/STL/BLK
Branden Gibson - 14/15/9/3/2 (Captain)
Doug Herring Jr - 28/10/8/1/1
Marvin Billups Jr - 19/6/5/0/0
Kevin Pegram - 40/23/2/3/2
Jason Lewis - 6/5/2/3/0
Kevin Major - 6/11/4/0/1

Team Kaheem:
Name - PTS/REB/AST/STL/BLK
Kaheem Davis - 7/11/6/2/2 (Captain)
Spencer Smith - 39/4/6/1/1 (MVP)
Shereef Taylor - 19/5/9/2/1
Shaun Diaz - 18/13/3/1/0
William Davis - 26/14/3/1/0
Patrick James - 2/5/2/1/0
Justin Cardenas - 3/0/2/1/0

From left to right - Jason Lewis, William Davis, Doug Herring, Kevin Pegram, Justin Cardenas, Kaheem Davis, Shaun Diaz, Branden Gibson, Nikola Djurdjevic, Spencer Smith (MVP), Marvin Billups Jr, Patrick James, Kevin Major, Shereef Taylor + family members

2022 Max's All Stars Hall of Fame Inductees:
Shayla Diaz
Nikola Djurdjevic
Kaheem Davis
Jason Lewis

From left to right - Hall of Fame inductees: Jason Lewis, Nikola Djurdjevic, Shayla Diaz, Kaheem Davis with Max Margulis in the center

Thursday, March 10, 2022

Max's All Stars win 2022 Full Court Charity Challenge Corporate Division Championship

This past Saturday, March 5, 2022 - Max's All Stars won the Full Court Charity Challenge Corporate Division Championship for the third consecutive time. This might be the sweetest one of them all. After two years of not being able to host the tournament due to the pandemic, Bob Forlenza put together a tremendous event this year. We are extremely grateful for all his hard work and dedication to pull this thing off and continue raising money/awareness for such an important cause. Max's All Stars and ARTEMIS are proud to support Nashoba Learning Group and MGH Lurie Center for Autism. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to take part in this tournament. This year, we finished 6-0 and won the championship thanks to our incredible players - Branden Gibson, Jason Lewis, Kaheem Davis, Marvin Billups Jr, Patrick James, Rob Thomas, Shereef Taylor, Spencer Smith, Troy Whittington, and William Davis. Everyone played hard, contributed, and left everything on the court to capture this championship. The guys were locked in from start to finish. The level of focus, intensity, and unselfishness towards one common goal was some of best we've ever had in the history of Max's All Stars. We were not gonna be denied. Our guys battled through cramps, injuries, fatigue - but the end result made it all worthwhile. We also had tremendous support from Denice Wheeler, Mandy Billups, Sadia Smith, and Sandra Davis + KJ and Luka Davis of course. They cheered us on, captured a ton of great photos/videos, and showed us so much love. We are beyond blessed and thankful to everyone who supports us. Also, thank you to ARTEMIS for sponsoring our team as well. We greatly appreciate the continued support.

From left to right - Jason Lewis, Rob Thomas, Patrick James, Branden Gibson, William Davis, Max Margulis, Kaheem Davis, Spencer Smith (MVP), Marvin Billups Jr, Troy Whittington, Shereef Taylor

Here are the tournament results:
Pool Play:
Cross Insurance (W, 35-28)
BrickHouse (W, 44-33)
Boston Retirement Group (W, 37-30)
Valere Labs (W, 49-38)
Playoffs:
Cross Insurance (W, 48-29) (Semifinals)
BrickHouse (W, 40-31) (Championship)
Tournament MVP: Spencer Smith

From left to right - Troy Whittington, Kaheem Davis (with his sons Luka and KJ), Jason Lewis, Shereef Taylor, Bob Forlenza, Rob Thomas, Patrick James, William Davis, Branden Gibson, Spencer Smith (MVP), Marvin Billups Jr

Saturday, January 8, 2022

Max's All Stars collaboration with DC4L Custom Tees

Max's All Stars is proud to announce our collaboration with DC4L Custom Tees to create some awesome designs. These one-of-a-kind custom shirts are printed onto t-shirts and available for affordable prices. Visit https://www.dc4lcustomtees.com/product-tag/max/ to browse and purchase yours today! Swipe through some of the designs below and keep an eye out for more to come in the future!

Friday, December 31, 2021

Max's All Stars 2021 Year In Review

Max's All Stars returned to action after a nearly year-long hiatus. We started with a series of bi-weekly open runs that took place in January-March. In April, we joined the NYC Basketball League Mid-Winter Restart season on Saturdays. We finished the season with an 8-2 record and reached the championship game, but unfortunately fell short by a single point. In August, we played in The Give Back Charity Tournament and finished 1-0 there. That marked the end of Max's All Stars 2021 campaign. While we did not win a championship in our first year back, it was important for us to get together again and just play basketball. We shook off some rust and demonstrated the ability to still compete on a high level. Thank you to everyone who took part in our open runs/games this past year: Angel Gonzalez, Branden Gibson, Brian Hardy*, Corey Orgias, Deshawn Cann*, Doug Herring, Gio Gabbidon*, Jason Lewis, John Simmons, Joshua Smith, Justin Cardenas*, Kaheem Davis, Keone Billey*, Kevin Major, Kevin Young, Marvin Billups Jr, Maxx Miller*, Nikola Djurdjevic, Patrick James, Shaun Diaz, Shereef Taylor, and Spencer Smith. * - indicates new member of Max's All Stars.

Max's All Stars had a few new members join our team this year: Purchase College F/C - Brian Hardy; Purchase College guard and 2018 Skyline Conference Player of the Year - Deshawn Cann; Hunter College guard - Gio Gabbidon; two alums from our youth basketball program - Justin Cardenas (College of Staten Island) and Keone Billey (Kingsborough Community College); and Purchase College G/F - Maxx Miller.

We also setup a t-shirt fundraiser for Kaheem Davis who put together care packages for the high school graduating class of 2021. Kaheem provided the high school seniors with valuable tools to be successful. All proceeds of this t-shirt fundraiser went towards sneakers, clothing, gift cards, snacks/beverages for the incoming college freshmen. Max's All Stars is proud to support Kaheem and this tremendous cause for the second consecutive year and hopes to continue being active charitably in the future.

In addition to our return to basketball this past year, we also celebrated a lot of far more significant milestones off the court. Our players are winning beyond basketball - getting married, starting families, and achieving true success in life. That's what is most important. We look forward to more of that in 2022 and beyond + hopefully a few more wins and championships!

Friday, January 8, 2021

Max's All Stars Surprise Birthday Open Run

Back on December 19th, 2020 - Patrick James organized an incredible surprise open run for my birthday! Generally, I don't write in the first-person on this page because it's really about our team - but on this occasion I have to. This was honestly one of the greatest birthday surprises of my life and I am beyond grateful to everyone who took part. This team photo (see below) is definitely one of my all-time favorites and it should be on display at the Musée du Louvre! I had the absolute best time with everyone and I can't thank you enough! As far as the competition is concerned, Team Marvin faced Team Kaheem for four games (first to 15 points, 1s and 2s). Team Marvin won and the aggregate score was 60-44. Thank you Patrick for organizing this and to everyone who came through - Corey Orgias, Doug Herring, Herman Billups, Jason Lewis, Justin Cardenas, Kaheem Davis, Keone Billey, Marvin Billups Jr, Shereef Taylor and Spencer Smith. Also, thank you to Angel Gonzalez, Kevin Young and Rob Thomas who couldn't be there, but still showed love. I love and appreciate you guys so much! I am so thankful that we did this! Stay tuned for highlights coming soon!

Saturday, December 19th, 2020
Max's All Stars Surprise Birthday Open Run
Standing from left to right: Justin Cardenas, Keone Billey, Patrick James, Doug Herring, Spencer Smith, Corey Orgias, Max Margulis, Marvin Billups Jr, Shereef Taylor, Kaheem Davis, Jason Lewis, Herman Billups