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!
