The National Basketball Association (NBA) season is officially over, however, at the Goodman League at Barry Farms in Southeast D.C. basketball season is just beginning.
Teams play in a match during the Goodman Summer League. (inset) Mike Rawles is the commissioner of the Goodman League. (Courtesy Photos)
From June to August for six days-a-week games are played during the evening hours. According to the Goodman League website, hundreds of fans travel across the country to watch the teams play. “The league was started in 1977 by three Barry Farm community leaders; Irvin Brady, Carlton (RIP) Reed, and Morty Hammond. It kept us out of trouble back then,” Miles Rawles, commissioner at the Goodman League, told the AFRO. “I decided to take the torch in 1996 and the rest is history.”
The name of the league was originally “Barry Farms Community Summer League,” but it was changed in the 1980s to “The George Goodman League,” honoring the late George Goodman. He was a community activist and a Barry Farms Recreation Center counselor.
The league features current and former NBA players, including Kevin Durant, and college players, high school players, and participants from a multitude of communities and other states. “Not only is it a give-back to the community, it’s a celebration of basketball from a cultural perspective. Just come out and bump. No agents, rankings, or politics involved. If you can play, you can play. It takes it back to the essence of basketball,” D.C. native Arize Ifejika told Slam Online Magazine.
Under the control of Rawles, the Goodman League continues to bring positive energy to the Barry Farms Community. “The league is very beneficial to the neighborhood and the city in general. It is a safe haven for a lot of people for three months out of the year,” Rawles said.