PHOENIX – The basketball games were played on a blacktop half-court. The winners walked away with a $1,200 prize generated by eight teams’ $75 entry fees, whose total was matched by Lunchbox, a cannabis company.
While the games took place, multiple DJs took turns playing their particular sound selections to get the crowd going.
Inside The Auto Shop at 901 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix – the host venue for this event – local vendors staked out their spots, food trucks fed those in attendance and barbers from The Greater Good PHX barbershop gave free haircuts to children under 10.
Good hoops. Good music. Good food. Good vibes. That was the scene on April 18 at the Afropiano Hoops Classic.
“For us, it was important to do a community event which was synonymous with what we do, and we wanted to bring that element of the dance floor to the court,” said DJ and event creator Malik Gold.
“Even in Arizona, we wanted to create a community event that wasn’t market-based. We wanted to do something that was engaging, competitive, family-friendly; something that you could experience instead of just sitting around and then leaving.”
Gold – better known by his alias Mister Gold – is a Phoenix native and a popular figure within the city’s art and music scene. As a prominent local DJ, he is known for high-energy sets at venues like Crescent Ballroom and Valley Bar, blending hip-hop, house and genre-bending sets.
He is also involved with multiple events, but the most notable is Afropiano, an event he founded with a few friends in 2023.
Afropiano is a collective that flourishes in Phoenix’s nightlife scene, regularly hosting events that put a spotlight on musical genres such as afrobeats, amapiano and dancehall.
Afropiano has also ventured into other cities, having held events in Toronto and Paris last year in June and August, respectively.
“It’s an engaging environment where people aren’t so on their phones, there isn’t any egos and we don’t do sections,” Gold said.
Gold originally planned a field day, but he decided to narrow it down to a single event after internal discussions with his friends.
“We began to have sponsorship meetings and start pitching the idea, and we kinda broke ground on actually doing things about two to three weeks ago,” he said.
Taking inspiration from the AND1 mixtape era from the early 2000s, and the vibrant energy of New York City’s basketball culture, the 3-on-3 tournament was put into motion.
Eight teams participated in a single-elimination tournament this year, playing until game point or until time expired. Team J-Boogie won the championship and the $1,200 cash prize.
Reflecting on the success of the 3-on-3 tournament, Gold said he plans to branch out to other sports for future community events, but he has not ruled out making the Afropiano Hoops Classic an annual event.
“We’ve already been reached out to by bigger companies that can sponsor sportswear,” he said. “I want to see what this can become, to see the strength of the community, which is amazing, but when you get a good budget, you can really do something crazy with it.”
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