On the blacktop court of the Lonnie Young Recreation Center during a summer night, not only can spectators see tall lights beaming down on competitors and hear the energy of the crowd, but they also witness a community come together with excitement.
“The average night during a main event game is probably around 400 to 500 people, and that’s not including opening night or Friday nights where it’s closer to 1,000 people,” said the founder of the Lonnie Young Summer League, Darnell Artis.
The Lonnie Young Summer League (LYSL) is now in its fifth summer and has steadily grown its reputation as one of Philadelphia’s premier outdoor basketball leagues. The organization has become known for presenting crowds with a variety of basketball talent while attracting viewers from all over the city.
“Their events definitely give off that Rucker Park Streetball vibe that’s full of life,” said an attendee of an event, Nyseem Porter. “Streetball hoops is the most interactive experience you have in any sport between fan and player, and it’s a different atmosphere when there’s hundreds of people in one park.”
For Artis, who has had a global journey with the game of basketball, giving back to the community and bringing people together was a longtime vision.
“Back then, if you were popping, you played in different leagues across the city in North Philly, South Philly, or West Philly, but we didn’t have anything in Uptown since the Wister League, and I was young when that league was really popping,” Artis said.
He founded the summer league in 2018 and runs it alongside his brother, Kyrell Artis, and a group of organizers who have contributed to its gradual growth every year.
“I just wanted to do something like that for our neighborhood, and it really only started out as a league for our neighborhood,” Artis added. “At first, we just had regular, cotton T-shirt uniforms for teams; nothing fancy.”
Since year one, the league’s organizers have had established roles and make up the program’s commission, which consists of the Chief Executive Officer, Darnell Artis, the Chief Operating Officer, Kyrell Artis, the Commissioner, Yusuf Tribble, the Culture Manager and Assistant Marketing Coordinator, Skakoor Woodson, the Director of Gameday Operations, Rasheen Mays, and the Director of Player Engagement, Tyreke Johnson.
“They have been with me since the beginning, from building, expanding, and branding the league, and they play a major role in day-by-day operations,” Artis said.
After the league’s second season in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic put the league to a halt in 2020 and 2021, as restrictions were raised around the city. Even through that hardship, they never lost their vision, and it returned even stronger in 2022.
“We stayed patient; 2022 was year three, and that was the first year we had official uniforms, a great rise in our crowds, and a rise in engagement on our social media,” Darnell Artis said. “Then last year in 2023, we called it a legendary summer, with the park being completely packed beyond capacity with people even sitting on the roof of the building.”
That momentum has carried over into their current 2024 season, with game intensity and fan engagement at its peak right now during the playoff portion of the season.
Artis played basketball for La Salle College High School, then went on to play at Gwynedd Mercy University, where he was a four-year starter and was inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame.
At 19, he tried to facilitate a summer league, but the season was shut down because he needed the proper permits.
“The younger version of myself got discouraged, but as I got older, I learned more about paperwork and permits,” Artis said.
After finishing up college basketball in 2016, he received an invite from the Harlem Globetrotters to try out. He made the team and officially signed his contract in December 2016, where he would go on to participate in his first tour with the team that spanned to April 2017.
Shortly after, he played professionally in the 2017 Paulista Championship tournament in Brazil, where he led the league in scoring with 18.6 points per game and was in the top 10 in steals and assists.
He went on to play seven more seasons with the Globetrotters, where the star of Darnell ‘Speedy’ Artis was born. He is currently trying to secure a contract for his ninth season.
The LYSL logo, painted on the center of Lonnie Young’s outdoor court, is a silhouette of Artis playing his first professional game in Brazil. He heavily values the image because of its strong connection with the community.
“When I was younger, someone told me I would never be a pro where I’m from,” said Artis. “That logo represents overcoming the circumstances that we grew up in when being from this environment.”
It has grown recognizable across the city, as the league has always focused on marketing in different ways.
“We also use the logo to brand the league, hanging up banners of sponsors and getting uniforms made,” Artis said. “The more we focused on branding and marketing, the more the league continued to grow.”
Opening nights are always on the first Monday of June, and they have grown to be one of the most anticipated sporting events that occur annually in Germantown.
[Fans] now call it a ‘Uptown Holiday,’” Artis said. “On opening night, we also had up to 689 people watching on Instagram live.”
The season then spans to August, lasting ten weeks with a regular season, all-star game, awards such as MVP and first, second, and third team selections, and playoffs that lead to an eventual champion.
There are 12 teams in the league every year, with an East and West conference that holds six teams each. East teams play each other on Monday evenings, and West teams play each other on Wednesdays, with occasional weeks when teams crossover to play against a team from the opposing conference.
Inner-conference playoff matchups are single-game elimination, and every team makes it. The finals are a best-of-three series, and the championship matchup has gone all the way to three games in each of the league’s first four years.
Before each season, teams register with their rosters already formed, and the league commission approves and finalizes the teams for the summer season.
“We know who usually have good teams, and we try to stay loyal to the teams that have already been a part of it while opening the door to new teams as well,” Artis said. “We know who brings what to the table.”
With the level of competition that is usually present in the league’s games, the people of the neighborhood have grown to highly anticipate their events, which are much more than just an average pick-up game.
“It’s a high level of competition, and there’s high-level teams in our league,” Artis said. “There’s a lot of pros, players who have pro aspirations, pro-level talent, a lot of division one, two, and three players, and some guys that just love the game that probably weren’t great in a structured school setting, but are really good players.”
“It’s not really somewhere you just pull up and try to play basketball; There’s very intense, high-level basketball being played,” Artis added.
The playoffs have been in full swing the past week, and the 2024 finals matchup has finally arrived. Game one kicks off tonight, August 19, at 7:30 p.m.
