KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The last four years have been the deadliest on record for violent crime in Kansas City, which is why the Black Archives of Mid-America started the Stop the Violence Basketball Tournament last summer.
“If everybody’s shooting a basketball, nobody’s shooting a gun,” Marcus Bass III said. “That’s pretty much how I think about it.”
Marcus Bass, a media associate with the Black Archives of Mid-America, graduated from Lincoln Prep in 2021 and is organizing the second annual Stop the Violence Basketball Tournament.
Bass believes in the power of sports to be a force for positive change in the community.
“Basketball was what sheltered me,” Bass said. “That’s what kept me off the streets. Well, sports in general is what kept me off the streets. ... A lot of my friends, that’s how we kept our heads on straight — with our athletics and, of course, with our academics as well. But athletics was the incentive.”
The goal of the basketball event is to create a forum for the community to gather and collectively send a message about the escalating violence in Kansas City’s streets.
“It gets your mind off doing bad things — being active, being in the community, being with people, people who are doing good things, keeping people away from things that will lead toward violence,” said Jeremiah Rainey-Dunlap, who played in last year’s event and will play again in this year’s tourney.
Much like last summer’s Stop the Violence Basketball Tournament, there will once again be food, a DJ and, of course, basketball from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 27 at the Gregg/Klice Community Center on the west side of the 18th & Vine Jazz District.
Bass hopes people will “have some good, clean fun; enjoy your neighbors; enjoy the community; see some beautiful faces that you may know; meet some beautiful faces that you may not know. ... Just come out, get some free food, listen to some music — just that whole, bring the community out and give them something to do.”
The tourney winners and runners-up received medals and trophies. Rainey-Dunlap’s team finished third last year but is aiming higher in 2024.
“We’re coming for first place this year,” said Rainey-Dunlap, a sophomore high jumper at Northwest Missouri State.
Registration for the event runs through Saturday, July 20. To register as a team or individual player, find the sign-up link on Black Archives KC’s Facebook or Instagram pages.
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KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Have a story idea to share with Tod? Send him an e-mail.
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