Hoopfest's magical time is once again upon us

This weekend marks the magical days of summer because Hoopfest is in town.

Ever since moving to the area, I have loved attending the event every year because it brings the whole Pacific Northwest together in the most entertaining way. You can walk the streets of downtown Spokane and go from watching cute little kids balling it up to older guys trying to relive their glory days.

Even though this will be my first year not playing in the event in about eight years, I am still looking forward to going down and enjoying the atmosphere. Plus this time I will be keeping score for a court, so that means I get a free shirt.

Hoopfest is unique in a variety of ways, but I think it is cool to say that Spokane is the home to the biggest outdoor 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the world. I mean a lot of other places aren’t brave enough to close down that many streets in their downtown area, but I think Spokane does a good job at it.

According to their website, over 14,000 games are played throughout the weekend. That is insane! But also incredible to have that many played because that means people are going outside and enjoying the good old fashion sport of basketball.

The annual event also brings in over 250,000 people and generates about $46 million of economic impact for the weekend. Again with, that is insane.

Basketball is one of my favorite sports to watch and I think it is great that we have an event that showcases the sport while encouraging a large amount of people to partake in the fun as well.

Last year, as I am sure all of you know by now, NBA star Kevin Durant showed up to the event and surprised everyone downtown. He was releasing a new shoe and I guess decided to advertise it in person too. But when you really think about it, it is crazy that an athlete like Durant took time to come down to Spokane along with having his new shoes released exclusively at the Hoopfest store downtown.

Now even though I do not think another NBA player will make a debut this year at the event, you can never really count it out now. Anything is possible at the event and that is the beauty of it.

So I highly encourage anybody who hasn’t attended Hoopfest to go this year. The weather is supposed to be nice and you can’t beat a sunny day downtown Spokane. If you think there are too many people, you are probably right, but the outcome of the fun times you will have outweighs that problem.

Because the best part about Hoopfest is that you don’t just get basketball. You get shopping, a variety of food trucks, prizes and spending time with your closest friends.

But I would maybe advise to stay away from the brand new Nike store downtown, that place will be packed full and crazy the whole weekend, I am sure. I will wait to visit the store again a couple days after it ends. But I guess that just depends on how dedicated you are to the deals.

Grace Pohl can be reached at [email protected].