Every June, downtown Spokane trades traffic lights for backboards, crosswalks for courts, and city blocks for a sea of jump shots. What began in 1990 with 512 teams and a bold idea to shut down the streets has grown into the world’s largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament — a tradition that turned Spokane into Hooptown USA. Today, Hoopfest is more than a weekend of basketball; it is a celebration of community, competition, and the city’s love of the game!
A Tournament Takes Shape: The Origins of Spokane’s Hoopfest
In the late 1980s, 3-on-3 basketball tournaments were a regional oddity, largely confined to the Midwest. Spokane had no such tradition—until two separate groups, each chasing a different dream, collided in the kind of fortunate accident that defines great origin stories.
One group was homesick for the three-player game they had enjoyed back in the Midwest and wanted to plant that flag in eastern Washington. The other was trying to raise money for Special Olympics. On their own, neither team had the numbers to execute a play so big. Realizing they needed a deeper bench, the two sides united under co-founders Rick Betts and Jerry Schmidt to create the Spokane Hoopfest Association and, with it, a brand new playbook that was ambitious, unconventional, and distinctly Spokane.
Of course, turning a bustling business district into a playground came with its own set of hurdles, the first of which would be convincing local shop owners to sign off on a shutdown of Spokane’s downtown streets for the first time ever. Volunteers went door-to-door trying to win over neighborhood merchants. Slowly, support grew. Signatures accumulated. And eventually, the city granted the newfound association a permit that would forever change the landscape of Spokane’s sports culture. With 36 courts taped onto the asphalt, the stage was set for a historic weekend of basketball.
The Inaugural Tipoff: Spokane’s First Summer Celebration is a Huge Success
The inaugural Hoopfest arrived on June 30 and July 1, 1990, powered by a volunteer crew that included founding board members Betts, Schmidt, Dave Jackson, Terry M. Kelly, Dennis Magner, and Rick Steltenpohl. Over two days the debut tournament hosted 2,009 players and 512 teams, transforming Spokane’s downtown streets into the ultimate basketball grid.
The success was immediate and undeniable. Spokane embraced the chaos, the crowds, and the novelty of watching games unfold on streets usually reserved for weekday commuters. Businesses saw the value. Families showed up in droves. And the city, recognizing the potential of what had just happened, welcomed Hoopfest back for the following summer. With that decision, the last weekend of June became permanently reserved for basketball, marking the beginning of a tradition that would soon outgrow even the boldest expectations of its founders.
Growing the Game: Building the World’s Largest 3-on-3 Tournament in Hooptown, USA
What began as a weekend experiment quickly snowballed into a phenomenon. Throughout the rest of the 1990s, Hoopfest continued to evolve from a weekend tournament into a full-scale celebration of sport and community. More courts appeared each year, stretching farther across downtown. More teams registered, traveling from across Washington and eventually from across the country. And more volunteers signed on, helping transform the event into a well-oiled machine that still carried the grassroots charm of its early years. Spokane, once a city experimenting with a bold new play, was quickly becoming the home of something much larger.
To match the growing crowds, organizers added new features that elevated the experience for players and spectators alike. Youth and adult center courts brought a sense of spectacle to the tournament, while contests, games, and live music created a festival atmosphere that spilled into every corner of downtown. Merchandise tents, food vendors, and sponsor activations turned Hoopfest into a weekend-long festival of fun.
By the early 2000s, Hoopfest had become a true national draw, welcoming ballers from 42 states—including players traveling from as far as Kansas, Georgia, and Hawaii to test their skills on the blacktop. Over 250,000 fans pack the city blocks to watch an astronomical 14,000 games play out across 450 taped-off courts here in Hooptown, USA.
Icons on the Asphalt: When the Pros Come to Play
Over the years, Hoopfest has drawn some of basketball’s most recognizable names, adding star power to a tournament already rich with local pride. In 2017, NBA superstar Kevin Durant made an unannounced appearance at Nike Center Court, joining a 3-on-3 exhibition and surprising fans during the launch of his KD10 shoe. Two years later, Gonzaga standouts Rui Hachimura, Corey Kispert, and Josh Perkins returned to Spokane as celebrity judges for the dunk contest, a crowd-favorite event that continues to draw thousands.
Local legends are also woven deep into the fabric of the weekend. Spokane native and NBA all-time assists leader John Stockton is frequently spotted enjoying the action from the baseline, alongside fellow Gonzaga icon Adam Morrison, who came up through the ranks as a childhood youth champion before staying involved as an adult supporter. Over the years, the tournament has seen appearances from legends like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Klay Thompson, Isaiah Thomas, Brandon Roy, Jamal Crawford, and Nate Robinson, alongside Zag alumni Kelly Olynyk, Domantas Sabonis, Drew Timme, and Andrew Nembhard.
More Than a Game: Hoopfest’s Slam Dunk for Spokane
While the athletic feats and buzzer-beaters dominate the headlines, Hoopfest’s true legacy goes beyond the downtown streets. Since 1990, the Spokane Hoopfest Association has donated more than $1.6 million to area charities, including Special Olympics, youth sports programs, and a court construction and renovation program that has built or refurbished over 27 outdoor basketball courts in local neighborhoods. That means long after the last weekend of June, kids are still playing on Hoopfest-funded asphalt—the gift that just keeps on dribbling.
In 2003, Hoopfest received the Agora Award for Business Excellence, with judges noting that no other event in Spokane brings together people of such varied backgrounds for a shared purpose. That purpose, they emphasized, extends far beyond basketball. It is about cheering for one another, competing with integrity, and celebrating the community that makes the event possible. Hoopfest embodies that spirit each year, drawing families, parasport athletes, weekend warriors, and lifelong competitors into the same shared space. Hoopfest also secured a landmark partnership with MultiCare Inland Northwest in 2019, when they contributed $1 million to the association. That donation funded a new basketball complex and Hall of Fame in Riverfront Park, and also made MultiCare the exclusive 10-year sponsor of Hooptown USA.Today, annual participation exceeds 6,000 teams, 25,000 players, and 250,000 fans. To add some perspective to the scoreboard, the second-largest 3-on-3 tournament in the United States is believed to have no more than 1,500 participating teams. What follows from that kind of momentum is a legacy far bigger than the brackets, a vibrant reminder that the best kind of magic happens when a community refuses to stop playing.
