VICTORIA LY - [X]PRESS Dream Team's Cardell Butler shoots for the hoop against Oakland during a Pro-Am game at Kezar Pavilion.
	VICTORIA LY - [X]PRESS Two kids play on the court during a stoppage of play during the Dream Team-Oakland game.

Pro-Am remains an example of what “love of the game” really means.

“You know, I just try to come out here and play within my team. I don’t come out here trying to do something out of the ordinary,” said Oakland point guard Taquane Franklin. “I just come out here and play and have fun.”

The league was founded by Jon Greenberg 28 years ago. He wanted an arena where former and current players could reconnect with the community while playing quality basketball. In those 28 years, he has seen professional players such as Gary Payton, Jason Kidd, and Jason Richardson come up through the league.

“I’ve seen some NBA players come back and play,” said Ernest Jones of San Francisco, a long-time fan who has watched both Kidd and Richardson play in the league.

Greenberg’s vision was to give the people of San Francisco an activity that was free, one that would attract people of all ethnicities who would put aside their differences to enjoy the event together. He felt a need for an organized, high-caliber summer league.

When you first arrive at Kezar Pavilion, you don’t see big lights, reporters or movie stars. You see a court flooded with athletes, their friends, and children running around throwing basketballs, trying to act like the players they look up to.

“It just gets the kids out, role models for the little kids,” said fan Marla Racca of San Francisco. “You know they’re going to look up to the older players doing this stuff, and later it will be them.”

Never mind that the place isn’t sold out. The atmosphere of the arena is phenomenal. There is a sense of community.

“It keeps the peace, it’s a place for everybody,” said Rudy Russell Jr. of San Francisco.

For players like Cardell Butler, who have had to overcome many obstacles throughout their careers to reach to their goal, a good community can really come in handy.

Butler, 26, remembers what growing up in San Francisco was like.

“I was living in a fishbowl because everybody knew me,” he said.

That strong sense of community helped him throughout his life and basketball career. For Butler, basketball has been a full-time job as well as an alternative to the violence that surrounded him growing up.

Butler has been playing basketball his whole life. He went from his high school team to his college team in Utah, and then decided to play for the And 1 Mixtape Tour and not return to take part in the NBA’s official basketball camp.

When the NBA called him, he was on tour with And 1 and told them he couldn’t make it. He regrets that decision to this day, he said.

But the tour let him experience the thrill and fame of playing for And 1, something he had never done before.

When Butler was chosen to play on the Mixtape Tour, he was nicknamed “Ballaholic” because of his signature 3-pointers and all around skill in the game. He still plays for And 1. He participates in Pro-Am to stay in shape.

“This is just something to keep me in shape before they come back out here and get it going again,” he said.