This story appears in SLAM 256.
From April until November every year, college basketball players don’t have a spotlight to shine in. Once March Madness wraps, it’s nothing but crickets for the thousands of players from the NAIA to DI. That’s eight months of not being seen. No crowds. No scouts. In an era where being visible to the right program means major NIL deals on the table, the Real Run L.A. College Summer League has become so vital.
The journey began in the late ’90s when the Real Run’s founder, Deanthony Langston, kicked off the summer league for graduating high school seniors and local L.A. legends who were home from campus, guys like John Williams, Reggie Theus and Stephen Thompson. Over the years, the pro-am became a revolving door for NBA greats, too; Paul Pierce, Baron Davis, Penny Hardaway and Gilbert Arenas mixed in with Cal State Northridge’s Jason Crowe, UCLA’s Toby Bailey and Washington State’s Dominic Ellison. The competition wasn’t just legit, it was must-see.
Between working as the athletic director at Verbum Dei High School, heading up the summer league and running his own AAU program, Langston was ingrained across all three levels of hoops in the L.A. area. But he still saw a need, a league dedicated solely to the college players who called the greater Los Angeles area home. And for the past five years, Langston, local rappers and key leaders across the community have filled that need.
Jared ebanks 