Coach Clint Bryant, of Augusta State University, asked his good friend Ed Myers of Game Plan Sport if Nike would be interested in bringing a summer basketball event to the Augusta area almost 20 years ago. Myers convinced Nike Grassroots basketball director Scott Zanon to make the flight to Augusta and survey the area for a tournament site. After riding around Augusta all day looking at all the indoor basketball facilities, Zanon politely told Bryant and Myers that the facilities needed were not available in Augusta and to take him back to the airport. Bryant then proceeded to persuade Zanon that he had one last place to visit, brought him to the Riverview Park Activities Center, and the rest is history.

This year’s Nike Peach Jam will be the 19th consecutive year for this premier event to be hosted by the center. The very first tournament was in 1996 and called the Peach Basket Classic, but changed to the Nike Peach Jam in 1997. The original tournament began with 24 teams of the best 17U high school basketball players in the world. A very tall, and raw, young athlete named Dirk Nowitzki took the floor in that first tournament. Since then he has become one of the best players in the NBA and led the Dallas Mavericks to an NBA championship.

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