Spokane Hoopfest 2015: Dates, Brackets and Event Info

A couple of weeks ago, the Golden State Warriors claimed the most coveted prize in professional basketball: the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. This weekend in Washington, teams across several divisions will compete for some of the top amateur titles at Spokane Hoopfest.

The event is billed on its official site as the "biggest three-on-three street basketball tournament on the planet." More than 7,000 teams are expected to compete in the annual showcase that basically shuts down the city by covering 42 blocks with over 450 courts.

Let's check out all of the important information for the two-day event before diving into some of the aspects that make the tournament special as it takes center stage for the 26th year.

Tournament Details

Where: Spokane, Washington

When: Saturday, June 27–Sunday, June 28

Brackets: Team Tracker

Event Info

A wide variety of divisions make up the tournament. There are three categories of standard divisions (adult, high school and youth), and those are further broken down by team type, including single gender, co-ed and family.

Other basic levels of competition include Special Olympics, Unified and Wheelchair.

Then there's the most talked about aspect of the event: the Elite divisions. For adults, there are two men's competitions based on height, along with brackets for women and co-ed teams. There are also Elite contests for High School Varsity and Freshman teams.

As you would expect, the massive event attracts three-player groups from across the country. Given the size of the fields, winning a title in Spokane is a major accomplishment.

Caiti Currey of KXLY noted comments from Hoopfest executive director Matt Santangelo about the difficulty of getting in all the action in such a short period.

"Even though you may be concerned about your individual team, you need to be aware of the ripple effect on every other aspect on our scheduling and kind of timing of everything else that goes on in the event, so there is not a lot of wiggle room at this point," Santangelo said.

That said, it's a spectacle that continues to grow on a national scale and brings Spokane into the spotlight. The event showcased one example of that:

Along with the basketball, one of the other cool parts of the tournament is the unique names. Being creative enough to stand out from a crowd that includes thousands of teams is a tricky task.

Josh Ouellette of KHQ highlighted some of this year's top squad names, including "Fast and Curryous," for Warriors MVP Stephen Curry, "Fifty Shades of Slow" and the Marshawn Lynch-inspired "So We Don't Get Fined."

All told, street basketball tournaments are a staple of summer activity across the country. None are bigger than Spokane Hoopfest, which has steadily grown into a must-play event for players of all skill levels during its more than quarter-century in existence.

Winning a championship on the streets of Spokane might not quite match up with the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, but the adrenaline rush the players on contending teams will feel on Sunday will probably be much the same.