The Hart family has ‘a lot of pride’ in being able to lay claim to competing at the Rumph Classic
Both Hakim Hart Sr. and Jr., have played in the Rumph Classic, the annual tournament in which the younger Hart, who played at Villanova, says developed his basketball IQ.
When Hakim Hart Sr. played in the very first edition of the Danny Rumph Classic, his son, Hakim Hart Jr., was just 4 years old.
The elder Hart grew up playing basketball alongside the late Danny Rumph at the Mallery Recreation Center, now known as Rumph-Mallery, in Germantown, and became close friends with one of Danny’s uncles.
When the Rumph family decided it wanted to start the tournament after Danny’s death from sudden cardiac arrest in 2005, Hart was all in to participate.
“As someone who was there at the very beginning, this is something special that they got going on,” Hart said. “It’s just a lot of great competition, guys from all different levels of basketball come to play and support what we’ve got going on.”
The younger Hart doesn’t remember how old he was the first time he came to the Rumph Classic. His father estimated he was probably about 5 or 6.
He took the court during breaks and started taking shots and playing mini-games with the other little kids. Once the games ended, they took the game outside.
“It was packed back then, I remember, and it had a playground with a court outside,” Hart said. “I remember going out there too, and trying to emulate what the players were doing. Growing up and seeing all those things, that actually helped my game get better, just watching it at a young age, because I watched every game, I feel like they all were competitive and close.”
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Hart grew into a star at Roman Catholic High School, and went on to play at Maryland and later back home at Villanova. He credited his years watching the Rumph Classic with developing his basketball IQ, since he had the chance to watch pros go at it on the court.
The Philly basketball community is a small community, the younger Hart said, and the tournament became a family environment, with guys coming back year after year to play. His father’s involvement with the tournament helped his son make new connections in the basketball world.
“It was a lot of NBA guys, and I probably didn’t know at the time, but it was a lot of overseas pro guys, and they knew my dad, so they would always talk to me. They call me Little Hak and stuff. I was always treated like family.”
Last year, Hart finally got the opportunity to play in the Rumph Classic, after years on the sidelines. Watching the game can be just a fun community event, but it’s different to actually play in it, he said. “It’s a lot of pride on the line.”
This year, Hart won’t be able to play, because of his commitments in the summer league in Mexico, but his father will be back at the center to take in the games, and his son is sure that last year won’t be his only time out on the court for the Rumph Classic.
“It’s like a family reunion,” the elder Hart said. “You get to see a lot of people that you haven’t seen in a long time. Some people moved out of Philly, living in other places, doing other things now, but everybody usually comes back to this event. It’s a family, healing-style event.”