This article was written by Will Wang, editor-in-chief of the AABANY Advocate and co-chair of the Communications Committee:
After lengthy discussion about potential interest amongst members in playing basketball together, in early 2011 Communications Committee Co-chairs & AABANY directors (and Binghamton University alums) William Ng and William Wang decided to put together a basketball team and enter a recreational division of FastbreakNYC, an Asian-American focused recreational basketball league.
In the AABANY basketball inaugural season, the team included Kirkland & Ellis associate Jason Chien, Ng (NYC Law Dept), Wang (Patterson Belknap), Allan Fajardo (in house counsel at M.D. Sass), Jeremy Kim (a securities litigator from Jaffe & Asher), and the E.D. of MinKwon, Steve Choi. In addition, a few “ringers” or non-lawyers were part of the team as well. One of the team’s best players was Jonathan Chen, a Ph.D./M.D. student at Cornell Medical.
After an 8 game regular season, AABANY excelled in the playoffs and eventually succeeded in a championship run to win the division’s championship in exciting fashion. See:
http://fastbreaknyc.com/?l=c2&s=n&nx=36&ny=4& for more info on the championship game. One of FastbreakNYC’s team benefits are an advanced website that tracks statistics and provides game previews, recaps and boxscores. There are even weekly highlight videos.
The league has different levels of competition and is a program run by its parent organization, the Dynasty Project, a New York 501©(3) that initiates and supports innovative programs that enrich local Asian-American communities through athletics. The Dynasty Project focuses on youth athletics in underprivileged Asian American communities through a diverse array of programs including sports leagues, camps, educational efforts, volunteer work, employment opportunities and community outreach events as an alternative to the pitfalls often found in these communities. AABANY members have the pleasure of getting some exercise, healthy competition, and also supporting a worthy community organization.
The Dynasty Project recently hosted a sports clinic at the Chinatown YMCA for local youth. The program was called ASPIRE. For more info on the Dynasty Project, see: http://www.dynastyproject.org/
Currently, the AABANY team is in the midst of defending its championship, and are scheduled to play in the Summer/Fall semifinals on Thursday September 29th, at 9pm at Lycee Francais (75th Ave and York). The league runs games mostly at either Lycee Francais, Martin Luther King High School in the Upper West Side, or the Chinatown YMCA, at Bowery and Houston. Games are weeknights and occasionally Sunday afternoons. For more info, see: http://fastbreaknyc.com/stage/