Trenton Talks’ 11th annual basketball tournament brings community together

Eleven years ago, the Trenton Talks Basketball Tournament began with a simple purpose: to use basketball as a way to bring peers together and create something positive for the Trenton community.

What started on the basketball court grew into something much larger.

Over the years, the tournament has brought together players from different parts of Trenton and surrounding communities, while creating a space for families, local businesses, community organizations, elected officials, and residents to connect. It became an annual reminder that alongside the challenges facing the city, there are also people committed to building, supporting and investing in Trenton.

That purpose carried even greater meaning during this year’s 11th annual tournament.

The event came just hours after a tragic act of violence in Trenton claimed two lives and injured eight others. As the city woke up Sunday morning grieving, Trenton Talks founder Momolu Dorley faced a difficult decision: whether to move forward with an event that had been planned for months.

Before announcing the tournament, Dorley publicly paid his respects to those who lost their lives and acknowledged everyone affected by the tragedy.

Later that morning, he announced that the tournament would continue.

“I didn’t want continuing the tournament to come across as disrespectful or as if what happened didn’t matter,” Dorley said. “Our city was hurting, and I wanted to acknowledge that first. But I also thought about why we started doing this in the first place. For 11 years, this tournament has been about giving people a positive place to come together. I felt like that still mattered, especially at a time like this.”

Residents ultimately made their way to Mercer County Park.

They came to play basketball, support friends and family, reconnect with familiar faces, and spend time together during what had already become a difficult weekend for the city.

The tournament also demonstrated how much the event has evolved since its beginning.

Basketball remained at the center, but throughout Mercer County Park, local businesses, entrepreneurs, community organizations, and public officials supported teams and interacted with residents. Three teams from Newark also returned for this year’s tournament, continuing their annual participation.

Moranda Anderson of Skindom Cosmetics helped organize a book bag drive as part of the event, providing children and families with supplies ahead of the new school year.

Rayonna Scarlett of Chemical X Factory provided free hairstyles to more than 10 children during the tournament, giving families another resource while games were taking place on the courts.

Those contributions reflected what the tournament has increasingly become: not simply a basketball competition, but a meeting point for Trenton’s basketball culture, families, businesses, organizations, leaders, and residents.

This year’s tournament was made possible with support from Mercer County Executive Dan Benson; the African American Cultural Collaborative of Mercer County, which served as fiscal sponsor; Perry Shaw’s Building A Better Way for Trenton; Rico “Splurge” and Splurge City; Assemblyman Anthony Verrelli; Better Community Housing of Trenton; Needed Talks; Mercer County Commissioner Nakia White-Barr; Skindom Cosmetics and Moranda Anderson; Trenton Board of Education member Austin Edwards; former Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer; Rob Wilborn and Skil-Lit Cafe; Chemical X Factory and Rayonna Scarlett; Barrett Young and the Rescue Mission of Trenton; Joel Griffith; and Diesel Therapeutics, founded by Rajonta Hodges-Mills.

For Dorley, the events of the weekend also reflected something he has learned through more than a decade of organizing community events: difficult moments and positive community work do not always happen separately.

There have been previous years when loss in the community occurred shortly before the tournament. Those experiences have forced difficult decisions about how to acknowledge tragedy while continuing work intended to serve the same community experiencing that pain.

This year, however, the measure of success was not attendance or how the tournament compared with previous years.

It was that the community still had a place to come together.

“Seeing people still come out meant a lot,” Dorley said. “We weren’t trying to pretend everything was okay. It wasn’t. But for a few hours, people were able to be around their community, see familiar faces, compete, laugh, and support each other. That matters too.”

On Sunday, Mercer County Park became a reflection of the purpose behind an event that began 11 years earlier.

Basketball was played. Families watched from the sidelines. Children received book bags and free hairstyles. Businesses and organizations supported teams. Friends reconnected, and people from different parts of the community shared the same space.

None of it erased the tragedy that had occurred the night before, nor was it intended to.

Instead, during one of Trenton’s more difficult weekends, an event created 11 years ago to give the city something positive and bring people together continued doing exactly that.